Woman arrested and handcuffed in Georgia for driving with a Canadian license

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/07/woman-arrested-and-handcuffed.html

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Dear officer, thanks for proving to the rest of the world they shouldn’t spend their dollars here. Be it for tourism or school. Good going asshole.

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I sure do hope there’s a lawsuit in their near future.

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Never attribute to the evil or stupidity of US cops what can be attributed to both.

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Sounds to me like the cop was fishing for stuff to “confiscate”.

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There’s a lesson here, but eludes me.

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People! People! This is progress! I mean, she wasn’t shot or beaten for driving while… (skims article)
Oh, she’s white? Well I’m sure justice will be done. ahem

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Don’t cops have laptops in their cars? One quick search and she could have been on her way.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/international-programs/reciprocity-and-recognition-united-states-and-canadian-commercial-drivers

Negligence

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Something very very similar (so similar as to be the actual Canadian in question?) was posted a month ago on Reddit’s r/legaladvice: Arrested and jailed in Georgia because my Ontario Licence was not “valid.”
The ensuing discussion may be of interest.

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Admittedly, being a student probably implies establishing a US residence for a long enough period of time that getting a local driver’s license might be required.

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Does she get that $800 bucks back, or is this just a way for local police to extort money from people?

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Why do officers always feel the need to justify their stops aggressively? There was speeding involved. A citation is issued. The issue of the license can be dealt with with a fine, easily waived once the proof of the license she had being valid was found.

Quick, efficient, no need for arguing.

Instead, the officer soldiers ahead on a hunch, demands uneeded documentation, arrests on a simple set ticket-able offenses and exposes the department to a possible lawsuit. All this just to feel like they might have not messed up.

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Yes. In general, you can drive on a foreign license for 3 months. This is valid not only for us-canada, but even between Canadian provinces.

If she was living in the US, she should have gotten a local license. She might not have wanted to do that because the old license is retained by the local DMV, meaning she would need a new one when back in Canada.

As for the arrest, that would be a matter of law, but it seems the judge has ruled…

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It’s a bond. You get it back when you return to court.

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So now we have “driving while Canadian”?

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Will the officer be held accountable? will the desk sergeant that allowed her to be booked into jail be held accountable? will the state be held accountable at all? If not expect this bullshit to continue. She should be recompensed for her times/trouble and several state employees should be terminated for incompetence or reprimanded with something on their record so that if similar incompetencies happen again they will be let go.

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I’ve long felt we made a mistake in allowing our “anything bad that happens has a cause that can be sued” mindset to spread and metastasize. Ideally, a cop (well, or teacher or admin or CEO or anybody) could screw up, apologize, take steps so it won’t happen again, and most people would be satisfied and move on. This scorched earth policy where people double down because admitting you’re wrong is viewed as both undermining authority as well as opening up legal liability has made the world a worse place. We desperately need legal room to open up space between “I know I’m wrong but can’t admit it” and “I’m suing you for everything you’re worth”.

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You’ve somehow either never seen or heard, (or more likely have blocked out the memory of) a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association / PBA rep defending the actions of a clearly in-the-wrong law enforcement officer.

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True, but you don’t get back the money you’re forced to pay the impound lot to return to you the vehicle the cops stole from you, you don’t get back any valuables in the vehicle the cops decide to steal, you don’t get back cost of a motel and food for the days you have to wait for your court date and are forbidden to leave the county, and you don’t get back whatever time you lost for school or work, which for the working poor could mean losing their job.

In the US, blue is a gang color.

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