• Home
  • About
    • About Christopher di Armani
    • Disclosure Statement
    • Code of Ethics
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Gun Laws 101
  • FPO Violators
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Hire Me

Christopher di Armani.com

In Praise of Individual Rights and Freedoms

  • Top 25
  • Big Brother
    • Access To Information
    • Bureaucratic Incompetence
    • Bureaucrat’s Rule #1
    • Censorship
    • Feeding at the Government Trough
    • Lemonade Freedom
  • Common Sense
    • Expressions of Gratitude
    • Good Samaritans
    • Good Stuff
    • In Memoriam — Remembering our Heros
    • Life
    • Personal Responsibility
    • Politically Correct Madness
  • Courts
    • Abusive Prosecutions
    • Civil Forfeiture
    • Human Rights Tribunals
    • Judicial Corruption
    • Justice Denied
    • Justice System Abuses
    • Police Sentencing Double-Standards
    • Prosecutorial Misconduct
    • SLAPP Lawsuits
  • Crime
    • Abuse of Trust
    • Canadian Mass Murders
    • Firearm Prohibition Orders
    • Human Depravity
    • Immigration Issues
    • Racism
    • Restraining Orders
    • Sexual Predators
    • Violent Criminals
    • Wrongful Convictions
  • Guns
    • Concealed Carry
    • Dial 9-1-1 and Die
    • Firearms Act
    • Fun Gun Stuff
    • Gun Control
    • Gun-Free Zones
    • Gun Politics
    • Gun Registration
    • Negligent Discharges
    • Target Shooting Competitions
  • Islam
    • Canadian Islamic Disgraces
    • Islamic Terrorism
    • Radical Islam
    • Sharia Law
    • The Religion Of Peace
  • Police
    • Abuse of Police Authority
    • Filming Police
    • Great Police Officers
    • Officer Down
    • Police Brutality
    • Police Corruption
    • Police Misconduct
    • RCMP Accountability
    • RCMP Hall of Shame
    • Warrantless Searches
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Ethics in Politics
    • Political Antics
    • Political Corruption
    • Social Justice
    • Stupid Human Tricks
    • Union Bay Improvement District
  • Rights
    • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
    • Constitutional Violations
    • Freedom of Assembly
    • Freedom of Religion
    • Freedom of Speech
    • Property Rights
    • Privacy Rights
    • Self-Defense
    • Unreasonable Search and Seizure

Governments Want Total People Control

Published March 19, 2011 by Jane Gaffin Filed Under: Abuse of Police Authority, Charter of Rights and Freedoms Breaches, Constitutional Violations, Police, Privacy Rights, Property Rights, Rights


“Unbelievable” was my first reaction when I started reading about the Polk Parkway tollbooth in the Tampa area that doesn’t like cash.

As I read on, I realized this was more than a government snafu; it was another blatant display of people-control where the taxpayers are both the victims and financiers of the same criminal enterprise.

Am I surprised to hear that a government agency is breaking the law? It happens all the time.

Still, it makes one itch to break somebody’s neck. But governments don’t have heads with brains, therefore, there is no need for a neck.

Governments are just massive bodies which renders them difficult to attack.

Yet, for the last eight months, Joel Chandler has been doing a valorous job of needling the government agency.

“If it’s secret, it’s legal,” is the mantra for governments worldwide.

Thus, this tollbooth practice was kept secret because nobody had the courage to confront the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) that had the chutzpah to deny its illegal policies–well, that is until Chandler rolled into the toll plaza one day for his unintended education.

A motorist who is inadvertently caught without coinage or a dollar bill in his pocket would find it necessary to pay a one-dollar toll with, say, a $20, $50 or $100 bill. Unknown to the public, the FDOT considers these ordinary bills “large” and suspicious.

Inflation removed the twenty from “large” status over 40 years ago!

Ah-hah! A twenty is a common bill for counterfeiting. The motorist is immediately targeted as a suspect for passing diseased money.

Instead of the illustrious FDOT installing scanners like sane, privately-owned chain stores do or even arming workers with detection pens, the Florida functionaries sneaked in the back door and placed reverse onus on the general public who is considered guilty until proven innocent.

The FDOT has bestowed the toll collectors with individual discretionary powers, only they are in no position of legal authority to detain anybody.

Even so, they are required by government policy to illegally detain any motorist against his will for using cash. He can’t drive forward, backward or exit his vehicle until he is strong-armed into providing personal and vehicular information.

