Posted on 12/23/2004 8:55:06 AM PST by MississippiMasterpiece
Getting caught speeding Boulder, Colo., could cost you big time, if the City Council's plan to increase traffic fines gets final approval.
If you're caught speeding 4 to 19 mph over the posted speed limit, you'll pay $500 and if you are speeding at 20 mph or more over the posted speed limit, you'll be slapped with a $1,000 ticket.
The current rates, which haven't been increased since 1982, are $100 and $300 respectively.
Tickets for street racing or eluding police would jump from $300 to $1,000 under the proposal that is expected to get preliminary approval Wednesday night.
City officials said the hefty fines will give judges more bargaining power when they accept plea bargains and they hope will make motorists think twice before breaking the law.
Tickets for street racing or eluding police would jump from $300 to $1,000.
I am sure those who are trying to elude police, will be reeaally thinking about the increased fine
If I were a cop, I'd nail the city council members first.
4 miles over? Sorry, m'aam it's the law...
Perhaps too many folks were paying the fine rather than paying to get the ticket fixed.
Just wait for a cop sitting down on a hill and clocks the driver going just four miles over the speed limit with out even touching the accelirator. What is the driver supposed to do, ride the brakes?
ACK! I got a visual!
That would be a defense except so many "unconstitutional" laws are legal by virtue of the need for revenue. I note that the council considers the fine to be a tool for plea bargaining. That's known by another name, extortion.
The problem with many local governments is that morons are elected to positions of power that they do not understand, my little city included. It's fun to be a council person. They want to be one forever. They need issues to run on. If there aren't any, they will make up some. Just collecting the trash, keeping the water clean and maintaining the streets are no longer considered as doing ones elected responsibility. Every council person, in every town in America, wants a law to name after themselves.
Boulder, like a lot of cities in America, needs to form an independent city charter committee and begin reigning these power hungry morons that wind up on city councils.
You get every public health program available and a medal of commendation.
If she sat on the gear shift...it wasn't labor, and by definition..it can't be "premature"
"Driving is a privilege not a right" This is bull crap. By your definition then buying a home is a privilege. Buying a gun is a privilege. Every damn thing we do is by permission of government. Have we lost it? Damn straight we have.
The fine for bitch slapping a city councilman is a whole lot cheaper I hear........
Amen to that.
It was Finland. This is what living next to the bear will do to you...
"Tue Feb 10, 8:54 AM ET HELSINKI (Reuters) - One of Finland's richest men has been fined a record 170,000 euros ($217,000) for speeding through the center of the capital, police said on Tuesday. Jussi Salonoja, 27, heir to his family's sausage business, was caught driving 50 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone last Thursday, the police said. "
"At'sa some-a spicy sausage" (Said in a bad TV Italian accent)
If I read the article correctly, the cap that judges are going to be allowed is being raised.
In FL the "cap" is $600.00 but the actual ticket may be less. This kicks in when a person takes it to trial and looses. Such sky high plea bargains are usually in a deal worked out to keep points off a license/insurance from going up.
Besides what is a CITY doing with raising court fines? Should this not be resting with the state legislature?
Besides how does one excuse anything over 100mph?
But $500 for going 4 mph over the speed limit? I suspect there is not a person here who is not a criminal by this standard. I for one am a multiple repeat offender.
"Slow down-o next time-o, ok-o?"
There is a legal (see financial) reason for priviledge not right.
A right requires far more civil rights be accomodated. Jurry trials, public defenders, prosecutors (some municipalities do not even use prosecutors), court reporting and so on.
Since this "priviledge" is not a right and is generally a civil infraction with only money being the penalty, the governments can collect cash without incurring the expense of a full blown court system.
If you are getting popped for going 4 miles over the speed limit on a highway then you are being stopped for having the wrong skin pigment. (aka DWB)
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