The Texas Department of Transportation recently launched a new crusade against individual rights by the name of "Click It or Ticket."
According to KVIA, an ABC affiliate in West Texas, TxDOT has issued an estimated 47,800 tickets for non-use of safety belt (including child safety seat restrictions) during the new push. All these tickets were issued to people who had no outstanding warrants. That is a vast amount of individual rights violations. Drawing in revenue at $25 to $50 a ticket, Texas has robbed its own taxpayers of at least $1.25 million during the life of this program alone.
This is not to say that safety belts are wrong; rather, the state is wrong in forcing its apparently law-abiding citizens to do anything by coercion. Whether this is a gun carried on the hip of a peace officer, or fines and citations, it makes no difference. Citizens have a natural, human right to be free from coercion by the state unless they infringe on the rights of other citizens. But choosing not to wear a safety belt violates no one's rights.
It is profoundly irrational to choose not to wear a safety belt. The person who does not wear one is potentially giving up his or her own life. However, Texas has no right to force anyone to wear one. An individual has the right to his or her own life, including the choice to recklessly dispose of it.
The individual who wears a safety belt is obviously better prepared for an accident, especially one not under his or her control. As KVIA noted, for every percentage of the population that wears a safety belt regularly, 25 deaths are prevented annually.
Preservation of life is a noble goal, but the state of Texas cannot protect people from the consequences of their own actions. Such an attempt is necessarily ineffectual and reveals the state's lack of faith in its own citizens.
It isn't just that Texas has no faith; these laws are also unnecessary. If lawmakers believe that Texas has a right to its individual constituents' lives, then they can punish those who do not wear safety belts under the attempted suicide laws. If they believe that they have to protect children from negligent parents, then any injury caused by improper use of child safety restraints can be punished under child abuse laws. But they would rather pretty up these crimes by calling them something else, and make some money in the process.
With more than a million dollars changing hands, there can be no question that the state of Texas benefits from this campaign to not only steal money, but to steal rights. There is no reason why the state of Texas is doing this, other than purely fiscal concerns. The state's violation of individual rights for money is morally no different from what a thief does when he takes your wallet.
Robert Walsh is a humanities junior.
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