Posted on 04/09/2006 8:00:28 AM PDT by radar101
They sit in a special designated area of the county traffic courtroom, near a translator who has grown used to their stories.
Their cars have been seized and they are about to pay more than $200 in court fines.
When their names are called, they are processed quickly:
"Do you have a valid California driver's license?"
"No."
"Do you have an out-of-state or foreign license?"
"No."
Their crime is driving without a license. One judge compared it to a parking ticket because it's a law you can violate over and over again and satisfy by paying a fine. But the costs are far greater.
"It can go on indefinitely," said Superior Court Commissioner Lawrence Ornell. "They can keep on forfeiting these cars and their (driving) privilege may never be revoked as long as they come to court and pay their fines."
On a single morning last week, Ornell heard 60 traffic cases, 17 of them for Latinos violating California Vehicle Code 12500(a), driving without a valid license. The courts do not ask for proof of legal residency, but most of these cases likely involve illegal immigrants.
Latinos are most likely to be cited and towed for that violation, which usually begins with a minor traffic stop, said Sgt. Art Sweeney of Rohnert Park Public Safety.
In Santa Rosa, police recover about 95 percent of the $240,000 it takes to run a tow program tied to the unlicensed driver violations. The city does so partly through a franchise fee paid by 11 local companies that tow cars under contract. The total amount raised is $50,000.
Police also charge a $200 release fee that is added to a driver's total cost of recovering a car after a 30-day impound. These fees were increased this year so that the city could recover more of the cost of running the tow program.
A review of citation records shows:
Santa Rosa: From January 2003 to June 2005, the Santa Rosa Police Department towed 2,064 vehicles for violation of California Vehicle Code 12500(a). Of those, 88 percent, or 1,826 vehicles, were towed from Latinos, while Latinos received 22 percent of the 22,268 traffic citations issued during that same period.
Rohnert Park: Here, 82 percent, or 139, of the 170 vehicles towed and impounded for 30 days during 2003 and 2004 belonged to Latinos. In 2005, Latinos represented 79 percent of the 417 drivers cited or arrested for driving without a license. Of the 138 who had cars towed and impounded, 127 were Latino.
Petaluma: In 2004 and the first half of 2005, Petaluma police impounded 1,218 vehicles from Latinos, 86 percent of the total.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department and its contracted police departments in Windsor and Sonoma also enforce 12500(a) violations, but the tow truck is used less often because traffic enforcement is not a primary focus for the department:
Windsor: In 2003 and 2004, 974 of the 1,191 people cited by sheriff's deputies for a driving without a license violation were Latinos, but only 127 of their cars (or 12 percent) were towed.
During the same period, Windsor police cited 371 Latinos of the 435 people caught for driving without a license. But the cars of only 54 Latinos, or 17 percent, were towed.
Sonoma: Police here cited 106 Latinos of the 127 people caught for driving without a license. But only 20 cars were towed.
Many of these violations are repeat offenses, and police said they can do little more than enforce the law each time.
Crash victim opposes licensing illegals
www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1611916/posts
bump
When our daughter wanted to sell her old junker, we put it in our front yard with the stats and the price of $600 on it. The first day a group of 4 'hispanics' stopped by to give it a test drive. When they wanted to know what we were going to do with the still valid plate is when we couldn't find the title to sign over. They were 'willing' to take it without, but when we weren't they wanted to go ahead and pay for it and come back for it the next night. My husband told them to call back at the end of the week.
They never called back. We just knew...
There's always a possability that one or more of them was legal, but we figure they were able to find someone not so picky to buy an old junker from... And shame on them...
I always thought to register a car in CA. in your name you had to have a valid CA. divers license. As I recall, when my uncle died my aunt could not register her car in her name because she was not licensed. It had to be registered in one of her kids names who had a license. I guess I was wrong.
Excuse me Judge, but just exactly what would THAT accomplish? They are already habitual non-licensed drivers, so what does revoking their non-existent license do?
How do you revoke something that they don't have?
I'm going to keep this in mind if my license is ever taken away. I'll just drive junkers and abandon them if I'm pulled over and towed.
$200 is cheap, compared to fines for driving single in a diamond/HOV lane (not less than $341 on the last sign I saw recently) or entering a red-light-camera intersection just as the light changes to red ($271 or $341 or more).
Do they check for proof of liability insurance when they check for licenses? In the other cities mentioned in the above article, many more people were cited for driving without a license than cars were towed. Without towing and impounding the cars, the cities are simply encouraging unlicensed drivers to continue driving without bothering to pass driver safety tests (anywhere, not limited to CA!).
Which is why no change is advocated, much less enacted.
Not really as Santa Rosa is still losing about $12k a year for this *program*.
If they were smart they'd institute a total forfeiture of the vehicle, sell them and make money. Maybe then the illegals would think twice.
You're not including the release fees. But it wouldn't surprise me if a police department or any government bureaucracy is happy to "branch out" under any circumstances.
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