Only then is he given change for his large bill and the gate lifted. Meanwhile, traffic is lined up behind him.

There are documented instances of motorists being subjected to detainment for tendering a bill as small as a fiver.

If a motorist refuses to comply, the toll operators threaten to call the police and have the motorist arrested and charged for not obeying the command.

Yet the operators themselves are reported to be committing up to 30 felonies a day.

It was reported that within a 24-month period, FDOT spent more than $32,000 printing the Bill Detection forms that tracked a mere $16,000 in bogus bills while raking in $1.5 billion in toll receipts.

It was noted that none of the some 885 fake-currency detection cases were ever referred to authorities for investigation, anyway.

So what is the point of subjecting a majority of innocent travelers to unconstitutional trauma five million times?

It’s called people-control.

Further, the government’s policies place its employees at undue risk. While forcibly detaining a motorist, the possibility clearly exists that an impatient person on his way to an emergency situation is going to go bonkers.

He could conceivably pull out a gun in legal self-defence. Years ago Florida legislators were concerned about the safety of residents living in a crime-infested state. Lawmakers passed concealed-carry laws as a way to provide people with an antidote to protect life, limb and property against unlawful acts.

A TV news reporter discusses the tollbooth violations in “Florida Toll Booths Caught Illegally Detaining Drivers for Paying with Large Bills”. In a companion video “Exclusive Interview with Joel Chandler”, Fireball Run’s show host introduces the viewer to an articulate, liberty-minded guest.

Citizen Chandler is a staunch believer in the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment which was adopted to protect people from unreasonable search and seizure and requires that any search warrant be judicially authorized and supported by probable cause.

Constitutionalist Judge Andrew Napolitano, who mentioned the anti-cash cash tollbooths on his Fox Freedom Watch show, and Congressmen father-son combo Ron and Rand Paul are no doubt pleased to witness a citizen adamantly defending constitutional rights!

The abuse and disregard the U. S. government has displayed for the Bill of Rights is tantamount to Canada’s own Charter of Rights and Freedoms reduced to worthlessness.

Canadian lawmakers and judges consistently ignore pesky sections: presumption of innocence until proven guilty; the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure; a search be conducted only with a judicially-authorized warrant; the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned; the right to be secure against ridiculous charges.

Currently, Chandler has researched thousands of government documents; interviewed hundreds of toll collectors and victims; writes as a citizen journalist; and is the instigator of a civil class-action suit filed in February against the Florida DOT and the private contractor hired to manage the tollbooth operations.

I hope he kicks the stuffin’ out of those viperous, civil-liberty wreckers. Unfortunately, the chances of winning a politically-incorrect, government-adjudicated case are dicey, though not impossible.

Typically, the government’s answer will be to circumvent the problem by phasing out cash toll systems in favour of cashless ones, which promises more stringent people-control and opens up a whole new set of privacy and civil-rights abuses.

It would be wonderful if one gram of Citizen Chandler’s energy, fortitude and civic-mindedness could rub off on the rest of us to help stop abusive, anti-constitutional government agencies everywhere from running roughshod over ordinary citizenry before all is lost to a Marxist regime.

For inspiration, progress can be tracked on www.FOGWatch.org.

*******
See companion piece by Christopher di Armani “Toll Booths Say “Give Us Your Personal Information…or Else”, posted March 10, 2011

Jane Gaffin, March 19, 2011

Author

  • Jane Gaffin
    Jane Gaffin

    As a freelance writer, she became a voice for the mining industry. Her numerous analyses on such subjects as mining, law, economy, politics, justice and firearms have appeared often in the Yukon News and the Whitehorse Star; some articles were syndicated in national and international publications and posted on various Internet Websites. From her mining-related articles and personality profiles came her first book, Cashing In, a definitive history of the hardrock mining industry. It was followed by two more books bearing Northern themes: Adventures of Chuchi, a delightful children’s novel about an adorable Siberian Husky always in trouble; and Edward Hadgkiss: Missing in Life, a biography that probes the pilot’s and girlfriend’s mysterious disappearance after surviving the crash of his Harvard on a remote island of coastal British Columbia. Gaffin has also contributed to two other books: Writing North, an anthology showcasing contemporary Yukon writers; and Up From The Permafrost, a collection of reflections on learning as told through short stories and art. Sadly, the Yukon and Canada degenerated slow-motion into a place she no longer recognized nor understood. Her latest book-length project, Justice Served Up Yukonslavia Style, was motivated by a strong sense of justice to somehow right the wrong of a Yukoner criminally convicted in Canada’s highest court for a law that did not exist.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Tags: Florida Department of Transportation, Freedom Watch, guilty until proven innocent, invasion of privacy, Joel Chandler, Judge Andrew Napolitano, people-control, Polk Parkway tollbooth

Did you find value in this article?

