Window Tinting Law in Effect Today,GEORGIA

[elifino]

http://www.wxia.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=63927

The bill to apply to all vehicles – including those registered in other states.

[CottonBear]

1. Could you post this in the Georgia forum too? Thanks!

I had no idea out of state vehicles were included.

[elifino]

4. News Window Tinting Law in Effect Today

I think the word has got around here, I just wanted to give a heads up to out of state drivers who might enter Georgia.

[CottonBear]

8. Somehow, I missed this. Thanks for the heads up.

I wonder if this a fundraising effort by Perdue and the Republicans? They've run the economy into the ground and have almost bankrupted the state. Just think of all the clueless drivers that they can stop on I-75 and I-20?

[maxsolomon]

2. i'm in trouble - previous owner tinted mine super dark.

but then again, i'm in washington state, and my saab won't make it to georgia.

not that i'd even WANT to make it to georgia.

[CottonBear]

3. Hey! It's nice here: great weather, good food, beautiful natural areas!

Come on down and sit a spell sometime. We're really a purple state.

[BiggJawn]

13. and Redneck cops with hard-ons for "Nawtherners"...

I made it through twice un-scathed, but my asshole was puckered the whole time I was on I-75.

I could just SEE myself getting scammed into having to turn around and go back home because some tin-horn local yokel "cited" me out of all my vacation money...

[CottonBear]

19. Were you speeding? Do you have tinted windows?

Just asking.

[RebelOne]

22. I have come in contact with a lot of cops here in Georgia

and I have yet to meet a redneck one.

[CottonBear]

31. Yes, the state patrol is very different from local sheriffs departments.

Here in Athens-Clarke County we have the A-CC Sheriffs Dept, the A-CC police, the UGA police, the GBI and the FBI not to mention the local police and Sheriffs departments of Oconee, Jackson, Barrow, Madison and Oglethorpe counties. Oh yeah, I forgot the Winterville police (all 2 of them.)

All this in the smallest county in the state!

I've only gotten three traffic tickets since 1981 here in Athens.

[maxsolomon]

41. no doubt all y'all are real personable

and the fried treats delicious.

but i cannot abide humidity.

[CottonBear]

46. It's rainy and cool now but the humidity will come in a few weeks

and stay around until early October.

The best time to visit is in the Spring and Fall!

[maxsolomon]

48. and flatness

i cannot abide flat.

i've been to helen, ga., so i know its not all flat.

[CottonBear]

52. Georgia has much topographic relief. Helen is of scary but fun!

Actually, Georgia rises from the ocean at Tybee light to the lowlands to the piedmont to the foothills and the ridge and vallesy areas to the magnificient mountains. Georgia is most beautiful and is a wonderland of nature! We have everything from mountains to the coasts. Come explore!

[maxsolomon]

54. thanks but no thanks

i'm busy exploring where i live; the great NW. alps, deserts, wild ocean shores. the south holds little charm for me.

[RubyDuby in GA]

5. Ouch!

We're not all bad. CottonBear and I would take wonderful care of you...show you some of that famous Southern Hospitality. I'd make my famous pecan (pee-kan) pie for you........

C'mon now sugah! We're really very lovely people......

[CottonBear]

15. Thanks Ruby.

I'll make the sweet iced tea, green bean casserole, fried chicken and coleslaw.
:)

[BiggJawn]

6. Another reason why I'll never visit Georgia.

Maybe some day, when they join the United States and the 21st Century....

So first they pull you over to check your factory-applied tint with their spiffy meter.

Then they ask you about the little "baggie" in the back seat, the one that you say "WHAT baggie?" about...

Then you're getting shoved to the ground for your first big taste of Georgia Red Clay.

I've heard about the way they treat out-of-state cars down there.

[SouthernDem2004]

9. Hmmm, Your state does not have tint laws?

http://www.iwfa.com/iwfa/Law_Chart/State%20Law%20Chart.htm

[BiggJawn]

17. Yeah, the state with "VAGUE" in most the boxes.

Good old Indiana, which leaves it up to "Oficier Discretion".

Our cops don't have a legendary reputation for shaking down out of staters, though. Too busy eating donuts.

[CottonBear]

12. You've never been here, have you?

Georgia isn't perfect but it's not all bad either. It's the largest state east of the Mississippi. We are very diverse.

[BiggJawn]

18. See post 13, Cottonbear.

Twice. Only stopped to piss and re-fuel, and never felt SO relieved as I did when I saw the "Welcome to Tennesee" sign on the way home.

[Kolesar]

25. Now, in Tennessee I was not served at a Denny's restaurant

All I could figure is that I look like a Pollock and speak like a northerner. My brother had a job in Mississippi and he never fit in because he kept his accent for three years.

