Posted on 04/06/2005 7:30:55 AM PDT by bd476
"Nassau officials Tuesday declared the end of free parking for the 73 worst ticket scofflaws in the county.
The people on the list, who owe a combined $452,500 in fines, could lose their vehicles, their wages, even their homes as Nassau uses an old law in a new way to seize property and get its money..."
> Snip
"...But Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and other officials Tuesday said the scofflaws had more than fair warning, and under a recent amnesty could have paid off their tickets with a 50-percent discount. The tactic involves county officials going to district court, obtaining a default judgment against the scofflaws, and using that legal right to go after their property.
'If we can't settle the judgment with selling the car, we can go after your house, bank account," said Suozzi during a news conference at Cedar Creek Park in Wantagh, standing by four cars that had been seized with unpaid tickets amounting to $17,665. 'This is creative use of existing law'..."
>Snip
"...The crackdown, however, was greeted with protest from citizens' advocates, including Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who said the new Nassau seizure program could infringe on the constitutional rights of the vehicle owners.
'It raises serious due process concerns whenever the government takes property first and asks questions later,' Lieberman said. 'Absent an emergency, there's no reason the government can't go about getting an application to seize property. The process should allow the individual to give a person an opportunity to be heard and to cross examine'..."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Pronunciation: -"lo
Function: noun
a contemptuous law violator
Hmm, if I put this into the Thesaurus, will democRATS come up?
LOL, it should come up.
Liberal NYCLU once again defending the dregs. They've been warned repeatedly..
True, Ron, the people with unpaid traffic tickets were warned according to the City.
From the article: "...'If we can't settle the judgment with selling the car, we can go after your house, bank account...' "
However isn't this a bit alarming that there is no hearing, no application for seizure and the person is considered guilty until they can prove otherwise?
What happens to the person who has their property seized including bank accounts, home and wages yet it's a clerical error?
What about a corrupt city official who might use this for purposes other than collecting unpaid traffic fines?
They can get a lawyer and fight the tickets if they are bogus. These people have had YEARS to dispute whether the tix were kosher or not. I'll bet most of the un-paid tix belong to the very corrupt city officials you speak of.
Nassau Long Island officials are seizing the property (cars, homes, bank accounts) of people with unpaid traffic tickets. Question: does this set a dangerous precedent?
....up? only in Bill Klintoon's edition....
Only for a few self-indulgent brats in Long Island who thought the law didn't apply to them.
Everybody's gotten a parking ticket at one time or another, but people who rack up thousands of dollars worth of parking tickets without the slightest concern about paying them have a problem...
"Nassau Long Island officials are seizing the property (cars, homes, bank accounts) of people with unpaid traffic tickets. Question: does this set a dangerous precedent?"
Yes - it does....for the kinds of POS, self-absorbed jackasses who cannot accept responsibility for their actions.
That kind of "dangerous precedent"...I can live with.
Would you consider irrelevant the risk of clerical or identification error when a government official seizes property?
That kind of "dangerous precedent"...I can live with. "
If you were falsely identified, i.e., if you were mistaken for another "Don Simmons" would it be acceptable then for city officials to seize your bank accounts, your home and property, and then let you try to prove your innocence after the seizures?
Another Don Simmons who happens to drive the same make and model of Chevy Tahoe....with the same license plate number?
Show me.
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