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Why did you ignore the no left-turn sign?
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Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

This letter is in response to C. Briggs’ open letter to the Chief of Police.

Am I missing something here? You say that the Police Chief had his officers give tickets to residents of El Rancho for making a left turn into a left lane. Isn’t it the job of our Police Department to enforce traffic laws? Did the Chief force you to make an illegal left-hand turn? At what point does your lapse in good judgment become his fault?

As I see it, you knowingly made a very dangerous, illegal left turn out of the park, got caught, got hit in the pocketbook for your poor judgment and now you want to place the blame on somebody else. You also say that your insurance went up more than $400 per year. If this was the only ticket that would have gone on your record you could have opted for traffic school and not had the point on your record, thereby not raising your premiums.

Something is wrong with this picture, either you’re fibbing or this is not your only infraction. I am quite confident that it was not the chief’s intention to “hurt the elderly”.  Do you even acknowledge that the NO LEFT TURN is there to prevent people from being hurt, and to prevent a potential horrible car accident? You say that you are elderly, so I assume you have had plenty of time to practice taking responsibility for your actions. This was nobody’s fault but your own trying to take a little shortcut. While doing that you put everyone else on the road at that time at risk. Why is your time more important than the safety of everyone else?

You ended your letter with Merry Christmas in a very sarcastic way. That’s unfortunate, I hope you try to find it in your heart this holiday season to be a little bit appreciative of the very difficult job our Police Department has every day trying to protect the citizens, not hurt them!

Michele Tahija
Manteca
Nov. 23, 2009