Posted on 12/26/2013 5:01:54 PM PST by moonshinner_09
The family of a 72-year-old woman is calling for change after she was arrested for a five-year-old seat belt ticket. “They said, ‘You got a warrant.’ A warrant? A warrant for what?” said Carol Fulscher, the woman arrested. “I never would’ve imagined in a million years that they would’ve arrested a 72-year-old woman,” said Jeanette Byrd, Carol’s daughter. Fulscher, comfortably sitting on her couch at her home in East Moline, was sitting in a jail cell Saturday night, December 21, 2013. “I was frightened to think that she was in a jail cell, with who knows who,” said Byrd. According to the East Moline Police Department public arrest report, East Moline Police brought Fulscher to the Rock Island County Jail at 10:39 p.m. on December 21, 2013. “I couldn’t imagine what she had been arrested for,” said Byrd. Her charge was contempt of court. The reason for the charge was an unpaid seat belt ticket from 2008. “What in the name of time? For a seat belt ticket?” said Fulscher. Fulscher’s sister called East Moline Police when she couldn’t get a hold of her. She asked police to do a well being check. When the East Moline Police officers arrived at Fulscher’s home, they ran her ID and saw the warrant for the ticket. When Fulscher couldn’t pay the ticket, she says they brought her in.
(Excerpt) Read more at wqad.com ...
And as always with these thing the story writer carefully misdirects the situation. Carol was NOT jailed for no wearing her seat belt, she was jailed for not paying her ticket for 5 years. It’s unfortunate she’s got these conditions, but there’s no way for the cops to know that, and maybe her caregivers should have been paying attention.
Or just maybe the cops could have acted with some simple human decency. Sadly that is completely lacking in today’s “law enforcement” droids.
I’m really starting to hate cops. Frigging jack booted tax enforcers is all thy are anymore. I suppose this old woman is lucky there wasn’t a dog around for these mindless thugs with badges to shoot.
We do not see posts as stupid as that on every thread.
What was this unpaid ticket for again, genius?
A fine for what?
Absolutely she was jailed over a seatbelt.
A few years ago in CO, a 78-year-old rancher was locked up and deprived of all of the wealth he’d worked for all of his life because of some of his cattle dying during an unusually cold spring (new animal protection law). That kind of policy has been in practice around the nation for some time already.
So have fun. Enjoy the weather fluctuations, famine, real estate collapse, falling revenues, bond collapse and the like.
The IL side of the Quad Cities is entirely run by liberals. The judge being one as well. As for the cops, it was probably a lot safer to spend their time arresting her, than someone from the guvmint housing east of the John Deere Harvester plant.
Now lets hear why it took the cops 5 years to find her. Wasn’t her address on her Drivers license?
I hoped they used a nightstick... and a taser. ;-)
Oh that one’s easy: late fees. Tickets are after all a revenue stream.
At least he didn’t break her teeth or kick her in the head.
No she was jailed for not paying. If she had been jailed for not wearing her seatbelt they wouldn’t have waited 5 years, if anybody had bothered to find out she had an outstanding fine and paid it she wouldn’t have been jailed. If you get ANY fine and let it rot long enough you’ll land in jail.
They probably could have taken a different path. But understand that’s what happens when fines get left unpaid for years. It’s unfortunate, but a lot of people did the wrong thing getting there.
She was 67 years old when she got the ticket. She forgot. Why would the family check to see if she has any warrants?
The article cites “Contempt of Court.” It is not a criminal or even a municipal charge, but a judicial sanction imposed to preserve the ‘dignity of the tribunal.’ The question I have is whether the seat-belt infraction was a State statute or a municipal code violation. If the latter, then the “Court” arguably would have been a purely municipal organ not enforcing “law” per se, and thus granted very limited police power. The best racket in the country right now is to control a municipality. There are small ones for sale in various places. I’ll be the judge, you be the police chief, and my wife can be the mayor. Drive through my town and you’re in vai-oh-lation.
Did they shoot her dog too? (Just asking)
I’ll bet you she paid that ticket and the warrant issued was bogus.
Because they say she’s demented, so clearly odd behavior has happened for her to take the diagnostic tests necessary. If you’ve got a relative doing stuff odd enough you want their doctor to check them for dementia you probably should do some poking around to see what other stuff they’ve done you don’t know about. Demented seniors are a prime source of income for the Home Shopping Network and that crowd.
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