January 30, 2012 2:58PM # By George, I Think They’ve Got It: ‘Far Too Many Laws’ By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE Occupy protesters come to Washington and [finally notice](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/taxi-inspectors-travel-rough-road-between-regulations-and-disgruntled-cabbies/2012/01/27/gIQAy4IsaQ_print.html) what the problem is: > Timothy Evans, a D.C. taxicab inspector, … notices too many inside a taxi jerking slowly up Fifth Street NW — not the seven or eight passengers he sometimes sees sardine-stuffed into the Crown Victorias and Town Cars that make up the bulk of the city fleet, but still too many. > > > He pops on his car’s flashing lights. The cab stops, and out they come, six of them. > > > While Evans goes to chat with the driver, his partner, Carl Martin, calmly absorbs invective — not from the driver but from the riders, a group of activists from California who are in town for the Occupy Congress protest. > > > Nadine Hayes, 59, of Camarillo, is none too happy her driver ended up with $50 worth of tickets — $25 for overloading, $25 for an improper manifest. “He was doing us a service and taking us to where we wanted to go,” she said. “I think we’ve got far too many laws. I think the American people are being *so* oppressed.” ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).