High cost of fines: Lawbreakers hit with long list of added charges

High cost of fines: Lawbreakers hit with long list of added charges

www.montereyherald.com

John Schiffeler, a 68-year-old retired university instructor on ancient China, was walking his dog on a popular beach south of Carmel earlier this month.

Schiffeler broke the law: Dogs are supposed to be on a leash at the beach.

After a five-minute run, the dog was lying at Schiffeler's feet when a park ranger drove up in a pickup. She asked for his driver's license. Schiffeler said he asked her if she could give him a warning this time and skip the ticket. No, she said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

His Penalty: $245

$50: The citing agency (city, county or state)
$50: State penalty assessment, which is split among the county and several state funds: the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, Restitution Fund, Peace Officers Training Fund, Corrections Training Fund, Local Prosecutors and Public Defenders Fund, Victim Witness Assistance Fund, Traumatic Brain Injury Fund and Driver Training Fund.
$25: State court construction.
$5: County DNA identification fund.
$5: State DNA identification fund.
$12.50: County criminal justice facilities construction.
$10: County courthouse construction.
$20: County emergency medical services.
$2.50: County automated fingerprint retrieval system.
$10: State general fund.
$20: Courthouse security.
$20: "Conviction assessment" to support court operations.
2 percent of total, in this case $3.60, goes to a state fund to help automate court systems.

I'm surprised that they didn't add in $20 for the sanitation and sewer workers retirement fund. After all they had a bad year in the stock market and all.

When are people gonna get tired of this nonsense?

Now that money is getting tighter I think we will start to see every government agency from city hall to the federal government attempting to extort money from every citizen they can corner. It appears that they are attempting to cash in on every citizen that they can, for anything that they can come up with.

Didn't we have a revolution over excessive taxes at one time?

Anyone? Anyone?

www.montereyherald.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 3-6-2009 by In nothing we trust]

I'll give this one a quick bump before I let it fade away.

There was a mention in another thread about, I believe Florida State troopers (??) no longer being allowed to issue warnings when pulling over a driver precisely because money was tight. But, I don't remember the thread, whether it was a thread or just a post.

My county commissioner was complaining that our new sheriff was not writing enough tickets and bringing in enough money. I told him that making money was NOT his primary job, that was to protect the people from the crooks. Something that he is doing a good job so far.

Last year I was issued a 5mph over limit speeding ticket in the city where I work. It had been years since I've gotten a ticket, though I am no stranger to the process. This recent incidence was nothing like the others?

Every traffic violation I had ever received in the past came with a single fine and points. The fine was not the worry and 5mph over was only around $25-$50 and this small infraction used to not carry any points. Points were what you wanted to avoid due to them accumulating against your driving record and increasing your insurance rates long term. Also, rack up too many points and your license to drive could be revoked.

Most cities around Detroit where I live, as I now have found out, have modified their system of fines. Now, you most certainly get points for 5 over, 2 of them, and the fine for a single infraction has become three separate fines!? My particular 5 over ticket included $140 for the infraction, $65 court fee and another $40 administration? Three charges totaling $245!

This to me was BS and being hot headed I refused to deal with them. This, of course, was not smart, but a few months later I had two cops visiting my shop? Every week the Redford, MI police went out of their way to come to my place of business, which I own, during working hours and stick a 9x12 fluorescent orange sticker on my entry door!!! The sticker read WARRANT for ARREST with my full name in big, bold print for all my customers to see. Every sticker, I was told by them, added $100 to my growing charges.

I know a lot of you are thinking this is my own fault, and it is, but this is OUTRAGEOUS! Coming to my business to embarrass me for this is beyond insane. I will never pay them, even if it means leaving the state, NEVER!

Peace.

Those govt fines sure are a good thing. I wouldnt use guns to make a point about it or anything. I would just pay it and dance a happy jig and maybe sing a song.

Read between the Lines.

reply to post by Zerbst


You are right. It will take enough people standing up like you to get this changed. It is nothing but wrong. Around here, they have to give you 11 mph over before you get a ticket, but the state patrol can give you one for 1 mph over.

I got a fix-it ticket last month.

I had just had the radiator cap leak do to a bad cap

A few minutes later got a ticket for excessive smoke from the exhaust pipe(that's the vehicle code # he used) and there was no smoke coming from the exhaust pipe at the back of the car.

It was just a little steam that showed up around my hood.
and it had quit before the officer had run a licence and insurance check.

There is no fine for fix-it tickets but there is a $35 dollar fee.

I could see a ticket for a car that smoked but for steam from a radiator???

It sound like this citys cops were looking for ANY reason to write tickets bogus or not.

