Posted on 11/07/2015 4:41:30 PM PST by RKBA Democrat
Full title: How to steal $75,000 from the poor in one Day's work - traffic court is a tax collection scheme masked as justice
The new liberality concerning marijuana possession in the United States is long overdue, but let’s not exaggerate how much progress we’ve made. Users might not be ending up in jail as frequently as they did 10 years ago. But cops, judges, and courts still exercise arbitrary power to ruin people’s lives, and they continue to do so at astonishing rates, all over the country.
I recently saw this firsthand. I sat in a municipal traffic court from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., awaiting my own time with the judge for a petty moving violation. I was there with 150 other people, gathering cobwebs as the judge took his sweet time and shamed people as they stood at the bench and humbly submitted to his rule.
No phones or computers are allowed in court. My iPad was not allowed, either. Once you enter through the metal detector, you are trapped for the duration. There is no contacting anyone. For most people today, this would be the only time in their lives when such contact is forbidden. This rule contributes to the feeling of being controlled by and subjected to power.
You just have to wait your turn, even if it takes eight hours. So there we sat.
Not one person in this courtroom had harmed anyone. Not one. They had not stolen anything, had not mugged anyone, had not caused any car wrecks. And yet there they were, facing torment at the hands of a judge drunk on power and a criminal-justice system that is out of control.
Most of my fellow criminals were poor, young, black men who had been stopped for some traffic violation and then booked for a different, unrelated offense. Why the lopsided demographics? Were these people targeted? It would be hard to prove, but it seems highly likely.
The supposed crimes called out by the judge were all over the map: there was too much tinting on the windows, the license plate light was burned out, the vehicle was following too closely, the driver was speeding (of course), the car had expired tags, the driver wasn’t carrying proof of active insurance, and so on.
Each person was fined between $500 and $3,000, and always on a plea bargain. They admitted guilt for something in exchange for paying a reduced fine.
For example, the judge dismissed my one charge (not complying with the “move over†rule — which requires a drive to switch lanes away from a patrol car on the shoulder — a rule I didn’t know existed) and I admitted guilt for something that wasn’t even true: driving without my license. In fact, I did have my license, so the form I signed was a lie that the judge had me tell. By what understanding of justice does the court blackmail you to admit to crimes you didn’t commit?
Fully one-third of these people had been dragged in for pot possession. In the typical scenario, a cop would stop a car on a rural stretch for some minor moving violation. The cop would claim to smell pot, which constitutes probable cause, and initiate a thorough search of the car. The cop would find a pipe or some pot, arrest the person, and then issue a few other tickets in addition, for things like no proof of insurance, a burnt-out taillight, and so on. But it was the pot charge that had landed these drivers in front of the judge.
Repeatedly, the judge reminded the accused, “We are not in Colorado. In the state of Georgia, your offense carries with it a 12-month prison sentence.â€
The judge then said he would not send the person to jail. He dismissed a few other charges, thereby positioning himself as a merciful public servant. He was then in a position to get any of these poor souls to admit guilt for anything as long as they would get a lesser sentence.
Everyone was fined. But some punishments went further. The pot criminals were required to do 50 to 100 hours of community service, taking away time from school, work, and family. They now have to attend classes on the dangers of drugs (I’m sure those work!). They also must submit to six months of drug testing to make sure they are not consuming this dangerous substance. They prove this by sending in urine samples. Now I understand why there is such a burgeoning market for synthetic urine.
They also get a criminal record.
Then there’s the fine. Most people could not pay hundreds or thousands of dollars on the spot. The judge gave them one month to cough up the money. Where are these poor people going to get that kind of money? One solution that immediately occurred to me: they could get into the drug business temporarily. Another option: steal the money. How much crime is being brought about through these fines?
Then there were the DUI charges, which carried stiffer penalties, including suspension of licenses. Probably one-third of the people were there to deal with that problem. Again, there was no evidence in the courtroom that middle-class white people have ever gotten behind the wheel after consuming too much alcohol. This courtroom gave a strong impression that the only drunk drivers are young black men.
Stuck in this room for eight-plus hours, without a computer or other reading material, the only thing I could do was count the fines. I came up with an estimate of $75,000 collected on that day. And the judge was brazen about it all.
He kept asking each person, “When are you going to pay me?â€
Despite this appalling display, everyone treated the judge as some kind of great man. Court employees laughed uproariously at his terrible jokes, nodded in agreement when he would moralize about pot, and complied with his every command. I think he believed he was doing good for the community, based on the many ways in which he congratulated himself on his dedicated work.
The whole system is clearly a tax-collection scheme masked as justice. In the end, what this court wanted was money, and the people it squeezed were the least able to pay.
What I saw rivaled the worst forms of petty tyrannies I've read about in history books: how tyrannical kings would use every trick to pillage the population of their meager resources. I very much doubt that there is anything unusual about what I saw. It probably goes on every day in your town, too.
Not one person in that room needed to be mixed up with the court system. None of the money and time they gave up deserved to be taken. A true dispenser of justice would have flung open the doors and set the captives free.
Instead, they were subjected to an excruciating, pillaging, and humiliating system that barely masks its true nature.
And we wonder why so many people are unhappy with the system.
Commit the crime and there are consequences as long as what was done was illegal. Dont like the consequences? Work on getting the law changed. It happens. Laws can be changed. The judge was just doing what he had to do as required by the current laws passed by your representatives after hearings and signed into effect by your Governor or county officials, or city council. That’s the way laws and ordinances work here. Don’t like it? Change it. You have the power to do so.
