Posted on 09/09/2006 3:27:45 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Cumming police say perpetrators stopped without ID mostly illegal immigrants
Diego Acosta was arrested by Cumming police in a Friday night license check for driving his black Toyota Celica without a license. A day later, an officer spotted Acosta's car out on the road again and pulled it over on East Maple Street. Acosta, 17, was back in the driver's seat, police said.
When asked why he was out driving again, Acosta could only reply that he had to go pick up his mother, according to police. He was arrested and booked into jail for the second time in two days.
Acosta was one of 20 Hispanic motorists charged by Cumming police during the long Labor Day weekend with driving without a license. Some handed police Mexican driver's licenses -- not valid once a person has resided in Georgia for more than 30 days -- while others just shrugged their shoulders and admitted they had no license.
Of the 324 arrests made by Cumming police so far this year, 180 -- more than half -- have been for driving without a license.
Authorities says it's a sign of the times, when a growing influx of illegal immigrants working low-wage jobs in the region have managed to acquire cars, insurance and tags, but no driver's licenses.
"It's systemic," said Cumming Police Chief Mike Eason. "My concern is we've got this many people who have never gone through the process of learning how to drive in the United States. To me that's the most dangerous thing -- to have someone on the road who doesn't necessarily understand all of our rules."
There are 6.9 million licensed drivers in the state of Georgia, according to the state's Department of Driver Services. There are countless more who are on the roads illegally, police say.
Many of those arrested this year by Cumming police were pulled over for other reasons -- from expired tags to faulty taillights or bad driving, Eason said. They've been nabbed "all over" the city limits, he said.
Eason says liability concerns give him no choice but to take every offender to jail rather than write tickets and turn them loose on the roads. That takes officers off the streets and can seriously hamper resources during road check operations like those done last weekend.
At one location, which the chief asked not be disclosed for tactical reasons, seven Hispanic drivers were caught without licenses in 10 minutes.
"We had to stop," Eason said. "All the (patrol) cars were packed."
Oddly enough, Eason said, most of those caught without licenses have valid tags and insurance. Those things are easier to acquire for illegal immigrants than driver's licenses, and can often be had by paying a middle man, Eason said.
Most of those arrested bond out and eventually pay a fine in municipal court, which starts at $680 locally and can double for each additional offense.
Local authorities can't concern themselves with an arrestee's immigration status, Eason acknowledged. And contacting officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be pointless.
"They're not going to come pick them up for not having a driver's license," Eason said. "If they did, they would have needed a bus last weekend."
The easy solution: Impound the vehicles.
If anyone is caught driving without a license the vehicle is impounded until a $500.00 cash fine is paid, $30.00 a day in storage charges are paid, a valid DL is displayed, and proof of insurance is presented.
No ifs, ands, or buts. If you get caught without a valid license in my town you lose the vehicle and pay the fine.
Now while the paperwork to retrieve the vehicle is being processed the ID used is run through NCIC. The PD in my Village makes a couple felony arrests a month this way, although they have tapered off a bit. It seems word is getting around.
Now this policy has a number of benefits. For one, the Village rakes in a few extra thousand in cash a month. That's always welcome. Second, the word gets around and recently the number of impounds has tapered off as I mentioned above.
Slowly but surely we're making things increasingly uncomfortable for criminal aliens and those who support and exploit them.
You should be demanding your local town council do something along similar lines. Those clowns don't often win their offices by many votes so they tend to be very sensitive to resident concerns.
L
L
As our President says, "They're here to drive cars Americans won't drive."
Which is probably exactly what they'd do to any American citizen.
"No outstanding warrants and Mexican...cut 'em loose!"....
That's what a Pennsylvania law enforcement officer said
the ICE office in Philadelpia told him when called to ask them to
come pick up some detainees.
(that was on O'Reilly a few months ago)
Absolutely! Take them to Laredo and turn them over to the authorities in Nuevo Laredo.
Just make sure the bus driver has a licence!
It sounds like your town has figured out a way to confront the problems of illegal immigrants and incompetent federal government. I think every local government needs to follow your example because the $1,500 suits in Washington have demonstrated their worthlessness. BTW, what is the name of your town and where is it located?
Landlords are required to strictly enforce occupancy limits on the dwellings they rent. Get caught having 10 to an apartment and there's a large fine. Repeat the behavior and they face the loss of their business license.
As a result landlords now regularly inspect the dwellings they rent to make sure there aren't 10 or 15 illegals occupying an apartment meant for 3 or 4.
Public intoxication is another offense that's ruthlessly fined, as is being in common areas of rental properties with open containers of alcohol.
Contractors doing business with the residents of our town are required to hire only bona fide legal labor. If they get caught using illegal labor they face a stiff fine and the loss of their performance bond. Repeat offenders can lose the privilege of doing business in our town altogether.
Slowly but surely things are getting better in the 'problem' areas.
The Gang Enforcement Unit of the PD seems to be getting a handle on a lot of the repeat offenders by simply stopping, frisking, and either ticketing or arresting them on the spot for every single violation they see.
The PD is integrating the Neighborhood Watch programs in to the effort as well. Like I said, slowly but surely things are getting better.
I live in a suburb of Chicago in northern DuPage County btw. We're about 45 miles west of downtown Chicago in the Peoples Republik of Illinois.
L
Are there no school busses there? How hard is this? Cuffs, shackles, belly chain, padlock, put perp in a seat and wait for the bus to fill up, then two or three or four deputies take 'em to the jail. No muss, no fuss.
Thanks for the reply. Apparently your community is out front in realizing that the problem will not be solved by Washington .... or by the state of Illinois for that matter. It will only be solved by local governments who care about their communities and who refuse to be intimidated by the ACLU as the town of Hazelton, Pennsylvania was when it recently enacted enforcement practices similar to yours. Your local politicians and police department are to be commended.
None of this is targetting any particular group of people other than those acting criminally.
No one has a right to cram 10 or 15 people into a 3 room apartment. That's a violation of health and safety codes.
No one has a right to drive without a license or insurance.
No one has a right to hire illegal labor.
Most importantly these ordinances are enforced without regard to ones national origin. There are simply no Constitutional issues involved.
Most of our local cops are good people. The Chief is a real stand up guy. He won't put up with any crap coming from his officers, and he won't defend them if they've done something wrong. He will however go to the mat for them if they're in the right.
The local town council isn't bad either. There's a couple of petty d**kheads, but the majority of them are just concerned residents trying to keep our little Village a decent place to live.
God knows they don't do it for the money. None of them are paid a thing.
Maybe we ought to try that in DC. Humm...nothing but a per diem, no salary at all. That's worth considering.
L
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