Prisoners And Truckers

Today's Thoughts 4/27/12 Prisoners And Truckers
By Jeff Head

The conditions are officially justified not as punishment for prisoners but as an *administrative* measure. Prisoners are placed in control units in *administrative* moves and since there are no rules governing such moves (in contrast to *punitive* moves), prisoners are denied any due process and prison officials can incarcerate any prisoner in a control unit for as long as they choose, without having to give any reason.

Sound familiar? I found the above statement while I was doing a little looking around on the internet just being bored in an article about controlling prisoners. I though how interesting as I was reading through it and the comparisons soon leaped into full view between what they do to control prisoners and what our government is doing to control truck drivers. Is that how they view us, as prisoners or perhaps future prisoners? Looking at the continuous administrative regulations that produce an environment of complete lock down on our ability to make the simplest decision on our own makes it look that way.

The effect on the prisoner after years of confinement and constant surveillance is devastation to the person that they were when they first entered the prison system. Being that they were murders, thiefs, and Lord only knows what it was they did before they arrived into our prison system; perhaps they deserve this kind of treatment from the rest of the world and it can be justified.

However, as truck drivers, what did we do to deserve this "administrative" anal exam from our government? Does that same paragraph read as follows when it comes to us?

The conditions are officially justified not as punishment for truckers but as an *administrative* measure. Truckers are placed into tight regulation in *administrative* moves and since there are no rules governing such moves (in contrast to *punitive* moves), truckers are denied any due process and the FMCSA officials can incarcerate any trucker with any regulation for as long as they choose, without having to give any reason.

The effects of these administrative rulings are the same on truckers as they are on prisoners. Each group is demoralized and forced into a certain line of thinking or else. The only difference is that prisoners cannot leave the prison by choice; they are stuck there. Out here in the real world, a safe and legal truck drivers become demoralized because they will never stop beating them down. The driver can never meet the expectations of the politically correct driven FMCSA. The driver just gives up and either leaves the industry or just decides to run as an outlaw trucker. Either way, safer highways pay the price in the end.

You cannot continue to treat hard working law-abiding citizens as prisoners and expect to end up with safe and legal hard working law-abiding truck drivers. It just will not happen. Dear FMCSA, we are not prisoners, please do not treat us as if we were.

Be safe peeps …
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