To all New Hampshire State Legislators
Dear Sir or Madam,
I live in Kentucky, and occasionally pass through
your state, usually in January, on the way to my daughter's family (& 5 of
my grandkids)
in VT. For the past 10 years, I've been
driving my award winning art car, the Liberty Van www.libertyvan.com . I've been taking
new photos
each year for the past 10 of my van in front of all
the northeastern Statehouses. So, I've taken pictures in Concord
each year. Highway 2
runs between the
ME Statehouse in
Augusta, and the Statehouse in Mt. Pelior, VT. I have been taking that
route every single year, and
most of the time
it's dark on that part of my journey.
Liberty Van is decked with strings of tiny MULTI colored Christmas lights.
I have
NEVER been stopped
by law enforcement before this January 2,
ANYWHERE in NH for ANYTHING. I'm an extremely careful driver,
my
record is SQUEAKY
clean, and Liberty Van now has more than 410,000 miles on her.
For the first time, on January 2, I was stopped by
law enforcement in Gorham, NH. They cited me $250 (which is more than my
monthly
income - we are living on my husband's tiny
pension) for having 'a blue light' - 'installed' on my vehicle. On top of that, they seriously
abused, & bullied me, and
threatened my safety, and the safety of baby puppies I had with
me. I must defend myself - have been
through
this a few times in other states now, and have
defended them successfully, but now have spent all my savings, and can no longer
afford to
hire an attorney.
It would help if you could answer a question for
me. I read the section of law I am cited under. It seems clear to me
the intent of this law
is to prevent anyone from impersonating law
enforcement. That is a serious state interest, and would justify the heavy
fine. But my van
is an award winning ART CAR. It won a FREE
SPEECH Trophy at the largest art car event in America in 2011, at the Houston
Art Car
Parade, in Houston, TX. NO one, (even if they took
a whole lot of drugs) would ever confuse Liberty Van with any sort of
law enforcement.
I just mailed my NOT guilty plea in yesterday, and
will get a court date. I would like to know what was the intent of the NH
legislature
in writing the statute I'm cited under,
Title XXI Motor Vehicles, Chapter 266:78-b.
Was the intent to prevent impersonation of law
enforcement, a WORTHY goal (I 100% support &
am VERY GRATEFUL FOR proper
CONSTITUTIONAL law enforcement),
or
was it intended to be an excuse to harass, bully
& plunder (aka 'revenue enhancement) grandmothers (or other citizens
for that matter)
with some CHRISTMAS lights on a MINIvan , or
any other vehicle which NO one would possibly mistake for law
enforcement???
NONE of my lights are flashing or blinking.
That would be annoying, also possibly confused with emergency flashers or turn
signals.
NONE of these lights are high intensity (no way to
blind other drivers), nor have they ever hurt anyone in any way. But they
HAVE
given millions of people SMILES.
I hope to get a simple answer to this question
of intent, from as many NH State Legislators as possible, to use in
preparing my defense.
Also, if I may ask a second question. Since
after ten years of driving through NH at night, with Christmas lights on my van,
one small
jurisdiction in the state seems confused about
this, perhaps it needs to be clarified in the vehicle code with a specific
exception for
strings of Christmas lights. I personally
have NEVER seen a law enforcement vehicle in ANY state with Christmas lights on
it.
Thank you so much for your assistance,
532 Farley Road, Edmonton, KY 42129
(270)432-7272 CST