When the nanny state meets the police state...

...who wins?

The nanny state, in Britain at least, where the traffic cops seem to be getting a little too full of themselves, literally speaking. The situation has gotten so bad that some of them have been banned from driving in squad cars until they slim down, because the Health and Safety folks over there have found that two fat cops + various police gear = a car that is already over its maximum weight rating even before any criminals have to be placed in it:

"'A combination of two heavier police officers or a large suspect could mean the car is in excess of the maximum weight,' a police source said. 'That will need to be monitored because, aside from the safety aspects, it’s a bit rich for us to be pulling people over for overloading their cars when our own vehicles may be illegal.'" (Emphasis mine)

At least they recognize the hypocrisy of ticketing subjects for behaving in the same manner that they do themselves. In America, the police usually get to be exempt from the many and sundry laws imposed onto the peasantry, such as the recent ban on talking on one's cell phone without a hands-free device while driving in the state of California. (Is the practice dangerous? Sure, that's why I don't do it, as I don't trust myself to multitask safely. Why is it less dangerous when a police officer does it, especially for non-emergency business, like the examples cited in the article?)