i guess suspending their license and not letting them renew till ALL fines and late fees are paid is too much to expect...
Posted on 04/28/2013 5:52:56 PM PDT by moneyrunner
Have you ever gotten a parking ticket or been stopped for speeding? I have. The thought of simply ignoring it never occurred to me. It appears that about three-quarters of the people in Virginia just rip them up.
According to the AP, Nearly half the fines and fees levied by Virginia courts went unpaid over the past five years, according to a state audit. And for traffic cases, it was much, much worse.
District courts assessed more than 80 percent of the total fines and costs because that's where traffic cases go. The collection rate for the traffic court was 27%. Think about that. That means that about three quarters of the people who get traffic tickets simply ignore them.
And what happens when you don't pay? Pretty much … nothing.
The attitude of the legal system is that they don't have the manpower or time to actually go after the people who simply ignore them. They also claim that some of the scofflaws are either in jail or too poor to pay the fines. So if you're poor you quicly learn that you can speed or park anywhere without worrying about the consequences. Gaming the system can involve just ignoring fines, or it can involve calling 911 over 100 times to get a ride to town in an ambulance, figuring it's just part of your Medicaid benefits at a cost to taxpayers of about $400,000. Which makes paying fines sort of like the income tax. If you have some money and grow up in an environment where you are taught to obey the law you pay all the fines, if you're poor the government lets you skate. Welcome to America.
Just after reading about this I read this heartfelt story about the son of legal immigrants, Ray Tranchant, who lost his daughter to an illegal alien. Here's part of what he wrote.
Alfredo Ramos, the illegal immigrant who killed my daughter Tessa and her friend Allison Kunhardt as he blindly drove his car at 70 mph through an intersection in Virginia Beach, was invisible. He had been stopped many times by local law enforcement, brought in front of judges, released. It reminds me of the recent releases of deportees due to sequestration, authorized by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Secretary John Morton. They must not have known about Ramos and his kind, whom the system brushes with invisible paint. Imagine, Homeland Security has enough confidence in these deportees that they would trust them to return to court for their hearings. Do we have any idea what it cost to catch them?
We trusted that, after several stops and arrests for DUI, Ramos would just be deported. He was only stopped after he killed those beautiful girls.
This is what brings these two stories together. I have zero confidence that even if the amnesty program is implemented and works as designed, the criminals who don’t bother with background checks and fines will be painted with invisible paint. Just like it does the three-quarters of those who don’t pay their parking tickets and the 40% who don’t pay the fines assessed by District Courts.
Ray Tranchant again: It reminds me of the gun laws that we are so desperately trying to change. America can sure track the people that follow the law, but the ones who don't stay invisible until a heinous crime is committed.
There were close to 500 gun deaths last year in Chicago by criminals with "invisible" guns, who somehow didn't bother to register the weapon or take National Rifle Association gun safety courses. I wonder why?
Meanwhile the rest of us are the victims, like Ray Tranchant and his daughter, of people who the government doesn't want to see. Just as ObamaCare is now viewed by its main Senate sponsor, Max Baucus, as a train wreck, “Illegal Amnesty II” could well be America’s Hiroshima.
Periodically, in my part of Texas, they have warrant roundups for the scofflaws who ignore their traffic tickets.
I guess here in Texas, we have a little better handle on this than y’all do in Virginia. That doesn’t mean we have a strong observance of the law but, something about being dragged to a police car in handcuffs tends to reduce the number of repeat offenders.
Try that in California. The state has combined the tax franchise board with the traffic collections board and if you don’t pay your taxes, your license gets revoked, you can’t register your vehicle nor even pay your insurance. Welcome to the future.
The Gang of Eight legislation allows amnesty for people with up to 3 DUIs. Gang members are also eligible,if they promise to leave the gang. National suicide. What can we do about it?
Ignore a single traffic ticket in Washington and lose your license. They have computers there. Looks like Virginia needs to join the 20th century and catch up with the 21st.
