Yet another reason to avoid Galveston.

As if crummy beaches and murky water weren't enough, the Galveston cops have adopted a "zero intelligence" policy when it comes to the most insignificant of traffic violations. For instance, hauling people off to jail for things as trivial as an expired registration or inspection sticker. Seriously.

A few years back, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Atwater v. City of Lago Vista that it was just fine to haul folks off to jail for seat belt violation, even though the maximum penalty if actually convicted of the offense was only a fine. As a matter of Constitutional Law, they may have been right. As a matter of common sense, it's ridiculous.

Instead of giving us another round of "tort reform," I wish that next time around the Texas legislature would write a law that says the cops can't take you to jail for offenses that don't include jail time as one of the allowed penalties. You'd think that the cops (and those who give them their marching orders) would have enough sense that such a law wouldn't be required. But it seems that they're intent on behaving like pea-brained jack-booted thugs. Too bad they can't be trusted even to write minor traffic tickets without legislative oversight.