Myrtle Beach Wants to Establish Kangaroo Court

Myrtle Beach is really, really trying to crack down on the three motorcycle rallies that occur every year. As such, the city’s attorney has just proposed a giant set of laws that would mandate all sorts of onerous policies on Myrtle Beaches residents and businesses.

You can read all of the legalese at the city’s website: http://www.cityofmyrtlebeach.com/PDF%20Forms/Rally%20Options%20–%20DRAFT.pdf (Yes, I know they had to use spaces in all of their files, but that’s local government for you.)

As a way of quickly “disposing” all of the infractions that these laws will now create, the city has created the position of Administrative Hearing Officer. This officer, who will be chosen by a city administrator and is not publicly accountable, has full sway over all sorts of what are now called nuisance laws.

But basically, the judge can do whatever he or she wants. Rules on hearsay? Gone. Rules on evidence? Don’t need them. Basically, these administrative hearings are going to be the word of the police vs the word of an out-of-town biker. I can really see how this is going to serve justice. Completely.

But just in case you didn’t think that the City of Myrtle Beach came up with such a brilliant idea by itself, look at page 15, line 616:

2. Nothing in this Chapter shall affect the jurisdiction of any City Board, Commission or
Board established by the Code of the City of Des Plaines. Emphasis added

So Myrtle Beach cribbed this administrative judge thing from Des Plaines, Illinois. Some facts about Des Plaines:

• This was the city where John Wayne Gacy was discovered and captured.
• The McDonalds Museum is here.
• The two largest ethnic groups in Des Plaines are the Germans and the Poles. It may be this fact that lead Des Plaines to the establishment of an administrative hearing officer. Once you get those two groups next to each other… well I don’t have to tell you the rest of the story

So the whole idea of Myrtle Beach is to ordinance the bike rallies to death. Given the legal culture of the US, this was inevitably going to happen. But of course, it’s not the fine establishments that will bear the brunt of these laws and regulations, it will be the convenience stores, small hotels and bars that will be targeted. And motorcycles. Don’t forget motorcycles. Because despite all of the rules on motor vehicles in these laws, I bet no more than one or two cars get cited for any of these rules. Remember, this is meant to get those no-good, dirty out-of-towners away from MB so it can be a “family-friendly” tourist area. These laws will NOT be enforced against locals if the police can help it.

Myrtle Beach Bike Rallies on Life Support

As a part of my job, I get to drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina every day.  Despite what the local talk radio hosts say (I’m looking at you, Steve Porter), it’s a tourist town.  Almost everything that goes on in the area revolves around tourism and the service industry.  When Hard Rock Park opened a few months ago, it was a big deal for the entire area, to the point where the aforementioned radio hosts did a live broadcast from the amusement park.

As a coastal, tourism-oriented area, they are at the forefront on tourism and travel related issues.  And the biggest on their plate right now are the bike rallies that make the Grand Strand their home.  There’s three of them that go on each year.  Two of them are chopper-oriented, one of them is crotch-rocket oriented.  The major bike rally is the chopper rally in the middle of May.  The crotch-rockets come to town on Memorial Day weekend, and the second, smaller chopper rally is in October.

Right now, Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach have both registered their desire to see the bikers go away for good.  They’ve now both passed laws that will not allow vendors to apply for licenses to operate during the bike weeks.  The idea being, if there’s no vendors, there’s no reason to come down.  I’m not so sure this line of reasoning is accurate, but it does give the impression of being an anti-biker area, and thus will discourage people from coming.

There’s alot more to come on this issue, as there are passionate supporters and detractors from each side on this issue.

South Carolina Enacts Stupid Vehicle Law

There are three kinds of laws in this country:  smart laws, stupid laws and dangerously stupid laws.  Most of the smart laws have been created already, so there’s little ground to be made there.  Since most lawmakers get their reputations by “doing stuff” while in office, they have to create and pass laws.  So most laws passed nowadays fall into the “stupid law” category.

But there comes a time when laws are passed that are both stupid and make the community more dangerous as well.  South Carolina has just enacted such a law.  I give you:

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 56-5-970, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO TRAFFIC-CONTROL SIGNALS, SO AS TO PROVIDE THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH A DRIVER OF A MOTORCYCLE OR MOPED, OR A BICYCLE RIDER MAY PROCEED THROUGH A HIGHWAY INTERSECTION CONTROLLED BY A TRAFFIC-CONTROL DEVICE THAT IS DISPLAYING A STEADY RED LIGHT.

The crux of the issue is that it is now LEGAL in South Carolina for a motorcycle, moped or bike to go through a red light.  That’s right, 80 years of traffic flow laws have been turned on it’s head.  Now, certain traffic can enter an intersection where they weren’t able to before.

Look, there’s enough of a problem in this country of motorists not being able to see motorcyclists and bicyclists without them now being able to do something never done before in any civilized country.  But thanks to Senators Jake Knotts (RINO-Lexington), Phil Leventis (D-Sumter) and John Scott (D-Columbia) and cooperation from Gov. Mark Sanford, motorists now have to watch out for traffic crossing in front of them where they least expect it… at a green light.

And the reason for all this:  Apparently the South Carolina DOT’s vehicle sensors cannot pick up motorcyclists or bikes.  So rather than doing the smart thing (redesigning and installing better sensors), they take the lazy way out and just let slower, more dangerous vehicles have the legal authority to enter intersections at the least safest moment.

It’s not going to be a matter of if someone gets hit because of this law, but a matter of when.  And I wonder if the government will own up to the consequences of this law.  The odds are pretty slim on this, but nobody will put two and two together to figure this out.