Saturday, January 18, 2020

JUSTICE ON A SLIDING SCALE

by Bob Walsh

Gavin Newsom, the HMFIC of the formerly great state of California, has decided that it would be absolutely wonderful if a sliding scale were put in place for traffic tickets in California so poor people pay MUCH LESS than non-poor people. Such things are not cheap in CA. Rolling a red on a right hand turn is about $500.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Newsom is not off base here. I have always advocated that where there is a set fine, a judge should suspend it in favor of a person's ability to pay the fine. A well-off person has no trouble paying that $500 fine, but to a poor single mother $50 would hurt much more than $500 would a well-off person.

2 comments:

Trey Rusk said...

I agree with Howie. Poor people cannot pay the original fine then they get a failure to appear. Now the fine is doubled or sometimes tripled. Then their license is suspended and they go to jail because they were caught driving to work. They lose their jobs. They get payday loans on their POS car and then lose it. Then they lose their home.

Governor Abbott stopped this insanity in Texas by doing away with the point system. It was always designed to be a money maker for the state. People have even been allowed to renew their suspended licenses due to the elimination of the failed point system program. DWI suspensions were excluded.

I did not research this but learned of it through talking with cops.

bob walsh said...

I don't necessarily disagree. I do think that traffic fines in CA are for the most part way too high.