In this case, Beckham was in London and it was a point violation that combined with previous infractions led to an overall point total that caused the driving suspension. In the DC metro area, you can't drive while holding a cell-phone in DC or MD, but you can still do so in VA...at least for now. I would prefer drivers not to be distracted, but it isn't universally illegal in the U.S. Besides, from what I see around here, there are poor driving habits in general that are nearly as dangerous.
So what? A misdemeanor infraction is every bit as "illegal" as mass murder. Illegality means, in common parlance, against the law. There was a law, and Beckham pled guilty to breaking it. By the way, Robert Kraft is only charged with a misdemeanor infraction. And he has thus far pled not guilty, even though he's been offered to have the charge dismissed for community service and a five thousand dollar fine.
I'm sure if David Beckham had actually injured / killed someone while texting and driving or, you know, committed a continental genocide his statue might come down.
I appreciate the effort, but that doesn't answer the question as to whether there are fewer accidents. It only says there are fewer accidents that they attribute to distracted driving, and that there are fewer citations being given. Looking briefly at some numbers, it does appear that California traffic fatalities have largely decreased, and that they have decreased as a percentage of nationwide traffic fatalities. (In 2006, 4240 in CA and 42,708 nationwide, while in 2010 it was only 2715 in CA and 32,885 nationwide). Of course, the numbers were already decreasing prior to the cell phone ban, and a continued decrease i probably attributable to the economic recession and fewer miles driven. I might even say that the betterment in the death rate could come from Californians often having newer (and presumably safer) cars than some parts of the nation, and that a larger percentage of California accidents happen in urban areas with life-saving facilities, where most fatal accidents nationwide take place in rural areas. Sadly, even if I were looking at the number of total accidents it seems a great deal of interpretation is needed to parse the information. Nonetheless, I was somewhat surprised by the results and have to concede that the number of fatal accidents after the cell phone ban did decrease. That said! I do think that if I could find a happy little chart showing everything I want for the entirety of the time frame I need, my case might be bolstered. Haha.
As a lawyer, I would think you of all people would be smart enough to realize that just because the evidence doesn't exist to charge a someone with a crime doesn't mean a crime wasn't committed. If it helps you sleep at night to assume that these sex workers voluntarily perform 30 sex acts a day, then go on living with your head up your ass. I'm not shocked that you think texting while driving is worse than human trafficking.
I have not asserted that texting while driving is worse than human trafficking. Instead, I expressed the opinion that what David Beckham pled guilty to is worse than what Bob Kraft has been charged with. Not only has Bob Kraft not been charged with human trafficking but his alleged actions cannot plausibly be regarded as constituting human trafficking. I stand by what I said -- something you have (perhaps deliberately) misrepresented.
If that's the hill you want to die on, then so be it. Only an idiot or a disingenuous ass hat would make the argument that the prostitute Robert Kraft solicited was a consenting adult.
Let's assume for sake of discussion that the prostitute Robert Kraft solicited was in her place of employment as a result of human trafficking. That in itself does not make Kraft a human trafficker, just as eating in a Chinese restaurant does not make him a human trafficker. . . . In restaurants, bars and food trucks across America, many workers are entrapped in a form of modern slavery. That's according to a new report by Polaris, an organization that fights human trafficking and helps survivors . . . https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...-bars-and-food-trucks-modern-slavery-persists
I never said that Robert Kraft was guilt of human trafficking. That said, with the amount of advocacy and awareness surrounding human trafficking as it relates specifically to prostitution, any intelligent person should assume the probability of the prostitute being a victim is likely very high. Therefore, choosing to visit one of these establishments would make one complicit. Not legally liable, but still a far, far, far shittier person that someone who texts and drives. You can't lawyer your way out of this one, and the fact that you still are choosing to die on this hill shows what kind of person you really are. You aren't exactly bathing yourself in glory here. I'd say quit while you're ahead, but that ship sailed a long time ago.
Your ad hominem insults added on top of your illogical argumentation are not appreciated. Instead of engaging the facts, you move the proverbial goalposts and stoop to character assassination. And you do all this while hiding behind an alias. You absolutely suggested that Robert Kraft is guilty of human trafficking, the proof of which is in your posts above. And now you say Kraft is at least "complicit" in human trafficking by "choosing to visit" a house of prostitution. Neither assertion is supported by the evidence. Not only has Robert Kraft not been charged with human trafficking, but neither (to my knowledge) has anyone else in any way associated with the particular massage parlor he patronized been charged with human trafficking. As I said above, when such charges are levied I will reconsider my position. Further, the unstated notion that patronizing prostitutes makes one inherently "complicit" with human trafficking is a Puritanical mindset that denies the agency of the women (and sometimes men) who sell their services. Not all prostitutes are trafficked, and probably not even most of them. It used to be, and not so long ago, that the liberal, enlightened position was that prostitution should be legalized because it was a harmless crime that, absent evidence of compulsion, involved consenting adults. That remains the liberal and enlightened, position as I understand it. But today, we live in an illiberal, Progressive, Woke world in which free speech, due process and the necessity of evidence before making scurrilous and unfounded charges is the norm as well as the normative.
Hot off the presses. Court suppresses videotape of Bob Kraft. Pertinently, Paragraph 20 -- some "totally innocent men and women" were filmed on the premises. So much for inherent complicity in human trafficking simply by going to the strip mall. https://cbsmiami.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/robert_kraft_2019mm002346.ordgrntdeftmts.pdf
When New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with soliciting a woman in connection with prostitution, it was widely reported that he had been busted as part of an anti-sex trafficking investigation into a string of massage parlors in Florida. On Friday, however, prosecutors walked back on this claim, confirming during a court hearing that there was no evidence that any sex trafficking took place at the Orchids of Asia spa in Jupiter, Florida, one of the massage parlors that was targeted in the bust. . . . https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/robert-kraft-sex-work-trafficking-florida-823153/
Prosecutors are backing off their claim that human trafficking was involved in the massage-parlor sex case of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. They said Friday that they have no evidence that any human trafficking took place at the Jupiter spa where Kraft is accused of having sex with a prostitute . . . https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/...aft-massage-video-release-20190412-story.html