re: Small Alabama town draws drivers into “legal black hole.”

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What is this, Robeline?

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What does it say when a retired sheriff, now legislator, brings a bill to get official state highway signs branding a village in his district as a “Speed Trap”?

That’s what HB 457, authored by Rep. Frank Howard (R-Many) would do for the Natchitoches Parish community of Robeline.

“Robeline is a speed trap,” Rep. Howard told the House Transportation Committee Monday. “Now, I don’t judge whether the tickets they give out are valid or not. I just know they’re really aggressive at giving them out. I constantly get complaints about it from the tourism people in Natchitoches, Sabine, and Vernon parishes.”

“I hear about it, too,” said Rep.Terry Brown (I-Colfax). “We invite people to come and spend money in our state, and this is an embarassment! I was in the airport in Chicago, and a couple, hearing I was from Louisiana, asked me if it was ‘safe’ to travel through Robeline, because they had read about it on the internet.”

Nodding in agreement, Howard responded, “They’ve got a population of 170-some people, yet they collected more than half-a-million dollars last year from traffic fines!”