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I remember writing a letter to the editor a few months back (If only car windows, noise laws enforced! August 16 2006, page 32A), wondering why police don’t ticket the drivers of vehicles with tinted or blackened windows. I remember citing the “drive-by” shooting of a local sports figure as a good reason to begin enforcing this law.
Here we are, five short months later, and another “drive by” on another sports figure. By another car with tinted windows.
Tonight the police are looking for a vehicle invloved in another “drive by". It is described as having tinted windows.
I’m not saying that all people who choose to break the law by tinting their windows are breaking other laws, but since most of our violent crimes are committed by people driving vehicles with tinted windows, would it not seem prudent to begin our war on gangs by enforcing the law against tinted windows? In Colorado, folks might be surprised to learn that an “opaque or nontransparent or a metallic or mirrored appearance” to the front-seat windows is AGAINST THE LAW.* Please excuse me if I sound patronizing, but could we please enforce this law? I don’t know who decides which laws we enforce these days (it sure isn’t the citizens of Colorado), but maybe they could give folks a 30 or 60-day grace period, and then start ticketing people breaking this law. It would be inconvenient for some (you should have read the rules first, duh - http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=10257&sid=6), but it would make us all feel safer. More importantly, it would be inconvenient for the parasites of society if they could no longer cower behind tinted windows.
Most importantly, it would be a start.

* - Sec. 54-76. Windshield and window obstructions.
(Code 1950, § 507.8; Ord. No. 697-82, § 1, 12-13-82) State law references: Windows unobstructed, C.R.S. 1973, 42-4-224.

Greg Fuller
Denver

This letter has not been edited.