Posted on 10/25/2014 1:59:56 PM PDT by Gen.Blather
Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” But in 2007 the Florida Department of State reported it had received and processed 5,504 new laws. But in addition to laws there exists a multiplicity of departments that create rules having the force of law and that are enforceable by fines or imprisonment. There are, for example, regulations governing the size, quantity and type of fish you can catch. If you’re in possession of an undersized lobster you’re subject to a fine even if you bought it at the grocery store. If you’re a visitor and you’ve legally obtained a fishing license you must also be able to recognize and judge every fish you catch. If you catch too many or the wrong type of fish……“In addition to being subject to the base penalties, which are second-degree misdemeanors and carry maximum penalties of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine per count, the alleged violators are also subject to enhanced penalties for major violations. This designation upgrades the penalties to first-degree misdemeanors, which carry a maximum of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine per count, and additional fines of and a maximum of $100 per snook.”
Doubtless, when viewed as an individual, stand-alone law, each regulation or law passed made sense to whoever proposed it and presumably to those who voted for it. (Or, in the case of regulations, which gain the force of law without any legislative input, whoever at each agency thought it was a good idea.)
We’ve arrived at a point where, as Attorney Harvey Silverglate, says “the average American commits 3 felonies every day … without even knowing it.”
In 2010 “40,627 new laws (that) went into effect throughout the nation and its territories. That is some 800 on average per state in the union, covering as widely diverse topics as texting while driving to mold removal in homes and criminal laws against people who scam other people. ” It is now impossible to even count the number of laws and regulations that, nonetheless govern every moment of our lives. Everyone has paid some sort of fine, if only for illegal parking or excessive speed. For most of us it’s just the cost of living in a civilized society and is dispensed with a check or a credit card and then forgotten. But what if you don’t have the extra $250 or $1,300 dollars? What happens then? Well, a cascading series of events that might lead to loss of your home or even prison . There are unseen and unheard life-changing consequences to the plethora of laws, presumably intended to make life better, cleaner and more attractive for everybody.
Mike is an example. Mike, his former wife, Valarie and Valarie’s new husband, John, live with their four children in one house. “It’s a matter of making it work for the Children,” Mike said, “We moved into a house that already had a large burn pit in the back yard. Unfortuly our dog barked, enraging a neighbor. The garbage service hadn’t started and the place was pretty messy. So, I gathered up the debris and lit it on fire in the burn pit, which had obviously seen much use. The angry neighbor called the Leon County EPD. Investigators swooped in and sifted through the ashes taking samples and photos. They then issued a summons and I ended up in court where a $826 fine was assessed. The judge said I could pay the money and enter an early offender diversion program and have the criminal record wiped clean, except for the arrest. But I didn’t have the money. The judge said I could be on a payment program. I said that was fine, but I have no job. She replied, ‘well just do the best you can…Next case.’ Literally, every dollar we earn goes to rent and keeping the lights on. The fine went into collection where they add 40%, making it $1,300 dollars. If I couldn’t pay $826 how am I going to pay $1,300?”
Because of the fine Mike can’t get a driver’s license. “I tried to bargain with the collectors to see if I could get on a payment plan so I could get a license and take a job. They refused. I guess my inability to get a driver’s license is their leverage to force me to pay them the money. But without a driver’s license I can’t get a regular job. I’m dependent on John to take me everywhere. He’s good about it but he does have a job and its hours vary too much to allow me to use him as transportation.”
“You know,” Mike said, “I didn’t have the first clue it was illegal to burn certain items. I actually violated some county EPA regulation. Do they send around a circular or something? How am I supposed to know?” Mike continued, “Let’s say I did have a license and a job and I took home after taxes $8/hour. It would take 162 hours to pay off the fine. That means I’d work for over four weeks to pay off a fine for something I probably should have received a warning for. For those four weeks how would I pay for food, gas, insurance and all the other things I’d need just to live? This is crazy.”
You’d think that with three adults in the house they’d be able to work this out, but just two months later Valarie ran into the same problem.
Valarie said, “I was a passenger in our van. My breasts hurt so I’d put the seat belt on with the strap under my arm instead of over my breasts. A trooper stopped us and wrote me a ticket for $250 for improper seat belt use. Of course I didn’t have that kind of money so now I can’t get a driver’s license either.” (Valarie's breasts qualify for their own zip code and they always hurt.)
She said, “I was wearing a seatbelt. I knew it was the law, so I complied, or thought I’d complied. But doesn’t my pain mean anything too? Can’t I wear the belt in a way that comports with my personal needs? Apparently not.”
Various men from Milton to Samuel Johnson are credited with saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” But are they really good intentions or are rules and regulations cynically driven by profit?
The question arises, why weren’t these two people simply issued with a warning? As it turns out, as far as seatbelts are concerned, the tickets have to do with $35 million dollars in funding from the federal government. It’s as simple as this, enact a seat belt law, enforce it and you’ll get cash from Uncle Sam. Presumably, a warning is not considered “enforcement.”
As far as the county EPD, in Leon County’s financial statement you’ll find fines amounted to $587,000 dollars in the revenue column . In other words, the county sees fines as part of the revenue stream.