I also know this city also writes a lot of tickets for any bogus reason to people from out of town.
Why because people that do not live there seldom come to court to challenge there tickets.
I have seen 4 tickets from this city for 1 mile a hour above speed limit.
The fees for these tickets are higher then the fine.

if you ever travel through Adelanto Calif on highway 395 watch out the city cops are there to get you.
They have this thing about truck drivers and 1 mile over speed limit.

Don't want a ticket then don't break the law.

You break the law don't complain about the price.

And this is just the beginning. Police aren't that honest as most of us are figuring out. How long will it be before we start getting pulled over and given tickets for things we DIDN'T do?

Not only are the police in our area ridiculous with the traffic violations for example playing your music what they deem to be to loud can result in your vehicle being impounded.Today our city announced that if you blow your grass into the street while mowing it will be a violation. The first time will be a warning and the second time will result in a citation with a fine of up to 750 dollars and their reasoning is it may clog the sewer drains.I believe they are now just trying to pull money from every orifice of the citizen possible.

reply to post by Sundancer


I think that is already happening. I know a cop that got fired because he didn't write enough tickets, and this was years ago. He told them that he would not write tickets if people were not doing anything wrong. He lasted about a week after that.

Originally posted by MBF
I know a cop that got fired because he didn't write enough tickets...

In Phoenix they figured out a way to write tickets faster and more efficiently than ever. THey installed speed cameras on the highways around the city. The news media think it's great fun. They post pictures of people driving over 100mph on the front page of the local rag and say ha, ha. One guy flipped out and attacked a camera with a pick axe.

They also have these niffty little radar/camera vans that they move about. Another guy flipped out and shot and killed a van operator.

I noticed the flash from the cameras catching people pretty frequently when they were first installed. Now I don't see the flash as much. I think the cattle are becoming more domesticated.

OBEY, OBEY, OBEY

[edit on 4-6-2009 by In nothing we trust]

Originally posted by jd140
Don't want a ticket then don't break the law.

You break the law don't complain about the price.

Don't understand the significance of this don't comment.

When confused by a topic don't be afraid to keep quiet.

reply to post by Zerbst


Sorry for the short reply but that was too funny. I was wondering what the point was as well.

reply to post by In nothing we trust


This may be a really stupid question but I'll go out on a limb and ask anyway. Why did people in Phoenix allow all the cameras? Maybe I've been in Latin America for to long, but here thousands of people protest anything that's going to cost them extra and they usually get their way.

Originally posted by Zerbst
Last year I was issued a 5mph over limit speeding ticket in the city where I work. It had been years since I've gotten a ticket, though I am no stranger to the process. This recent incidence was nothing like the others?



This to me was BS and being hot headed I refused to deal with them. This, of course, was not smart, but a few months later I had two cops visiting my shop? Every week the Redford, MI police went out of their way to come to my place of business, which I own, during working hours and stick a 9x12 fluorescent orange sticker on my entry door!!! The sticker read WARRANT for ARREST with my full name in big, bold print for all my customers to see. Every sticker, I was told by them, added $100 to my growing charges.

I know a lot of you are thinking this is my own fault, and it is, but this is OUTRAGEOUS! Coming to my business to embarrass me for this is beyond insane. I will never pay them, even if it means leaving the state, NEVER!

Peace.

I know alot of Redford cops, Im with Detroit PD if you have their names send me them in a u2u, and if I can help you out I will. Also coming by your business and publicly posting that notice is considered to an extent totally legal due to new warrant enforcement policies.It is BS and it is stupid I agree. By the way what business do you run? I'm in Redford quite a bit.

Originally posted by Sundancer

Why did people in Phoenix allow all the cameras?

They weren't given a choice. They're for our own safety don't you know. They tried them out over in the rich part of town first and they made some money and didn't meet with enough resistance that they couldn't overcome. So they figured that they had a winner and expanded the program by 10 fold to every other part of the valley.

Lots of people like the safety motto, so the program does have it's supporters. You know, the people who like to tell you what you should do and think, who live by the montra, "I drive 55 to stay alive." It's a private company that runs the program for the state and they are making some bank. Cha-ching $$$$$$. I'm not sure if they are on the stock market yet, but I bet they will be. Might be a good stock to buy when they expand.

Maybe I've been in Latin America for to long, but here thousands of people protest anything that's going to cost them extra and they usually get their way.

Oh people don't do that here. They're too domesticated. You know, probably the best thing to do at this point is to just make some money off the cattle.

That's just scary...
People here first protest what would have cost them money had they not protested, then they protest their loss of wages for having to protest in the first place. I'm glad people here stand together and don't much care about being seen as domesticated. Glad your thread finally took off.