Aug 28, 2002 2 min read

A loaded shovel Dear Editor:

Enough is enough.

My family, neighbors and I are outraged at Pennsylvania state troopers posing as highway construction workers in a ruse to catch speeders and other traffic violators along Route 30. Anyone with a brain can see this bureaucratic brainstorm isn’t about traffic safety – it’s all about money.

While Sgt. John Rock made a feeble attempt to justify using troopers disguised as PennDOT employees to catch speeders, taxpayers will recognize this as simply a ploy to fatten municipal and state treasuries with the high fines traffic violators must pay under Pennsylvania’s outdated laws.

I have this to say to Rock and his fellow troopers: “With all the fresh funds, weapons and tracking devices being pumped into law enforcement after the tragic events of 9-11, you are helping turn Western Pennsylvania and America into a police state.”

Why can a police officer legally pose as a journalist, construction worker or other profession to make their job easier while pumping more money into the system? I am a journalist, and if I tried to pass myself off as a police officer to get a story, I would face arrest and incarceration. After this highway undercover project, do you really think the average motorist will trust any PennDOT employee the next time he has to slow down because an area is “under construction”?

When I lived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., I dated a flight attendant for Delta Airlines who was born in Warsaw, Poland. She asked me, “When is America going to wake up and realize you are stripping your citizens of their basic rights and turning this great country into a police state in the name of stopping crime?”

“It happened in Poland when I was a little girl. We did nothing to stop it until the communists became too powerful. The freedoms the Polish people lost will never be recovered.”

I know one thing: as a taxpaying American, I will vote against any politician and oppose any bureaucrat who supports more funding and equipment for police. They have far too much power. I am tired of being over policed and it has to stop.

Rick Lanning

Charleroi