This is a disturbing trend in our society where government agencies exist not to enforce the law for common good, but to provide revenue to the agency for its general fund…retirement, medical and presumably all the expenses the general fund would service…but not, necessarily, for the good of the people or for the purposes the agency was created to serve. When viewed from the perspective of needing money to run the business, fines to people who can’t afford to fight back, hire lawyers or do anything but eventually pony-up the money make sense. But is this something We The People should condone?
End http://forums.floridasportsman.com/archive/index.php/t-118325.html
http://www.searchamelia.com/land-of-40627-laws-and-regulations-more
“The Cruel Poverty of Monetary Sanctions” by Alexes Harris. http://thesocietypages.org/papers/monetary-sanctions/ http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-13-seatbelts_N.htm
http://cms.leoncountyfl.gov/Portals/0/OMB/Docs/BIB/FY2014_BIB.pdf
We have a fascist system. It’s a terrorist regime.
Didn’t start with Obama, either. He just feels less need to hide his feelings about the American system we were promised. But at all levels, our government is a boot smashing our face.
Correct
Right out of one of you books, good God...
A friend of mine had a small fire on his property. The State Fire Marshall happened to be a mile or so away, saw the smoke and called the local FD and rushed over.
My friend wouldn’t let them on the property (gated).
Fire Marshall issued a citation.
Friend let it go to court rather than just paying.
Because the FM couldn’t prove or determine who STARTED the fire, the judge threw it out.
It’s the human fallen response to the problems caused by fallenness. Even when the Mosaic law was given, Moses first gave the people a chance to confess they could never keep laws. They insisted oh yes they could... and God proceeded to show them it wasn’t that simple. And if even God’s laws can’t be kept how much less people’s?
Once more, the grace of God is needed. The answer to this sounds oddly screwball — “EVANGELIZE” — but it’s the only one that will really work. We have much worse problems than trash nazis.
And if they were Illegal Aliens they would have been given a pass on everything, especially driving.
I think it is high time for citizens to require a two thirds rule on all levels of govt to pass rules or laws.
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face...forever.”
1984
Except for the feral government and its agents.
He should have put a US Flag on the debris pile. Then he could have burned it without any trouble.
” A trooper stopped us and wrote me a ticket for $250 for improper seat belt use. “
Never heard of a $250 seatbelt fine in Florida ....
"You're three degrees too hot," he said.
"So what?" I said. "I like a hot shower."
I thought he was joking (silly me). He said he wouldn't wait around for the hot water heater to cool down, or for me to adjust the mix at the faucet; he told me he was placing an administrative lien on the house, meaning we could occupy but no further permits would be issued on the property until we were in compliance.
It was all I could do to keep myself from punching that idiot in the head.
There's a husband, ex-husband, and wife all living together. Am I understanding that correctly?
Arlo Guthrie wrote a song about something like this... a long time ago.
Most people have no idea what a free country would look like or feel like.
There are free countries out there but most of them are only accidently so. This country once aspired and worked at being free but those days were over long ago. Most of us either only dimly remember or never experienced it.
The closest thing to a free country in the modern world is a country whose government is dysfunctional, unambitious, and mildly corrupt. Find one and you’ll find your freedom in the chaos and messiness of a society whose government is incompetent and easily bought off.
Show me the man and I will show you the crime he committed...Berria@NKVD.
So that the local police officers don’t have to empty their own trash baskets, nor perhaps even lift a finger to clean the floor, our city spends $183,433.22 in budgeted funds each year to pay for two full time janitors, one of whom is the supervisor, and two part timers who work mostly for the combined 9 weeks of vacation that the two janitors rack up each year. This does not include any off budget expenses, such as retirement or benefits, which would double that number.
When I brought this up during a city council meeting, one of the council members laughed it off. ‘What, you want someone who earns $45 an hour to do something that could be done by someone for less than half that cost?’
Yes, I want the person who’s earning $45 an hour to get off their rump and walk their trash to the trash can, recycling bin, composting bins. I want them to occasionally pull out a mop and clean up a mess. Now if they want to pool together their money and have someone come in one a week and do that stuff for them? More power to them. Even if the city did it for them, the cost would hardly top $5,600 a year.
They can’t have all these lavish luxuries and additional employees without stealing more from citizens. And that’s where all these additional fines and penalties come from - massive waste of taxpayer funds at every level.
Oh, and as for the city councilman? He lost his reelecton bid as the video of his laughing was spread through the town. The police chief even carried out his own trash for 5 days - this year’s preliminary budget raises the cost to $212,000 for cost of living raises.
“You know,” Mike said, “I didn’t have the first clue it was illegal to burn certain items. I actually violated some county EPA regulation.
...
I would like to know what he burned.
Won’t take too long before mildly corrupt becomes wildly corrupt.
We would see it in a land whose people and officials alike (the form of government matters surprisingly little) are looking to God with their hearts and where all agree that the love of God precedes everything else. And not some formalized verbalized love, or even one that requires attendance at a church building, but one lived in the entire way that a society lives.
Our problems are a warning sign that heaven has allowed to arise.
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