Letter to the Editor

Issuing ticket raises question

To the editor:I was wondering if someone could explain justice to me. House Speaker Rod Jetton some time ago rolled his van on Interstate 55 south of Festus, Mo. No ticket was issued. After that a vehicle Jetton was driving hit another vehicle near Jefferson City. Again, no ticket was issued. There was a picture in the paper last week showing a vehicle that reportedly failed to yield at a stop sign and hit another vehicle. No citations were issued.

I have a good friend, a Baptist minister, who went to church at New Bethel near Fruitland. As he and his wife were returning home after church, his vehicle got off the pavement, and he tried to correct but the shoulder was soft and pulled him into the ditch. No one else was involved. A highway patrol trooper issued a ticket for careless, reckless and imprudent driving.

The definition of "careless, reckless and imprudent" driving is that the driver has no respect for the law. But this preacher has respect for the law and obeys it to the fullest.

Here is the $64,000 question. Why were no tickets issued in those other three incidents? But the minister got a ticket. I would like for the Missouri State Highway Patrol to explain why the minister was issued a ticket and the other three weren't. I don't feel justice is balanced.

HAROLD REED, Leopold, Mo.