If you don’t show up for court in Illinois, a bench warrant is issued. If you get fined and don’t pay, they will suspend your license..
In Maryland you cannot renew your tags until you pay your tickets.
i guess suspending their license and not letting them renew till ALL fines and late fees are paid is too much to expect...
They are allowed to because they aren't forced to have any responsibility. As a matter of fact: The less responsible they are, the more they receive in benefits.
A large percentage are illegals and they have no incentive to become legal because they would then be forced to be responsible actors.
This is what happens when the government looks on the law as a revenue producer instead of justice. Enforcing the law was never meant to be a business.
Actually, it would be easy to collect those traffic fines.
If the fine is not paid or a court date is not set within sixty days, notify the insurance company to revoke their insurance; ditto if they miss the court date.
Sixty days after notifying the insurance company, if the fine is still not paid (to heck with a court date at this time!), cancel their license.
If they are caught thereafter, confiscate whatever vehicle they are operating at the time.
All of a sudden, everybody will pay their fines or show up at court to argue them.
We ought to deal with illegal aliens the same sort of ferocity.
Being an illegal alien should an aggravating circumstance for any violation, misdemeanor, or felony, greatly increasing severity of punishment.
All illegal aliens should automatically be considered flight risks and bonds (or lack thereof) adjusted accordingly.
Illegal aliens who fail show up for court dates or pay fines should have “dead or alive” warrants issued for them - and anybody can collect.
Any incident of previous deportation should be considered an additional aggravating circumstances to all crimes, further increasing all punishment. Individuals who were previously deported should be forced to understand that they are likely facing death for ANY felony they commit...
Any wealth or property illegal aliens criminals have should be confiscated to compensate their victims and the state.
In addition to above, we still need to go after employers.
The crap about “we can’t deport them all” is just that: CRAP. We don’t have to deport them all. We just have to make them sufficiently miserable and let them self-deport.
"I don't want any special favors; just treat me like an illegal alien."
I am being sarcastic, of course.
There is a security reason for safety reason for speed limits as well as knowing and only allowing certain people into our country.
Most of it is just revenue collection. I got pulled over once for ‘failure to have insurance’. Showed cop my insurance. He said, “I’m fining you anyways.” Called State Farm- told them to deal with it because that’s what they are getting paid for.
I had to go into court and take a day off of work (lost wages!), to get the fine erased. State Farm was useless, so I dumped them right after. State Farm is there unless you actually need them!
Virginia has the same laws as the rest of the country regarding traffic law enforcement. What you are saying about enforcement may be absolutely correct in theory. However, I would guess that in practice, the effort put into actually apprehending the scofflaws in other states is about the same. It takes time and effort to actually go and serve a warrant or arrest someone for failing to pay a traffic ticket.
I’m not sure if any other state has actually done an analysis like this one in Virginia. I have a feeling that the results would be eye-opening.
My point is that if so little effort is actually expended to go after people whose names and addresses we actually know, there is going to be a lot less effort to go after illegal aliens, especially when the press and a lot of the politicians are actually in favor of legalizing them to make them voters.
It takes time and effort to actually go and serve a warrant or arrest someone for failing to pay a traffic ticket.
It’s really pretty simple. I know this is how it works in Washington because that is what happened to a guy I know there. He has been driving without a valid license for years because of this.
That's kind of an apples and broccoli comparison. What Virginia does to enforce its traffic laws is likely not comparable to the way that other states enforce THEIR traffic laws.
And, while I understand your point, traffic law enforcement and illegal aliens are extremely different issues. Traffice law enforcement is controlled by police and the courts and illegal aliens are more the domain of the political elites.
“It’s really pretty simple. I know this is how it works in Washington because that is what happened to a guy I know there. He has been driving without a valid license for years because of this.”
Doesn’t that prove my point?
“It’s really pretty simple. I know this is how it works in Washington because that is what happened to a guy I know there. He has been driving without a valid license for years because of this.”
Doesn’t that prove my point?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.