United States News
See other United States News Articles
Title: No one is pettier than government.
Source:
Reason
URL Source: https://reason.com/blog/2017/11/29/ ... e-was-choked-defecated-himself
Published: Nov 29, 2017
Author: Ed Krayewsk
Post Date: 2017-12-01 05:42:15 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 2516
Comments: 49
A Michigan man claims that when he tried to pay a parking ticket in Royal Oak with pennies, a court officer responded by choking him. The attack led him to defecate, he says. The alleged assault was caught on surveillance tape. An attorney for Anthony Sevo says he intends to sue. Sevo was charged with disturbing the peace and assaulting an officer. He plead no contest on the first charge and the latter was dropped. "I don't think anyone paying in penny rolls, whether it's a preferred thing to do for a court clerk, warrants this type of this assaultive behavior and violation of constitutional rights," the lawyer told Fox's Detroit affiliate. The ticket was for just $10. Sevo said he was willing to pay with a credit card, but balked at the processing fee of $1.75—17.5 percent of his fine. By comparison, a 2013 settlement between credit card companies and businesses limited the "swipe fee" merchants could charge to 4 percent. If Royal Oak officials are worried about an influx of coin payers, it can buy an industrial coin counter for about $400. Otherwise, for the occasional coin payment far cheaper options are available. Coin and currency are legal tender for debts, public charges, and taxes. In Pennsylvania a few years ago, one small town learned that the federal regulation it was invoking to reject coin payments had in fact expired half a century earlier. As petty as trying to pay a $10 fine in pennies might be (and as far as paying with pennies goes, that's relatively mild—this year a Virginia man tried to pay $3,000 worth of car taxes in pennies), the government's actions are pettier. But why would anyone expect any different? The residents of Royal Oak don't have a choice of government. Sure, they can vote every few years, but the local bureaucracies remain in place irrespective of who wins. The 44th District Court, where the incident happened, doesn't have to worry about customer service because there's no competitive pressure. Whether or not you're satisfied with them, you're going to have to pay your fines there, and take it. 
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 49.
#6. To: Deckard (#0)
Not even close. When he tried to pay a parking ticket with pennies, the court clerk refused. He was asked to leave the building and was escorted out by two court oficers. On the way out, there was a scuffle and he was restrained. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and disturbing the peace. The assault charge was eventually dropped in a plea agreement that required Sevy to plead no contest to disturbing the peace.
You should be allowed to pay in pennies. It is legal money.
True. And you CAN pay in pennies. But the payee doesn't have to accept pennies. Or personal checks. Or credit cards. Or cash. I once paid a city fine where they only accepted a cashier's check. This story is not an issue of the form of payment offered. It's an issue of the form of payment accepted.
The government has to accept government created money. Don't be stupid. Or it would have to in a just and sane world.
That they should... I agree. On the same token, government should pay this asshole his tax return... in pennies. Some people should treat others the way they would like to be treated. The office clerk collecting the fine, isn't the person who had ANYTHING to do with this asshole parking like a Paultard.
If I were they guy’s boss, I would pay the smart ass punk in unrolled pennies each pay day. Yep, I surely would. I would do that four, five or more times before I fired him. I would not want someone with his attitude working for me.
Unrolled pennies can be recycled for more than the face value. I'm sure your employee would thank you for the raise.
I think you are speaking about the intrinsic value, the value of currency as determined by the weight, composition and prices of its material. If so, then you are talking “only used to be.” Today’s pennies contain 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper, rendering them not much more intrinsically valuable than paper money. Now if you were able to do the nearly impossible thing today and lay you hands on pennies produced in the US between 1909 and 1982 that would be a different story. Those pennies are 95% copper and 5% zinc, the metal “melt” value (at current prices) is 247% of its denominational marketplace value of one-cent. For the copper alone, at $3.72 per pound, the intrinsic value is about 2.5-cents. So if you had 100 pre-1982 pennies in a bag with a face value of $1.00, your bag would contain about $2.50 worth of copper. On a larger scale, a $100 face value worth of pre-1982 pennies would net about $250 worth of copper. Copper is what the penny hoarders really seek. These “copper” pennies are no longer in circulation. People know their value and hoard them. Any way….I didn’t bother to look up the price of zinc, but I don’t think the melt down would be worth the effort and definitely could not be considered profitable. Otherwise, many people would be doing that.
