Posted on 12/26/2013 5:01:54 PM PST by moonshinner_09
Considering the costs of incarceration, and any special measures they had to take for an elderly woman with dementia...it was stupid to arrest her for such a minor ticket. They end up spending more on jailing her than the ticket
Reason why folks need to pay attention to their local governments, for they elect the folks that run the police and prosecutors. If folks vote more less of this nonsense happens
That’s generally the long term side effect of failure to appear, so probably the ticket resulted in a court date, she never showed up, which got the ball rolling. The article doesn’t have them chasing her, basically it looks like a bench warrant got issued, but for something this size those bench warrants generally mean the next time cops interact with them they get arrested (my nephew-in-law hobbies in failure to appear, I’ve learned a lot about how this goes), then eventually her sister calls for a welfare check... and walla there’s your next time the cops interact with them.
Lot’s of unfortunate happenings and lack of happenings. I certainly don’t think she belongs in jail, but that’s how these things unwind sometimes.
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.
Yes, that sums it up nicely.
There is an inadvertently very disturbing series on A & E. One of those cop ride along shows. This one is named ‘Marshall Law Texas’. The name itself, while meant to be a clever pun by the TV land types is chilling. The show is supposed to display what a simply wonderful group of people the Houston, Texas US Marshall's Service office is staffed with. In reality the persons and a lot of the operations they launch should enrage any US citizen who vaguely remembers what 1776 and the Constitution are about. A number of the Deputy Marshall’s are either outright thugs or power tripping head cases. One particularly Brownshirt type likes to be called ‘Thor’ and announces loudly how he enjoys ‘hammering’ those he deals with. Another weaselly little Mexican is shown setting up a ‘dynamic entry’ operation to arrest someone who allegedly committed spousal abuse. These people certainly remind one of Wellington's remark on looking at a flock of press ganged jail birds sent to fill the ranks of his army on the peninsula, “I hope they scare the French half as much as they scare me’.
I bet jaywalking will result in a felony soon with prison time.
All government is force; bottom line.
You can argue whether it was an arrest for an unpaid fine or for a seat belt violation, it adds up to the same thing.
Why would anyone call the police? They come out and investigate you. Her sister was concerned about her. I’m very hesitant to call the authorities over anything. They always gather the caller’s info before assessing the situation.
Is running an ID SOP for a "well being check?" Why? It looks like a shakedown operation.
How could they check? Have you ever tried to run yourself for warrants? I don't think I can, and I'm sure not going to ask someone who can to do it for me, I could be arrested. Like the lady in the story.
To keep the assignment, one must serve warrants.
The city or town benefits. The aggressive servers of warrants benefit. The clerks and courts benefit.
The federal gubmint benefits....call it “training and grooming”.
Grandma???
Just because government rewards and gives prizes to tens of millions of illegals running though our streets, it’s no excuse not to arrest and cage demented grandma for failing to pay her seat belt fine.
The could have shot her dog and tased her....
She lucky and hopefully she’ll do what’s right in the future.
The real question here is .... did they shoot her new 4 month old Christmas puppy before they tased and cuffed her?
It was a welfare check. The cops could have used a little common sense and told the relative about the ticket without arresting her. How much taxpayers’ money will be wasted with her time in jail and court date compared to informing the family about the citation?
She may not have even been the one who got it. I went to renew my DL in one state and it was ‘held up’. I went to HS with the DMV person, he whispered to me ‘check such and such state’.
So I did.
I had an outstanding parking ticket issued in that state and a warrant had been issued for my arrest! From the previous year.
Problem was. I hadn’t been in that particular state, or within 2K miles of that state in over a 5 years. And could prove it.
I called the state in question and informed them I had PROOF I wasn’t in their state or anywhere near it (work records, etc, that placed me 2K miles away on the day that I’d supposedly parked in a tow zone). Not only that, the car in question had been tagged in another state for 4 years prior. I got an instant apology. I sweetly insisted on a notarized document to that effect (and actually got it!).
I suspect when I moved from that state and re-tagged my car in the new state (and sent the old tag back to the previous state) my tag was ‘re-issued’ by someone ‘under the table’. And that new person had parked in a tow zone. Or some meter maid had transposed the number/letters on some random tag and the computer system had associated it with MY name/address.
I still have that notarized letter in my safe deposit box, btw.
If I hadn’t gone to HS with the DMZ dude I would have probably spent at least a night in jail and/or been extradited to the previous state. It would have been VERY legally expensive for me to fight that. All the while I was 100% totally and completely innocent of ANY of the charges, having been two THOUSAND miles away when the infraction occurred.
Any questions?
” If you get ANY fine and let it rot long enough you’ll land in jail.”
Debtors prison? There was a thread about this earlier today
or shoot her dog
On the way to the arrest, police passed dozens of obvious illegal aliens.
Around here, thousands of criminals are released with very little jail-time supposedly due to budget constraints. Many other criminals serve no jail-time, not a minute at all. And many of these are guilty of bad crimes, but don't include failure to wear a seatbelt.
No, they can’t. It’s a CYA nation now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.