vig·i·lan·te, n.
- any person who takes the law into his or her own hands, as by avenging a crime.
So, some guy in Florida (of course) was busted by the FCC, for having a signal jammer in his car, that effectively made it impossible for surrounding motorists to use their cell phones while in the moving range of his signal jammer. He was fined $48,000 for interfering with wireless communications
Translation: some guy, tired of people ignoring the oft-unenforced cell phone use while driving, took the law into his own hands, and used a signal jammer to make it impossible for motorists within his vicinity to fuck around on the cell phones while driving, thus making them safer, less-distracted motorists. He was fined a large sum of money for doing what the law wouldn’t do: something about it.
Okay, I agree that the vigilante went a tad overboard, by blocking pretty much entire cell phone towers, and that even the responsible are also punished. Additionally, in doing so, in even times of legitimate emergency, there would be people completely helpless to communicate with important parties due to his jammer.
However, I don’t think the guy’s motives were at all unjustified – I agree with the probable motive that simply put, too many people are still screwing around on their phones while driving, even if it is against the law, and it makes them hazardous drivers to everyone around them. Believe me, I certainly agree with that assessment too; there’s seldom a day that I don’t have to honk my horn at a car in front of me, because it’s a green light, and they didn’t notice because they were too busy fucking around on their cell phone. People really are unable to grasp the concept that you’re not supposed to be on your fucking cell phone while driving a car, and it makes every single perpetrator a legitimate threat while on the road, when their attention is diverted.
It’s just he went a little overboard by jamming entire cell phone towers, instead of narrowing it down to maybe a smaller radius, where entire providers might not have noticed. But I don’t think the guy was at all necessarily wrong for what he was trying to do. It was a little extreme, but he was essentially trying to make people safer drivers by making them put down their phones when they realized that they weren’t working.
Leave it to the fact that he’s brandished a “vigilante” in the article to justify the fact that he was upholding the law. It’s just, like in the case of most instances of vigilante justice, he used somewhat of an extreme measure, and theoretical innocents couldhave been adversely affected by his measure of justice.
It would be nice to see more punishment come down on cell phone drivers. Seriously, three out of every five days of the work week, I have to use my horn. And after honking at someone, it’s the same result; a head looks up, and then takes off. These people disgust me, and makes me wish, wish there were ways to punish them for their blatant disregard for the law in those instances.