This incident is still on my mind, and I spent some time carefully reviewing the video….maybe we can do it together and then let it go. While reviewing the video, we need to keep in mind that there is no audio and we must also be acutely aware that the video we will be viewing was presented to the media apparently by Anthony Sevy’s attorney….and it has been highly edited to show only what the attorney is trying to prove. The edited video begins – Anthony Sevy is cleared through the security screening at the building entrance where Sevy then takes his coat, puts it on and is given his sack [apparently containing the pennies] to proceed to the clerk’s desk. The video is chopped at this point - The next scene shows Sevy standing between two officers at the clerk’s desk. There is an obvious intended omission in the video to hide the reason why the officers were called to, or decided to go to, the clerk’s desk. We have been restricted from knowing at this point in time why the officers are there. Continuing – As the chopped video starts again, the video shows that Sevy is highly irritated and very boisterous as he is shown making “in-your-face” lively animated remarks to the officer on his right who is apparently trying to escort him out of the building since he is “disturbing the peace” [a charge he later pleaded “no contest” to in a plea bargain]. The video is chopped again - The next scene shows the officer directly behind and in very close proximity to Sevy as he is escorting Sevy out of the office area into the vestibule. [The officer did not follow Sevy out of the building as was erroneously reported another news source]. At this point, the video is blocked by a wall between the time the officer was escorting Sevy through the door into the vestibule on his way to continuing escorting Sevy out towards the front door of the building. As the two emerged from behind the view blocking wall, there may have been push back by Sevy in his effort to prevent being him escorted from the building through the vestibule. The officer has never laid a hand on Sevy until this point. So there can be no logical reason why he did so at this time....other than prevent Sevy from stopping and to force Sevy tp continue towards the front door. The officer can now be seen placing his left hand on the top back of Sevy’s coat and grabbing Sevy by the seat of his trousers to continue forward movement toward the front door. It was at this time Sevy moved to the right in his effort to stay in the building and the officer did an immediate take down which was followed by the arrest of Sevy. The only logical conclusion an intelligent person can make after carefully reviewing the video is that had Sevy continued, without his push back, the incident would not have ended in the embarrassing catastrophe it did for him. Reviewing - Looking at the video, one can see the officer was directly behind Sevy as they passed through the door from the office into the vestibule. As you continue to watch the video, you can see that instead of proceeding towards the front door with the officer directly behind him, Sevy pushed back against the officer and move to the right in an effort not be ejected from the building. These movements by Sevy resulted in an immediate take down by the officer. In summary - It is the decision of this trained and unbiased observer that Sevy was the aggressive instigator of the incident that resulted in his being placed in a take down hold and then arrested for assaulting an officer who was merely trying to get Sevy to leave the building. Hey – The guy was an obnoxious asshole, he fucked up and he paid the price. Now as always when dealing with these crappy individuals….the city will settle out of court and the leech will “live happily ever after” at the expense of taxpayers. There …
That was clearly and blatantly ASSAULT, Cyclops. BY THE CLERK IN THE LOBBY. Better return to your ophthalmologist.
There are no replies to Comment # 49. End Trace Mode for Comment # 49.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestA Michigan man claims that when he tried to pay a parking ticket in Royal Oak with pennies, a court officer responded by choking him.
#9. To: misterwhite (#6)
#10. To: A K A Stone (#9)
You should be allowed to pay in pennies. It is legal money.
#14. To: misterwhite (#10)
#33. To: A K A Stone (#14)
The government has to accept government created money.
#34. To: GrandIsland (#33)
#46. To: Gatlin (#34)
(Edited)
#47. To: A K A Stone (#46)
(Edited)
Unrolled pennies can be recycled for more than the face value. I'm sure your employee would thank you for the raise.
#48. To: Deckard (#47)
#49. To: Gatlin (#48)
(Edited)
Replies to Comment # 49.
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]