Posted on 01/14/2020 9:22:37 AM PST by artichokegrower
Turning right on a red light without fully stopping will cost you $500 in California. Parking blocking a wheelchair access curb could get you a $1,100 ticket. Is your license plate paint peeling? Some car owners have been hit with a $1,000 ticket for that.
State officials who set those fees are now acknowledging that the high amounts are threatening the financial stability of lower-income drivers who cant afford to pay those amounts.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I’ve always heard it as a “ Hollywood Stop”.
Progressive traffic fines. Charging people according to their ability to pay, not according to the offense. That’s a pantload of socialism.
So, they have raised fines to ridiculous levels and discovered that they’re getting less revenue. So their solution is to keep sticking it to the so-called rich and lower the fines for the so-called poor. When in reality they should have lowered the fines for everyone. This is basically the admission that traffic fines in California are strictly for revenue, not at all for safety. I’m so surprised.
Carrying this to its logical extreme, California should have longer jail sentences for people with more money and shorter sentences for people with less money when they commit the same crime.
There’s not a bit of difference between that and this traffic fine business.
From what I read they would “backfill” (thats the word they used!) from General Funds the amount not paid by a driver who is given a discounted amount to pay as opposed to the original fine . So in essence the general public pays the balance...how insane my state of birth (1961 San Jose) is ...
People are now complaining that punitive fines are punitive? How about parking the car properly, or stop before turning on a red light?
That would result in a 100% reduction in the fine.
-PJ
—It is actually called a California stop.
In California, it’s called a “Hollywood stop”.
In Hollywood, it’s called a “stop”, as in “I did too stop!”.
This has been going on for decades in California.
About 20 years ago, a MD friend was rear ended by a beaner mobile old/rusty pickup, loaded with the south of the border types.
They got out of the pickup and went to the side of the road beyond were the accident was. Then, they hitchhiked out of the area,leaving their pickup. No one checked on our MD friend.
Our MD friend was still in his vehicle with a severe neck injury. Being a doctor, he told him self not to move with a neck injury.
In about 3-5 minutes, all of the passengers in their now disabled/abandoned pickup had caught rides and left the area.
Finally a cop came up and told the doctor to move the vehicle, the MD told the cop to order an ambulance or he would sue the cop in civil court. The ambulance had to come down the opposite lane of the 4 lane road.
They put a neck brace on his neck and took him to the nearest emergency room. He was in a neck brace for months.
His relatively new vehicle was totaled, and the city tried to charge him with towing away the pickup that rammed him.
His BIL was a high end sue them and win lawyer, and he got that bs cancelled. The insurance company tried to back out of their uninsured driver of the other car policy until his BIL had a closed door session with them.
Since then all of our vehicles have the uninsured other guy/driver policy, and we have the card of the MD’s BIL lawyer.
Why would they pay for a ticket when they probably didn’t pay for a drivers license, tags or insurance? It seems that very few people bother with getting any of the “required” documentation anymore.
Law enforcement is becoming an oxymoron.
Equal protection went away long ago. Hispanics can be drunk drivers and repeatedly offend. Cops let them loose because they dont want bring charges against people who may be here illegally.
The fines today are about revenue and not safety
Most of the posters here are complaining about the putative triviality of these traffic offenses - but I find the unequal application of law much more worrisome!
Regards,
Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
I think I’ll start looking around for a BIL lawyer. As the referee says before a boxing match: “Gentlemen, protect yourself at all times”.
Its a rolling stop. Preserves momentum and equipment
It’ll be the poor, the homeless and the illegals that will be the hardest hit here.
Therefore, they WON’T enforce this (bleep).
I find the unequal application of law much more worrisome!
************
As do I. It seems that, in addition to the obvious case of Washington DC, other areas of the country are also justice free zones. I find this trend very disturbing and dangerous.
If you are a citizen you must provide a Social Security number when applying for a California drivers license. If you are illegal you do not. If you are a citizen and dont pay your child support they will use this info and suspend your license. If you are illegal you are exempt from this action
Revenue from fines should never be considered part on any budget and should never be relied on. It should be considered surplus money.
An yes, the unequal protection under the law is the most worrisome aspect.
Do you really think that “lower-income drivers” will ever be forced to pay the fee? The ones who get licenses and are not citizens?
Anarcho-tyranny. You will get the fine. Criminals will get the break.
Our last visit was entirely spent using public transportation across San Francisco and beyond.
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