Monetary fines are unjust.
A stiff fine punishes the poor severely while it is no punishment at all for the rich.
Community service punishes everyone equally as our time is equally valuable to all.
Never, ever go to court without your own attorney. No mention at all of anyone, including the author, having their own attorney.
Freedom isn’t free, and that applies to going before a judge as well.
Monetary fines are unjust.
Caning is the correct answer!
Put it on pay per view!
Caning: corporal punishment in Singapore (Graphic)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c9_1304013159
The officer administering the caning takes up position beside the frame and delivers the number of strokes specified in the sentence, at intervals of 10 to 15 seconds. He is required to put his full force into each stroke. The strokes are administered all in one caning session, unless the medical officer certifies that the inmate cannot receive any more strokes because of his condition, in which case the rest of the strokes are converted to additional prison time.
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c9_1304013159#rtjpLiycrxmBe9Hi.99
A stiff fine punishes the poor severely while it is no punishment at all for the rich.
Community service punishes everyone equally as our time is equally valuable to all.
_______________
Community service fines are about who you know who will sign it off for you.
Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.
Insane public union pensions will be paid.
That is all you really need to know.
Singapore on my last visit in March 2014, was easily the cleanest, safest, and most orderly large city I have seen in 40 years, and I have visited large cities in England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Germany, former Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, Grenada, Cayman Islands, Saint Martens, Egypt, Bahrain, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. Stockholm comes close in cleanliness to Singapore.
The underground Highway in Singapore linking airport to cruise terminal is amazing, the airport had 50 PC’s for use by passengers with free internet access, The beautiful and large Golden Gardens Park did not have any litter, and I was told by our tourist guide that every 6th citizen of Singapore is a millionaire. I love visiting Singapore. Great food at reasonable prices.
It is my dream country to visit
The only pleasant court appearance is the one you avoid.
Everybody gets the opportunity to be young and stupid before a judge.
Not everyone gets the opportunity to be young and stupid before the world. The author is certainly making the most of his special opportunity!
I believe our republican form of government is fatally flawed.
From city councils to legislatures to the President, all are tasked with passing laws. That’s what they do, or be called do-nothing slackers.
This gives us more & more laws, millions of pages of laws. My state’s murder law is 20,000 words. Every year more laws are added. Laws are rarely repealed.
How is a citizen to remain law abiding? How can he even know what the law is? With so many laws doesn’t it become selective enforcement prone to various types of abuse?
And criminal penalties for non-violent crimes are ridiculously severe. A beach I know has a sign warning of a $10,000 fine & a year in jail for walking your dog there. WTH is that?
This is just creeping tyranny; government controlled chaos that it can mete out to anyone it chooses, often motivated by greed & revenge.
Hope you get to visit soon. They do NOT coddle criminals in Singapore. Drug dealers get death sentences based on posters everywhere. There are no food stamps or unemployment checks for able bodied adults under 65. Every body works!
Georgia.
I watch a lot of youtube videos regarding car crashes, pull-overs, etc. I’ve learned to avoid Georgia like the plague. My favorite one is the elderly couple with out of state plates stopped for - get this - windows tinted too dark. This, even though it was the factory tint and, in fact, it wasn’t too dark. But his tool said it was and that was that.
And there they are, in front of the cop car for the dash cam, while the cops take 30 minutes searching their car for drugs and money - which they do not find - while the man is in serious pain because he’s just had hip replacement surgery.
I drive an FR-S with everything legal and no window tint but I have little doubt they would try to pull me over. And there is no way I would submit to a search. So I stay away from that state.
BTW, I was pulled over in Chicago and they actually called the K-9 for a sniff down. I was joking with the cop as we waited and said that I haven’t touched the stuff since 1977. I was in the car with my maltipoo at 11:00 Thanksgiving eve, having driven 7 hours from our home in Kentucky to surprise my wife who was visiting the grand kids.
They were almost embarrassed that they had called the K-9 because it was obvious I was clean as a whistle. But I was driving like a maniac in my Scion FR-S, trying to find my way back on the freeway (gps had gotten me off in a bad neighborhood) and they sent me on my way and told me to be careful. I think they thought I was some local drug dealer, in spite of my KY plates, until they talked to me...
That is a very good point. I hadn’t looked at that angle. We get back a little of what the government took from us at the point of a gun.
Only time I have spent time in a court is serving Jury duty in Dupage county, Illinois. It was very pleasant experience. 5 days of sitting in the lounge, watching TV, playing cards, drinking free coffee & snacks, waiting to be picked on Jury. Got called in on last day and was picked on Jury panel. 2-3 hour trial for an older man charged with possession of Hashish & resisting arrest.
Hey, numbnuts writer...you think traffic court is bad... Come to family court, where no request for an increase in child support is ever denied, even if the poor SOB doesn’t have a job, can’t get one because his license was revoked because he couldn’t pay what was ordered before. There is no requirement to spend the money on the kids and absolutely no accounting for any of that money.
Yeah, we all understand traffic court is a revenue enhancement scheme. It’s been that way forever and is unlikely to change. The number of Black males indicates that it was an urban area...instead of the suburbs or rural municipalities. They are just as bad and full of poor white trash.
The author sounds like a spoiled child. If you don’t’ want to pay the fine, obey the law. It’s not that hard.
My job was on Chicago’s southeast corner and I lived in Western suburbs. I must have been stopped a dozen times because my car did not have a city vehicle sticker. I did not need it because I did not live in the city. But as soon as the cop saw my driver’s license, they had to let me go immediately. Only 1 time cop asked me to open the trunk.
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