Posted on 05/06/2015 8:03:59 PM PDT by 11th_VA
To the editor: The 8th Amendment to the U.S Constitution forbids imposing excessive fines. Courts have found a fine to be excessive when it is arbitrary, capricious or "so grossly excessive as to amount to a deprivation of property without due process of law."
The California Vehicle Code fine structure apparently meets this standard. However, if violators were provided the option of performing community service to work off their fines, the financial impact could be substantially reduced, thereby resolving the 8th Amendment issue.
Further, for the most part, the money raised from the add-on charges is being used to fund programs that are unrelated to the underlying violations and are traditionally funded by taxes through the state's general fund. The add-on fines are imposed to increase state revenues and are therefore underground taxes imposed without the required legislative processes.
If so, the imposition of these assessments must be halted, and those who have been improperly taxed deserve a refund.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The point. You missed it.
Do the illegals get public assistance to pay traffic fines?
What’s “driving” this issue is that now the illegals with licenses cannot pay the fines. The push is to expose the unfairness of the fines on the poor illegals and to begin a reassessment/reduction based on that.
Exactly: @latstevelopezIs $197 too much to pay for crossing the street?:
Hundreds of readers responded to my column about 22-year-old Glendale Community College student-athlete Eduardo Lopez, who was on his way to school when he got smacked with a $197 ticket for entering a crosswalk after the flashing countdown had begun...
...a recent report by several civil rights groups that outlined how citations push people deeper into poverty and result in suspended licenses...
Illegals don’t pay them either.
And a misdemeanor arrest warrant on your permanent record if you are found to have driven reckless in Virginia. So forever after on all those forms where they ask “have you ever been arrested for a misdemeanor”, you have to write “yes”.
No thank you.
I miss the $10 on the spot fine.
“Campbell is not without compassion. In an unusual case Wednesday, he suspended jail time in favor of community service for a man who was going 92 mph. The man had a clean record for more than 20 years, cooperated with the officer, went to driver improvement school before appearing in court”
“For the last three years,”
1997 to 1999 ....
It’s a long story - I had to face Judge Campbell and got my license suspended for 60 days. They published the story about a week after I got my ticket and I sweated going to court for months. That’s how I knew the story was in the Washington Post archive.
Suspended for 60 days - I was doing 86 mph in a 65 mph zone - 21 miles over speed limit with a clean record.
When I went to court there was a hippie in front of me wearing buckskin outfit he hadn’t changed in years - Judge Campbell was super compassionate to him and the Hispanic truck driver after him. But when he got to me, he went ballistic - I never should have tried to defend myself.
5 miles over the speed limit is a $350-$400 ticket.
If you don’t do traffic school your insurance can with a ticket cost you lots of money, so you have to spend $200 for the privilege of going to traffic school. That is a waste of a day and this can possibly go OVER $600.
I plan to retire to Thailand (Chiang Mai) within a couple of years. The corruption there is more out in the open, but you can at least pay $10.00 or $20.00 for a Red Light violation on the spot in most cases.
I believe Red Light violations in California are posted as being a $490.00 fine, not to mention your insurance getting jacked up as well.
Or maybe that's the fine for carpool violations, another scam. Nobody uses those lanes and they create more traffic by trying to force people to rideshare.
Social engineering failure.
I recently got caught doing 15 mph over the limit in North Dakota - $15 fine, no joke. If the Mosquitos weren’t so big there and the winters weren’t so cold, I’d think about moving there.
Courts in CA have more cash registers than a Super Walmart.
People are taking out traffic fine loans.
Cameras as well.
Beverly Hills Court closed for lack of funds.
The state is out of control.
I just got done paying a 234 dollar speeding ticket in California. I was guilty and deserved it. what got me was that they charged me 5 dollars to pay on line and if I wanted to do traffic school there was an additional 65 dollar charge for the privilege of going to traffic school. if I go to a web site to take a internet traffic school course itb is an additional 20 dollars for the course. all of this for going 82 miles per hour in a 65 mp hour zone. I ended up not doing the traffic school because I could barley afford paying the ticket. all I have is liability son my car so I don’t see my insurance going up to much for the infraction. If the court was reasonable on the administration fee for traffic school I would of don it.
Just call it a tax - the Times will support it then.
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