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 ...
Anything California is basically unconstitutional in the scheme of things.
You mean the one where scofflaws whine about the size of fines by declaring them “unconstitutional”? Sort of like gays saying the definition of marriage is “unconstitutional”.
Missed it. Again.
My son was killed by a red light runner. There was no camera there to record it. Too bad the perp walked.
Getting worse, in Beverly Hills and you expect now red lights being blown.
Sorry for what happened to you.
Same in Houston. They installed red light cameras and the problem was getting better. They were voted down, and it is worse than before.
Nobody blows the camera. They blow everything else.
Cameras are just money makers.
Get back to me after a loved one of yours s killed by a red light runner.
If you really need/want to control people’s behavior, and you sound like you do, make the fines a million dollars and 50 years in jail. Problem solved for you Ben.
The red light cameras do nothing IMO and are just income generators for the city and state budget.
Almost none are blown red lights. Tickets are for ticky tack things the cameras catch and that generates a $600 cost to the person who gets one.
What needs to be done is traffic enforcement where the police pick various places to bust people blowing red lights. When they do that for a while the amount of them will decline.
PS: I had my neck broken by a drunk driver who ran a red light.Again, sorry for your loss, but I think policing and not cameras would do a better job of getting the red light issues under control.
Houston had red light cameras for a short while and you could see the situation improving as people began stopping for red lights. It was a learning experience and it was beginning to stop the problem. Now we are back to crashes. Houston cops do hide and give tickets for speeders and red light runners but not enough.
Glad you survived your broken neck my son didn’t survive his.
I see each week driving within ten blocks of where we live on average witness at least 6 blown red lights and about 30 blown red stop signs.
Our city does not ticket J walkers either because we have a large population of Orthodox Jews who on Friday and Saturday use no electricity and can’t tough crossing buttons to cross a street. They abuse J walking to no end.
I don’t know where you live in CA but your cops sound pretty worthless.
People on bicycles are idiots here, stop signs mean nothing to them. They may stop at a red light and then if no one is coming they run on through. When one of them gets killed they paint an old bike white and put it at the site of the accident and call it a “ghost bike”.
Motor cycles are another whole discussion.
Looks like I accidentally stumbled into one of those “I don’t like the law so I ignore it” threads. Guess this law-abiding citizen (most of the time) will just bow out. By the way, the times I was caught outside the law (always vehicle related) I figured I deserved it, learned from the experience, paid my dues and never once bitched about it. Just something about how I was raised I guess......
I was driving on a desert highway, (cool wind in my hair ...) nothing but jack rabbits and Joshua trees on my way to Edwards AFB and this CHP SUV comes out of nowhere and nails me. The road is 15 miles long with with one 55 mph speed limit sign on it - who knew, I thought it had to be at least 65 ...
Beverly Hills, and the people on bikes often drive the wrong way on the sidewalk and try to get themselves killed at the intersections for several reasons. They just APPEAR because they are not following the rules of the road.
There are new cameras going up where old ones were and they will as I said mostly get rolling stop turns, not blowing red lights.
Meanwhile I saw in one minute of driving this morning one blown red light.
On average I see 4 blown lights a day and about 35 blown stop signs a week. Police don’t ticket j-walking and they are not parked around looking to ticket people for blowing lights or signs. THAT would modify behavior IMO, then the idiots would not know when they would be held accountable and would slow down and stop.
I have another place tens of miles east and there is zero stops or red lights seen blown there and we have very active police.
In Beverly Hills there is lots of political pressure and probably some fear of losing their job “my guess”.
Are you saying that the cops will only prosecute the people who make rolling stops around corners and they ignore the ones who blow through the red lights? Is that the way the cameras are set up? How is that even possible, it makes no sense.
Our cities and towns are now occupied by tens of millions here illegally, with more pouring in, while tax payers pay billions for law enforcement agencies to secure our borders. Are these the laws you're referring to?
Or are you referring to laws directed at the legitimate law abiding who actually show up in traffic court?
The latter.....
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