Posted on 06/27/2015 4:13:04 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Casey Campbell served two tours in Iraq, but the fight of his life is in California.
After driving without a seat belt and no front plate, he got a $25 traffic ticket that jumped to $300 with assessments and surcharges. Unable to pay in full, the ticket rose to $600, and then $819 when he missed a court date.
The state automatically took his driver's license and turned the ticket over to a collections agency. Police later impounded his car when he drove to work on a suspended license. Unable to make a living, Campbell ended up broke and homeless.
"It was $4,000 for two citations," Campbell said, standing on a street corner in West Los Angeles. "And once the ticket went to collections, the judge said there's nothing he could do. It just snowballed. At a certain point, there's just no way to get back on your feet."
Critics call California's traffic citation system a scam, a money-making racket that has nothing to do with justice. That’s because a typical $100 ticket – say, driving without proof of insurance -- jumps to $290 with state penalties; to $416 with court construction assessments; and to $490 with surcharges for emergency medicine and DNA collection. If you fail to pay the full fine immediately, it adds a $325 penalty, making the cost $815.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Welcome to the left coast of the USSA!
The bastards stole my truck from me. Towed it out of a private parking lot.
It’s another way to raise tax money under the color of law.
Less than 10 miles over the speed limit? $35-$50 max.
Guess I am old-fashioned.
Registered mail is the only way to deal with lying unprosecuted felons.
They'll blow that off as long as they can, also. Took them a week and a half to acknowledge a piece of registered mail from me, once.
I just got done paying a speeding ticket. I did the crime I deserve the ticket. everything that happen to this guy was avoidable. if he had just shown up to court. I live in California. if you cant pay a traffic ticket all you have to do is tell the judge and they give you community service picking up trash on the free way or you can go to an approved agency and do volunteer work. generally it is a lot harder to do the community volunteer work because you do about 2 hours of work for every 15 dollars in fines but it is a alternative if you cant pay.
It shouldn’t matter when it gets there, but when it’s sent. I’m still looking fur my receipt for regular mail.
This is a racket.
Prime example of INIQUITY. Deliberate, gross injustice.
I have SIX of them here in L.A. in 30 DAYS. Challenged 4, won and still trying to hear from the last 2.
Missing license plate, unbuckled, driving while license suspended, skipping court dates ... and I’m supposed to feel sorry for this guy? Fail.
So you don’t have a problem with a $25 ticket costing $300 before anything else happened?
You get the government you vote for.
Thank you. I am so tired of this onslaught of losers trying to claim victim status.
So you don’t have a problem with skipping court dates, then driving while license is suspended?
You may be a vet, and rightfully a source of pride, but your original snarky remark missed the whole point.
Shaking my head, amazed, how people see and make judgements of bigger issues.
They don’t seem to be around when I see multiple red-light runners every day.....and not just slightly red.....extremely red.
I’m going to guess (LOL) that you didn’t even bother to read the reference/linked article, to gather any details, before you posted what you did.
The primary point of the article was:
“After driving without a seat belt and no front plate, he got a $25 traffic ticket that jumped to $300 with assessments and surcharges. Unable to pay in full, the ticket rose to $600, and then $819 when he missed a court date”
Not that it matters given the context of the referenced post...
But since you mentioned it, what exactly, is your proud claim of DOD service?
I ask as a two term USAF veteran.
I’m not going to play dueling DD-214s. The point is that this guy had a major hand in his problems, far past the point of being a victim.
Local and state pols out here see their job as picking pockets and making life difficult. For tax paying citizens, anyway.
Um, most traffic violations are not crimes, but infractions. The courts in CA have more cash registers than Super Walmarts. And the people working in these courts are some of the most arrogant pompous government employees known to mankind, outside of D.C.
Btw, the fines for these infractions have become an obscene public spectacle. Like government at all levels, it's simply reckless and out of control.
You tried to make his and your own veteran status the point, but failed, when I called you on your post.His DD214 wasn't described, but neither was yours.Mine has been public for decades.
How does a $25 ticket turn into a $300 problem so quickly?
And then escalate into license revocation, and end up as a $4000 problem?
If you even have a DD-214, and think this type of crap is just, I wonder who you were fighting for?
I remember a sermon where the illustration was that if the penalty for speeding was death, how fast would you drive? Guess we might be getting close to that.
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