[BiggJawn]

30. Remember that waitress on I-75?

The one who called the cops because she had those "Aye-Rab Terra-ists" in her greasy spoon? the guys they caught up with somehwere in FL?

Luckily, I'm a Hoosier, so I can sound "Southern Fried" when needed...

[CottonBear]

29. If you're ever in Athens, GA I'll be happy to show you the sights.

We are a beautiful, historic diverse and progressive blue city located in georgeous Northeast Georgia!

Athens is home to UGA, The Georgia Dawgs, r.e.m., B-52s, Kim Basinger (native daughter) and the Peabody Awards (the Pulitzer prize of broadcast journalism), The Georgia Museum of Art and one of the greatest concert halls in the US,the Hugh Hodgsen Concert Hall at UGA. Not to mention a great arts and music scene and wonderful historic neighborhoods and beautiful rural areas.

[WeRQ4U]

7. Washington owner tinted mine as well....

Now I live in North Dakota and I've been warned once for it already. They fucking police actually have a MACHINE that tests the windowns light transmittance....a MACHINE!! I could not believe it. Taxpayers pay for these worthless things.

They say that the rationale behind the law is so that the police can see into the car. My response is that they shouldn't be able to wear those butt-ugly aviator glasses then either.

[undergroundpanther]

16. Geez

I have considered getting tinting windows because I can't deal with bright sunlight well. It actually hurts me makes my head hurt and skin hurt. It acually makes me fall asleep if I stay in it too long(sleeping disorder don't ask) So I wear dark glasses alot(cool punk wraps that encircle my eyes to keep the bright out and I don't go out at high noon if I can help it.. What will they do about photophobics..would they say something smartass on the liscence like V or Mo vampyre or mole.. Grrr.

[napi21]

10. I want to know how they can enforce this on an out of state driver?

I understand why they passed a law against the really dark tint. It is a risk to anyone approaching the vehicle, but most of all officers. I still can't see how they can enforce this law on non-Ga vehicles.

I grew up in Pa. and we were very involved with custom cars. Pa has a lot of law regulating things you can't do, but none of them apply to vehicles registered in another state! We used to always joke when we saw a bumperless streetrod, real dark tinted windows, etc. that "It must be an Ohio car, because Ohio had almost no regulations.

[RebelOne]

26. Well, as the new law states:

As of Wednesday, just about any vehicle passing through Georgia, even one from out of state, must pass the 35 percent visibility rule for window tinting administered via a tint meter.

[napi21]

34. I don't care what the law SAYS, I don't this it's legal for Ga. to do that

If an out of state driver challenges this in court, I think they'd win! Of course, how many have the time and the $$ to return to Ga for a court case?

[Bozita]

11. I can't get to Florida without going through Georgia

Is this some kind of Georgia tax on tourists?

[CottonBear]

14. That was my first thought. See my previous post in this thread.

Perdue and the Repub gang have plunged us into dire financial straits and NO WAY will they raise taxes.

[BiggJawn]

27. And you thought I was being paranoid

Nothing against your home, Bear, just don't like being clipped as a cash crop by the Fuzz...

[CottonBear]

39. Do you have tinted windows? Do you speed? Do you follow traffic laws?

If no, then I don't believe that they would have any reason to stop you. I always obey the rules and never speed. I've driven to Brooklyn, NY, to Miami, to New Orleans (many times), to Chattanooga (countless times) and all the way out west and back on a 4,000 mile journey and I've not been stopped on an interstate highway since I got a well-deserved speeding ticket in college. The nice lady state patrol officer gave me alecture on safety and a speeding ticket.

[BiggJawn]

43. Factory. Not much, less than 10 over. Yes.

Guess I must be a lunatic then, dreamed up the legend of the redneck Georgia Patrol fleecing out-of-state travelers all on my own.

And I got jacked-up and jailed once in Michigan, of all places. Can't get much more north than that, can you? But that was personal. The cop had the hots for my ex-wife, and was threatened by me coming to visit my kid or some such...

[bullimiami]

35. florida has window tint laws already

too dark is illegal. all of the installers know which is ok.
we had a suzuki with limo tint on it for a long time and never got ticketed, but we could have.
its too dark anyway, dangerous really. you couldnt see sometimes at night.

[shanti]

45. just like california

the sun is HOT in the summer in sacramento.  temps sometime
get to 110+.  any car that doesn't have tinted windows risks
having the vinyl/upholstery trashed within a few years.  my
old car didn't have it and the back seat top is totally
thrashed from sun damage.  my new vehicle had the factory
tinting, which is inadequate, imo.  i took it to a tinter the
following day and put the darkest tint LEGALLY allowable on -
it's called 'limo dark'.  i love it and would never have a
nontinted window again!  i really like being able to see out
my back window at sunset too without being blinded.

