The law is the law, even if you don’t like it.

Miss-Lou residents have done their fair share of griping over the ticketing situation in Ferriday for years now. The consensus is that the town over-tickets in an attempt to pad the town coffers.

They probably do.

But that doesn’t change the law.

Ferriday is a small town with a major highway, lots of cars and quite a few pedestrians. None of those things mix. Much of the Ferriday traffic isn’t local, repeat drivers, it’s highway traffic going straight through.

Those cars and trucks must slow from their highway speed or lives and property are at risk.

Ferriday’s police department has long preached that strictly enforcing traffic laws in order to protect their citizens is the department’s prime duty. And the police department is correct.

A few state lawmakers, including local Rep. Andy Anders, have mentioned doing something about towns such as Ferriday and others that have become known as speed traps.

A resolution introduced late in the recent session would limit the money towns could receive from traffic tickets, hopefully reducing the number of tickets written.

But isn’t that telling police departments to ignore existing laws? Should an officer knowingly watch a speeder drive past?

Speed trap legislation is likely to make lawmakers popular with the voters, but it isn’t how our state’s leaders should be spending their time.

We have laws for protection, not personal preference, and drivers may have to stop complaining and start slowing down, like it or not.