Depending on someone's point of view from behind the steering wheel, Resident Magistrate Chrisanthia Brown's ruling in the St Mary Traffic Court on Thursday will be interpreted as either draconian or balanced.

And that point of view will be, we suspect, in large part determined by the colour of the licence plate on the car the person is driving, with public passenger vehicle drivers sure to see red over 20 of their colleagues being ordered locked up for two days for repeat traffic offences. On the other hand, motorists who continue to be in the line of fire of bullet-like public passenger vehicles, speeding from one fare to the next, will tend to be far less sympathetic.

As was reported in The Gleaner yesterday, when RM Brown made the order, some of the persons slated to be put in jail cried while others quickly left the courtroom. Warrants have been issued for their arrest.

With the continued carnage on our roads, the result of a combination of more motor vehicles literally in the hands of the illogical, if not illiterate, substance abuse, a 'hustling' mentality, and road conditions, repeat traffic offenders cannot expect that a frequent fine will be 'fine'. We are fully aware, though, that public passenger vehicle drivers are not the only ones who habitually flout the law and, in so doing, create if not always accidents then certainly a sustained sense of jeopardy in other road users' journeys.

Taxi and bus drivers, by virtue of their jobs, come into contact with the traffic police regularly. And we are aware of the consistent complaints about police abuse and even extortion in the execution of their traffic duties. Indeed, in yesterday's Gleaner, it was also reported that Mayor Desmond McKenzie has ordered that no more vehicles impounded by the police be stored at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation's (KSAC) facilities.

This comes as a result of a complaint by a motorist in Morant Bay, St Thomas, whose vehicle was transported by wrecker over 30 miles to Kingston at a charge of nearly $27,000, although he approached the policemen on the scene and indicated that he was willing to pay the relevant fine before the vehicle was loaded on to the wrecker.

As acting Town Clerk Lincoln Evans said to The Gleaner, "We have no control over what the police do; if the police are extorting individuals, we have no control over it."

And, it follows, if the police are persecuting and indiscriminately prosecuting some or all of the public passenger vehicle drivers who were ordered locked up in St Mary on Thursday by RM Brown they would have neither knowledge nor control over that.

It then behoves drivers who believe they are being unfairly targeted by the police to establish a track record of complaints, to at least have something to present to the authorities if and when a frequent fine becomes time.

We suspect, though, that there is a significant portion of St Mary's commuting populace who will not mind the time off which has been imposed.

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