Originally published at: Defendant's driver license suspended, shows up in a car for court | Boing Boing
…
8 Likes
14 Likes
What the heck is going on in that town? It’s facepalm city there.
15 Likes
This specific case notwithstanding, drivers license suspensions are class warefare.
Most people who get suspensions are massively impacted by it due to it ruining their ability to get to work, childcare/school or even court.
If a suspension is assessed and a court date is set, the court should be obligated to handle the defendant’s transportation, since the defendant has had the means to legally travel to court stripped.
And no, “just use public transport” isn’t acceptible in the US. Public transportation in the US is mostly nonexistent and typically pathetically under built and useless. It’s not a reasonable alternative to driving.
If you are rich then this
- Won’t likely happen to you, because most rich people have their own drivers.
- Won’t be impacted by a suspension because you can afford to just hire a driver to help you anyway.
30 Likes
Yeah, there is just a cascade of issues that happens with a suspension, including making it really, really expensive to get car insurance, even if the suspension was for administrative issues and not a moving violation. Like, 5x times the normal cost of insurance, for the next 7 years.
So, even if a driver does get their license back, they may not be able to afford to use it because of ruinously high insurance rates.
Meanwhile, fines are nothing to rich people.
17 Likes
Maybe an old cliché, but it’s true.
If there’s a fine that just means it’s legal for rich people.
27 Likes
If fines are going to be issued, they should be means tested. Rich people should pay a comparable percentage of their annual income/net worth.
12 Likes
Drivers license suspension based on inability to pay fines is class warfare and needs to go. But cars are still dangerous machines and there does need to be some legal mechanism for removing unsafe drivers from the road.
25 Likes
7 Likes
If you watch the whole video you’ll see that after the judge berates the defendant for sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle while having a suspended license he explains that he was working a construction job that day, that his boss picks him up, and rather than take the call inside of a customer’s house, his boss allowed him to sit inside of his vehicle for the court case.
Later in the hearing the judge notes that large differences between the vehicle the defendant was ticketed in and the vehicle the defendant was currently sitting in and the judge agreed it was likely his boss’ vehicle.
All things considered, seems like this is a case where the defendant was trying to figure out a way to make court and keep his job and didn’t violate the law in doing so.
22 Likes
Judge Middleton doesn’t take kindly to the fact that he’s wearing a cap during the hearing.
Well that couldn’t be any less of the court’s concern.
There were at least three cases in this 70+ minute video. Just gotta say two things… gawd, what a sucky job all these people have, including the judge, the prosecutor, the defense, the court clerk. And two, Ms Davis seems to be a good little prosecutor, always, without fail, recommending jail time to every last one of the defendants.
3 Likes
If I was sitting in the court room for the entire time, watching this unfold, I would have ask the prosecutor “Do you get a commission for every jailed defendant? Also, do you have a financial stake in these cases you are not sharing with the court?”
3 Likes
She does. Every imprisonment, false or otherwise, adds to her stats when she comes up for re-election.
She doesn’t need to explain to the court that it’s in her interest to appear “tough on crime”.
That’s what prosecutors run on in elections. “Tough on crime”. The bigger the number of people she puts in jail the “better” she looks in the voter pamphlet.
I know personally I wouldn’t find “I imprisoned a frankly staggering number of people” to be impressive. But most americans are authoritarian cucks who want a big strong orange man to put them in their place. And they very much want to see “evildoers” punished.
9 Likes
Check out the look on Davis’s face at 8:47 when the judge points out the location of the defendant. It’s rich!
This guy is going to be a burden on society and the taxpayers for years to come.
2 Likes
This seems to be the consequence of using a cell telephone camera with mirror mode turned on.
Meanwhile in Scandinavia, fines are linked to your income.
3 Likes
Obligatory;
5 Likes
