NY Freedom Riders Press Release - Comments

OFF THE WIRE
New York helmet laws and checkpoints
Kudos to the poster of this press release from NYFR for taking helmet tickets to court and defeating 3 out of 4 of them. As you know, enforcement is subjective, and trials for helmet tickets can be defeated 100% of the time when people know the truth and if the courts are just.
If our federal government, deep in debt, wants to spend everyones' money to keep manufacturers and distributors from making false claims about the protective properties of the helmets they introduce into the consumer market, that would be a valid service to those who actually want them. As things stand, state issued helmet mandates are nothing more than a "better marketing through legislation" program for big business, creating two or three times the demand for an otherwise faulty product that makes no guarantee of saving a single life.
We need to turn up the heat on those who create all these laws which stomp all over individual liberty.
We also need to turn up the heat on those who ticket us, by knowing our rights, such as our right to bring federal court action claiming deprivation of civil rights under the color of law, as spelled out in Title 18 Section 242. Some lawyers won't touch it, because motorcyclists are not a protected class, but what they don't realize is that civil rights are afforded to all citizens, and there are no exclusions listed for Title 18 protection. A few federal court actions against LEO's would go a long way in making them think about how they are going against our Constitutionally protected liberties and freedom.