« More on DARPA Urban Challenge | Main | DARPA Urban Challenge Results »

Speeding and the monopoly of force

Two articles on speeding, one from Techdirt about how GPS can dis-prove a speeding allegation:
GPS Tracking: Drivers' New Best Friend?

The second from the New York Times about police over-enforcement and beating (stemming from alleged traffic violations) leading to a drivers' rebellion in Russia.
Weary of Highway Bribery, Russians Take on Police.

They are both rebellions against extortion, one extortion has a slightly greater veneer of legitimacy (it is the state seeking the payoff rather than the individual officers), but in the end it is the state's monopoly on the use of force as Max Weber put it, that enables this practice.

(Yes of course, speeding is wrong, but wrongful enforcement is also wrong).

Posted by David Levinson on October 28, 2007 10:58 AM |

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)



The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.