Phil Williams Commentary: Huntsville's ban on driving with phone is nanny state run amok

I fully accept that government has a role. By design, government is intended to provide essential services needed for quality of life — things like roads and bridges, military service, law enforcement and other first responders.

Our founding documents specify it. The Bible contemplates it when Jesus Himself said, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.”

But government is not infallible. Problems often arise since government is steered by people who are fallible. We sometimes jokingly refer to a kakistocracy: a government run by the least competent of its citizens. Not always, but hey — look around.

Cautionary tales abound of government becoming bloated and overreaching, too consumed with feeding itself and justifying its own existence. When government tentacles reach into everything it sees, and some things it imagines, we find what is often referred to as a “nanny state.”

Nanny state is a term first coined in Great Britain, making the circulation of speeches and editorials in the 1960s. It refers to a government so big that it becomes the caretaker for all our needs and ensures that we are protected from ourselves.

No longer content to provide just essential services, a nanny state believes that it knows best and will help us in our feeble attempts to get by in life.

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned against the nanny state, saying, “We should not expect the state to appear in the guise of an extravagant good fairy at christening, a loquacious companion at every stage of life’s journey and the unknown mourner at every funeral.”

Fancy words to say that government isn’t supposed to become our be-all-end-all, granting every wish.

President Ronald Reagan followed suit in a speech: “Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."

Whether by elected officials or just bureaucrats trying to exercise their authority, nanny state government gets all up in our business and begins defining the government’s version of daily life.

You may recall when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg became a bit antsy about constituents imbibing too many sugary soft drinks. In 2013, Bloomberg decided that no one should be allowed to get biggie-size soft drinks because, well, that’s just too dangerous.

Bloomberg’s plan was to ban the sale of sugary beverages in containers larger than 16 ounces unless it was 70% fruit juice or milk. All anyone had to do was buy two 16-ounce sugary beverages —.but hey, Bloomberg was there for ya!

Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, was facing a crime epidemic in 2017. Local businesses began putting up bulletproof plexiglass barriers to protect cashiers.

One local official indignantly claimed that the issue was not one of government failing to provide adequate essential policing. Instead, she blamed the businesses who dared to create the “indignity” of serving patrons through a plexiglass shield which she believed was only being done in “certain neighborhoods.”

Being the small government icon that she was, Democratic Councilwoman Cindy Bass sponsored local legislation that would have banned plexiglass. She gets high marks for trying to be a nanny.

The trend continues as Philadelphia just passed a ban on ski masks to stop crime. Never mind actual policing, just require faces and take the bullet!

Lest you think that the nanny state only exists in the bluest of blue governments, think again. One of the nanniest examples of nanny state actions just happened in good ol’ red state Alabama.

Distracted driving is a bad thing, but I defy someone to tell me how law enforcement in the City of Huntsville is going to effectively enforce a new ban.

Recently passed state law says that if law enforcement observes otherwise reckless driving, they can add the lesser offense of distracted driving. Basically, state troopers will not pull you over if you drive by with something looking like a phone in your hand. The phone would be a lesser offense added on if you actually are driving in a reckless or illegal manner. Nannyish, but still ...

But not Huntsville. Oh no, the Huntsville City Council just went full on nanny-mode and passed a total ban on driving while touching your phone. It approved a plan foisted upon us by council member David Little, effective Jan. 1, that far exceeds state law.

Police are to begin issuing citations if you are seen with a phone in your hand while driving. The holding of the phone can be the primary offense, meaning that you can drive the speed limit, use your blinker, stop at all stop signs and still be pulled over because you were on the phone telling the wife that you are picking up dinner on the way home.

The first conviction is a $50 fine, a second conviction can be up to $100, a third conviction within 24 months is a $150 fine and up to 10 days in jail, but if your cellphone rap sheet keeps going, you could face up to 30 days in jail!

Don’t worry, you can hold coffee cup, a book, surf the playlist on your dash and turn your music up so loud you can’t hear the traffic, but by God don’t touch that phone as you cross over the invisible line from Madison to Huntsville.

Huntsville's government, in its wisdom, has presumed guilt by virtue of touching a phone. Never mind that you were driving well at the time.

Watch out for the city limit signs in the Huntsville area. The nanny state just came to Alabama. I feel certain that we’re about to have to take down our plexiglass and stop buying big soft drinks.

Phil Williams is a former state senator from District 10 (which includes Etowah County), retired Army colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. He currently hosts the conservative news/talk show Rightside Radio on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. The opinions expressed are his own.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Phil Williams on the nanny state