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Title: Jerry Brown Pushes Traffic Debt ‘Amnesty’ for Poor: ‘It’s a Hellhole of Desperation’
Source:
Breitbart
URL Source: http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern ... its-a-hellhole-of-desperation/
Published: May 24, 2015
Author: Daniel Nussbaum
Post Date: 2015-05-25 07:36:09 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1074
Comments: 11
According to the Associated Press, Brown’s plan would see fines issued for minor traffic violations cut in half, while the administrative fees associated with the fines would be dropped from $300 to $50. California has reportedly suspended roughly 4.8 million driver’s licenses since 2006 over failure to pay fines associated with traffic violations. In an April report titled, “Not Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California,” the Western Center on Law and Poverty outlined the ways in which it claims the state’s traffic court system disproportionately affects low-income residents. “Due to increased fines and fees and reduced access to courts, more than four million Californians have suspended driver’s licenses,” the report states. “These suspensions make it harder for people to get and keep jobs, harm credit ratings and raise public safety concerns. Ultimately they keep people in long cycles of poverty that are difficult if not impossible for many to overcome.” “California has sadly become a pay-t0-play court system,” WCLP legislative advocate Michael Herald, who helped author the report, told the Associated Press. According to the AP, the fine for a red-light violation is now a staggering $490, up from $103 twenty years ago. The added fees go toward supporting social services like court construction and medical services. And the hefty fines grow even larger when those ticketed fail to pay. “The fines and assessments being collected by the courts have increasingly been used not as a penalty for the violation, but as a source of revenue to fund government operations, including the courts,” the WCLP report found. “How do you expect to pay something when you have no job, and you can’t get a job without your license?” 31-year-old Oakland resident Michael Armas told the AP. Armas said that as a result of failing to pay for minor traffic violations like using a cellphone while driving and failing to properly display his license plate, his fines have reached a total of $4,500. In a statement, Brown called the traffic court system a “hellhole of desperation” for California’s poor. “It’s a hellhole of desperation and I think this amnesty can be a very good thing to both bring in money, to give people a chance to kind of pay at a discount,” Brown said. In February, Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) introduced Senate Bill 405, which would allow those with suspended licenses to keep their driving privileges if they agreed to pay reduced fines determined on a sliding scale. “The whole fee system is out of whack, and for poor people, you make a choice between feeding your family or paying your rent or paying for a $63 parking ticket that turns out to be $300 in 60 days,” Hertzberg told CBS Los Angeles’ KNX 1070 radio station last month. Brown spokesman Evan Westrup told the AP that the governor’s administration and the Justice Department have held discussions about overhauling California’s traffic court system. It was not immediately clear whether the Justice Department had launched an official investigation into the courts.
Gov. Jerry Brown is calling for an amnesty program for poor California residents who cannot afford to pay debts accrued through traffic violations after a blistering report from a nonprofit law firm concluded that the state is profiting off of minorities and low-income residents.
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#1. To: cranky (#0)
If you can't pay the fine, don't do the crime. It's scofflaws like this - those with a broken tail light, unapproved window tint, no license plate light, and other serious violations who need to shut the hell up and do as they are told. This yellow journalism hit piece against our brave men in blue, the ones who deal with these hard-core criminals every day should not be allowed to be posted here.
Mandatory insurance is a very big piece of the problem. No insurance and get a ticket, pay $1,000+ or lose your license. Next time you are caught driving without a license and insurance, bigger fines maybe even serious jail time and more fines. I get the other side of the argument, I have insurance to protect myself, why shouldn't others suffer. The thing is the States fix it in a "no fault" manner. Your insurance pays the other guys damage, his insurance fixes yours. In a system where if you have insurance, YOUR insurance pays for your repairs and personal injuries makes more sense. Simply put, no insurance, no car repairs, foot your own injury problems. I know this means that taxpayers end up paying the bills for the injured non-insured, but they do anyway and socialized medicine ain't goin away. All the mandatory insurance laws do is make billions for insurance companies, and drive up rates that the working poor cannot afford. Insurance is a scam, it has always been a scam and it always will be. If you want it, get it. If you want the protection, it is out there. Mandatory auto insurance laws go against the grain of Liberty as surely as mandatory health insurance.
I agree. IF the individual escrows a certain amount (say $1 million) to pay for damages or injuries they may cause while driving. But if you can afford to drive (the cost of the car, gas, oil, maintenance, tolls, parking, etc.) you can afford $20 per month for liability insurance.
$20???? I am paying over a hundred a month. One ticket on the record, no DUI's, just for liability and medical 2 cars, 2 drivers. Wife is over 50 too, with zero tickets on her record. We can get it down to just below $100, but we like our carrier. My car is a mini-van, hers a Camry. If it is one car, it drops to around $80. Assuming a 25 year old driver, with a job and no tickets, I can safely assume they would be paying about $150 for similar coverage. That is a long way from $20 for a struggling young man paying $1,000 a month for rent, gas probably $200 per month, then power, water, food, clothing, health insurance. He would need to make at least $15 an hour just to skate by on a full time job. Then there are taxes. What next? Mandatory personal liability insurance for sexual harrassment? Or insurance in case you bean somebody in the head with a frisbee? The right to travel is at least implied within our Constitutional system, and without a car you are limited to living in a large city or walking to a job. I would argue till the cows come home about mandatory auto insurance. It is a sweet deal for government, and a guarantee of profits for private companies that provide it.
#10. To: jeremiad (#9)
I pulled out my State Farm policies. I'm paying $1,000 per year. Two cars. Full coverage. Call it $90 per month for two cars. BUT, that's full coverage -- damage to my car, their car, other property, my medical, their medical, uninsured motorist, etc. Strip it down. Require them to have insurance only to cover damage to my car and my medical. The rate is cut in half. Close to $20 per month for one car. As I said. Now, if you want to dick around with the numbers by creating a hypothetical 21-year-old with DUI's and a bad driving record, yeah, he's going to pay more. But $20, $30, or even $40 per month is, what, one fill-up? No excuse not to have insurance, especially given all the other costs of driving. They manage to find the monthly insurance premium when ordered by a judge, don't they? Pisses me off. They'll put someone in the hospital, possibly unable to work again, total their car, and their attitude is, "So sue me. I don't have anything." And your only concern is that we may be "going against the grain of Liberty"? What about the "grain of personal responsibility"?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latestfailing to properly display his license plate,
#4. To: Deckard (#1)
#6. To: jeremiad (#4)
"Mandatory auto insurance laws go against the grain of Liberty ..."
#9. To: misterwhite (#6)
Replies to Comment # 9. "I am paying over a hundred a month. One ticket on the record, no DUI's, just for liability and medical 2 cars, 2 drivers."
End Trace Mode for Comment # 9.
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