[RebelOne]

20. I had been thinking about tinting mine before summer.

Glad I didn't now. But hee, hee, my boss' SUV has really black tinted windows.

[CottonBear]

32. Is your boss a Republican? Do they know about the law? n/t

[Nevernose]

21. I'm sure it's unconstitutional in regards to out-of-state drivers

I can't for the life of me remember the case, but a similar law regulating the size of mud flaps in Illinois was struck down as a hinderance to interstate commerce. One state can't regulate what people in another state do to their cars. For instance, California smog emmisions don't apply to my Nevada car, even if I drive it through LA.

[napi21]

28. The big problem with that is the poor out of state driver has to go

to court and fight it! I suspect in most cases, those drivers don't have the time to do that!

[msrbly]

33. Bibb v Navaho Freight Lines(1959)

This is unconstitutional in regards to out-of-state drivers under the dormant commerce clause. Unfortuntately, more than likely, it will be up to an individual to fight this one on principle. Nice try Georgia.

[Nevernose]

37. THAT's the one!

Thanks.

[RPM]

44. Yup!

Thanks for naming the case - all i could think of was the "mud flaps on the trucks" case...

[LiberalFighter]

51. Is that just regarding commercial vehicles or everyone?

[Kolesar]

23. Get your doctor to write you documentation that the tint is "necessary"

Carry it with you in the glove box. And give the officer the finger while you are driving off. It's your Constitutional right according to the Supreme Court.

[Bozita]

24. Who makes those tint meters? How many have been sold in Georgia?

Political contributions?

Sounds like Diebold for windshields.

[MADem]

36. This sounds like a moneymaker to me

And I think the target is all of those snowbirds who go to FL in winter and back up again in summer--there's some good pickins there. And, of course, all of the people they think are drug running criminals. Only way to avoid driving through GA is to take the autotrain, if it is still running.

Incredible! Wonder how long it will be before AAA or some other interested auto lobby gets after them???

[WeRQ4U]

38. maybe, but

I don't usually see Granny's with pimped out cars and hyper-dark, hoopty tint jobs. More of a teenage, honda civic type thing to me. Granny's stick to the wrap-around blue blocker sunglasses instead. LOL.

[CottonBear]

Those folks don't usually have tinted windows. n/t

[MADem]

47. I live up the road from a couple who go every year

They have a geezer car, a Lincoln continental or some such, and all the windows are tinted so it matches the car, which is black. They are in their later sixties...bet they are ticked off! They'll have to take the wagon, I guess!

[CottonBear]

40. dupe. delete.

[rocktivity]

42. ..

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
rocknation

[puddycat]

49. limosines are exempt--can't have rich folks being seen by the commoners NT

[obxhead]

50. didn't see the vehicle.

Officer Schnall said, “There's also been many cases of accidents that we investigate and the driver say, ‘I just simply didn’t see the vehicles beside me.’”

That's because ya didn't check your blind spot.

drug users love window tint that's what this law is about. Don't want the fuzz to see you passin that joint.

[gauguin57]

53. Georgia ... the state that gave you the Ludowici Traffic Light ...

I'm distantly (through the marriage of some great-aunt or something) related to one of the local political bosses who were behind this famed traffic stop (or should I say SHAKEDOWN) -- short light, lots of fines, lots of money split among the sheriff, mayor, city attorney ...

From Time Magazine's archives ...

The Light That Never Fails

Monday, Nov. 16, 1959

Of all the jerkwater traffic traps set to catch and fleece U.S. motorists, the most wondrously efficient was a fast-flicking traffic light in southeast Georgia's tiny (pop. 2,100) Ludowici.* The Ludowici light, which has brought the American Automobile Association more complaints than any other light in the U.S., hangs astride the intersection of two heavily traveled highways: State 38 to Savannah and a combined U.S. 25 and U.S. 301, which funnels thousands of vacationers from the East and Midwest toward Florida. For traffic on U.S. 25-301 (which makes a 90° turn), the light has been known to flick from red to green and hold for only 16 seconds—just long enough to let three left-turning cars through, and get the piled-up traffic rolling. Then its timer snaps through a quick-as-the-eye amber warning to a red stop.

Unless he slams on his brakes and risks a pile-up from behind, the fourth driver in the left-turn line—and sometimes the fifth and sixth—rolls through the red toward a waiting menace of another color: one of the two blue Chevrolets manned by the town's three-man police force, whose chief occupation is to collect a $15 "bond" from each driver not willing to stick around town to be tried and fined $15 for running a light.