If you found this article useful or it contained valuable information and you want to thank me, the best way is to buy me a coffee or two.

1. Send an Interac eTransfer to author @ christopherdiarmani.net (remove spaces)

2. Send via PayPal using this link: https://www.paypal.me/ThatLibertyGuy

3. Use your credit card in my online store to support me with a one-time donation, a monthly recurring donation, or an annual donation. See these links for all the details about the thank-you gifts I offer my supporters.

Comments

  1. Joel Chandler says

    March 28, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    Thanks for covering the story and I appreciate your words of encouragement. Did I understand correctly that Judge Napolitano mentioned the story? I’m a big fan of his but don’t often get to see his show. Do you know when that was aired?

    Best regards,

    Joel Chandler

    Reply
  2. Christopher di Armani says

    March 28, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    No trouble Joel!

    Thanks for stopping by.

    I’m sorry, but I don’t know when Judge Napolitano mentioned the story on his show. You might be able to find it by searching YouTube though, and I’ll pester Jane to see if she knows which one.

    Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help from here. What you’re doing is incredibly important and needs to be supported in any way possible.

    Christopher

    Reply
  3. Jane says

    March 28, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    Hi, guys:

    You have to be quick when looking for Freedom Watch videos with Judge
    Napolitano. Fox Business News is touchy and often removes them from You
    Tube and other sites within 24 hours–if they ever get posted at all.

    The Freedom File that garnered the Judge’s attention about driving on the
    Florida turnpike where toll takers don’t like legal tender that I referred
    to in my article was posted March 8, 2011 at 24 minutes and 09 seconds.

    http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?282883-Freedom-Watch-3-08-11

    or can be found on You Tube at:

    Freedom Watch – Bring The Constitution Back 3/8/2011

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GpHj56SBmI&feature=player_embedded#at=1450

    Cheers,

    jane

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to my commentaries

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Latest Tweets

Follow @ThatLibertyGuy

Christopher di Armani 🇨🇦 🇺🇸
@ThatLibertyGuy

  • New comment: Canadian Gun Laws: A Primer for People Who Don’t Know Much About Gun Laws christopherdiarmani.com/15213/guns/can…
    about 1 week ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • New comment: Blake Harvey’s Murder Proves We Don’t Value Children’s Lives christopherdiarmani.com/17398/police/g…
    about 1 week ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • New comment: All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing christopherdiarmani.com/8275/human-rig…
    about 1 week ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • New comment: Paul Rogan Passes: The End of an Era christopherdiarmani.com/18908/common-s…
    about 1 week ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • New comment: RCMP Sergeant Douglas Smith appeals conditional discharge for illegal handgun christopherdiarmani.com/2439/police/ab…
    about 1 week ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite

Most Popular This Week

  • All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
  • Dale Merle Nelson’s 1970 Murder Spree in Creston, British Columbia
  • How did Live-Streaming Rape Become a ‘Thing’?
  • Florida Police arrest a 12-year-old for farting. Have they lost their minds?
  • Yvon Mercier: From RCMP Depot Trainer to Double-Murderer
  • Why the Flood of Firearm Registration Certificates in My Mailbox?
  • Violent N.B. Drug Dealer Nicholas Bain Finally Arrested

Most Popular This Month

  • All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
  • Dale Merle Nelson’s 1970 Murder Spree in Creston, British Columbia
  • RCMP Sergeant Douglas Smith appeals conditional discharge for illegal handgun
  • How did Live-Streaming Rape Become a ‘Thing’?
  • Yvon Mercier: From RCMP Depot Trainer to Double-Murderer
  • Florida Police arrest a 12-year-old for farting. Have they lost their minds?
  • Derek Anthony Wood and the Sydney River McDonald’s Murders

© 2004–2023 ChristopherDiArmani.com | All Rights Reserved

Close

Buy me a cup of coffee

A ridiculous amount of coffee was consumed in the process of writing these articles. If you enjoy my work, please buy me a coffee or two to keep me going!