The Uncaring Tyranny of Government

[Andres]

If the guy would have been clever, he would have paid the 50 $ fine...

Seriously tho': if this kind of thing keeps happening, authorities should remember that eventually the populace will have had enough of over-reaching government, stop obeying any laws, and start picking up pitchforks and torches.

Taking up pitchforks and torches because the government enforces the law?

When I got a 50 € fine for driving 6 km/h too fast on an empty highway, I cursed, I complained about the stupidity and injustice of it all, oh the drama! and... I paid the fine and fanatically stick to the speed limits ever since.

[KukriKhan]

The end result of ridiculous laws and onerous penalties is: disrespect for all law, and the eventual encouragement of protest, then resistence, then revolution.

And so, off to work. Play nicely fellas. :bow"

[Andres]

The end result of ridiculous laws and onerous penalties is: disrespect for all law, and the eventual encouragement of protest, then resistence, then revolution.

And so, off to work. Play nicely fellas. :bow"

But is disobediance the right answer?

You live in a democracy, so you can vote for the guy who will change the ridiculous laws or, if such a guy doesn't exist, start your own political career and change things yourself.

As for the case at hand, is it the law that is ridiculous in this case? Cars need to have a license plate and there are several good reasons why a car should have a license plate.

The fine for not having a license plate seems to be 50 $, not really an onerous penalty, is it?

What is ridiculous is that it escalated to this.

But the Government is not the one to blame for that

[HoreTore]

Disobedience is indeed the answer. But thinking you'll get away with it and whining about it when you don't is not, however...

Civil disobedience FTW! I think we're all very happy Rosa Parks decided to break that ridiculous law back in the 60's....

[Andres]

Disobedience is indeed the answer. But thinking you'll get away with it and whining about it when you don't is not, however...

Civil disobedience FTW! I think we're all very happy Rosa Parks decided to break that ridiculous law back in the 60's....

It is disobedience that turned something as simple as a small fine for not having license plates into a social drama.

[Kralizec]

As far as govenment tyranny cases go, this is by far the least convincing case I've seen on this board. I agree with Andres.

[Dîn-Heru]

The man should have paid his fine from the start, no doubt about that.

But it is still allowed to show some common sense from the side of the bureaucrats.. You do not forclose on a house worth 250 thousand to pay a debt of 2500.. You take the car, or freeze his bankaccounts, or make him work it of doing community service.. But to even threathen to take someone's house away over something that is basically a cosmetic issue about how the neighbourhood should appear is simply ridicullus..

[Tribesman]

But it is still allowed to show some common sense from the side of the bureaucrats..

It is common sense , they could have hit him with a GF148 and throwed him in jail , putting people in jail costs money so this foreclosure is more fiscaly prudent . I would have thought someone like Rabbit would being favour of the govrernment saving tax payers money by siezing assets of lawbreakers instead of wasting money jailing them in Americas luxury prisons for a small mistake .

Does anyone kinda get the impression that in the main this topic has not gone in the direction the OP wanted

[Dîn-Heru]

It is common sense , they could have hit him with a GF148 and throwed him in jail , putting people in jail costs money so this foreclosure is more fiscaly prudent .

Hehe, fair enough, perhaps common sense was the wrong term, (what the hell is common sense anyway), but the point still stands that there are different options that must be more preferable to both parties than the hassle for the government to get rid of the house and for the man to lose it ( even if it is caused by his own/(his brother's) stupidity.. )

[Hosakawa Tito]

Many communities have laws requiring license plates on vehicles simply because if they do not some people would allow their properties to look like a junk yard.

Seizing assets to pay for fines or taxes owed is reasonable, but in this case, the disparity between the asset seized and the minicule fine owed is not reasonable at all. They could seize the vehicle, garnish his disability/social security check or tax returns whatever. Making him homeless for a paltry $2600 is excessive in the extreme. Where is Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton when you actually need them?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

poor Pete must be white

[ICantSpellDawg]

Does anyone kinda get the impression that in the main this topic has not gone in the direction the OP wanted

I see people saying one of 2 things:

A. The fine was absurd in the first place and the government shouldn't have done this.
or
B. The fine was appropriate but the seizure of the home was unconscionable.

Unless the OP was trying to get Tribesman to agree with people as to a reasonable understanding of an obviously bad situation, he seems to have relayed the point well. I can assure you that he had no such expectations for you - why would he going on experience?

[m52nickerson]

The man should have payed the fine. If he needed help to pay the fine he could have called the local code enforcement to see if he could pay over the phone in in some other way.

Then if you want a law like this over turned you have to organize.