as I understand it, the range was from 2-8 hours depending upon the severity of the violation, and this was determined by a judge after they waited in line for an hour to two. Second, I don't see how anyone can call this light without knowing the actual details of the offenses and punishment. Unless Jason was the one that hit Jill's car and did the damage, it's misleading to say that all this person had to do was 2 hours and that was it.
Third, the purpose of this initiative was to give people a second chance. Have them come in, perform some restorative justice service to the community, and start fresh. These were not murderers and rapists, these were people who screwed up, drove without a license, let their insurance lapse, etc. In fact, the common violation for each of the people mentioned was driving without a valid license. A minor offense. I'm not saying that no one there did worse or that this was it, but we're hardly talking about the leader of the GDs for arson.Clearly some have a very different experience with the justice system than those I'm familiar with, my own experiences and those of friends.
2 to 8 hours of community service is getting off lightly, as far as I can tell.
A close friend of mine once got nailed in Duluth for driving without a valid license. He had let his insurance lapse due to travel and economic hardship, and with no insurance, your license is no longer valid. He got sentenced to 120 hours of community service, which means that for once a week for 15 weeks he had to take a bus down to Chaska and join a sentence-to-serve work crew for 8 hours of hard labor. Then after that entertainment, he got to retain a lawyer, pay fines and jump through all kinds of bureaucratic hoops to get insurance and a license again. There's a nice little catch-22 that goes on there, too. No license, no insurance. No insurance, no license. Chicken and egg. After 5 or 6 months, thousands of dollars and 120 hours of labor, he was able to drive legally again. He was white and had no record.
I once got a misdemeanor speed ticket, based on false, inflated claims by the officer. Had it been a simple petty misdemeanor speeding ticket (the kind most people receive), I would have just paid it. I did the crime, I owed the fine. But instead I got to visit court twice, wasting many hours both times, and got sentenced to 10 days jail and a $600 fine, with the jail time stayed if no "like or similar offenses for a year." I'm a conservative, law-abiding, middle-class white guy with no record and only 2 tickets in my entire 30+ years of driving, including the one I just mentioned.
On two separate occasions within less than a year of each other, another friend of mine was hit --while stopped -- by other drivers in Minneapolis. Both times the other driver, 100% at fault, had no insurance. One of them was even a taxi cab. Why were those guys still driving?
Driving without a valid license or insurance is a minor offense?
There's also the argument used for trying to reduce graffiti, a sort of quality of life argument. If minor traffic scofflaws get off over and over, then they and others begin to think the law is meaningless. More importantly, gang-bangers, drug dealers, arsonists and other criminals that perhaps JPalmer would call not "minor" are well-known for breaking traffic laws with impunity. If you bust every guy running a stop sign and driving a little over the speed limit with a loud stereo, you will find a greater proportion of them than in the general population don't have valid driver's licenses, don't have insurance and the kicker, have long criminal and arrest records. That's precisely why the MPD has decided to crack down on traffic violations in Jordan. They know that such a net will catch lots of criminals. Folks who are willing to shoot people, sell drugs, burn houses, etc. have very little compunction to follow trivial laws like traffic laws.
So, how do we know they weren't murderers and rapists?
I've never "screwed up" and driven without a valid license. How "forgetful" does one have to be to "forget" they don't have a license and go drive anyway? Exceding the speed limit or rolling through a stop sign is one thing -- it might be perfectly safe given the circumstances -- but driving without a license and hence without insurance is putting the public at financial risk the entire time one is at the wheel. Insurance payments don't grow on trees. We all pay for them.
Do you enjoy paying for the behavior of irresponsible people?
Restorative justice sounds good. Let's just not forget the "justice" part of the equation -- the part that means both justice to the accused and justice for the victims, whether an individual or society at large.
Chris Johnson Fulton
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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