These assholes certainly do have it down. They are cornering everyone who has the slightest problem with their car, checking for insurance, and if they don’t have it, arresting them and throwing them in jail.
THIS ISN’T WRITTEN ANYWHERE IN THE LAW!!! It’s about as illegal as you can get! I’m sure if the AG over rules these anal-retentive morons, there’s going to be plenty of law suits filed.
Damn…
It’s not the police fuckwad! Its the PD’s asshole lawyers, publicly elected officials who dont give a shit about the people who voted for them, and the stupid fucking morons who sue everytime they get a fucking hangnail that are responsible.
The officers are just doing a job. Unpleasant, yes. But if they start applying the law as thay see fit, then you’d probably complain about perceived unfairness there too.
Blame the people who really are to blame.
Hmmm, wonder who the bailbondsmen contibuted to in the last election…
Well, considering that I’m planning to spend part of my April this year in a police state right here in my own country, I can certainly see the point of the OP. Not all police officers, certainly, but a large enough proportion to be very distressing indeed seem to be taking their power trips out on citizens, especially ones who don’t look and think like they.
Duh! That’s the point, brainless. The Yazoo PD IS applying the law as they see fit. What they are doing is totally unsupported by the law. There is no provision for arresting people in it. What’s next, death penalty for illegal parking? To be carried out on the curb?
I imagine that Police Officer in NY State who was making women walk home nearly naked in freezing temps was “just doing his job.” Approve of that?
No they’re enforcing the law as they are told to by elected officials. The article makes that quite clear.
Also, the date on the story is Jan. 8th, so this either hasn’t happened yet (in which case, I’m using MSNBC for stock tips) or is a year old. Any followup on this? Were these cases tossed out of court?
Dunno where Yazoo City is, but in New York, you are required, by law, to have auto insurance if you drive a car.
So, lets see, there’s a law in Mississippi that says that a car needs to be insured. The police are enforcing that law. I don’t see the problem, or how that makes them narrow minded or morons. Isn’t it the job of the police to enforce the law?
Anyways, here’s the relevant section of Missippi state law:
This has to be a faked story. This is pretty sloppy reporting by MSNBC for an outrageous article like this. The quote: “The law’s the law. We’re gonna enforce it whether we agree with it or not.” is just hanging there, unattributed. And at the end they mention how the fine can be reduced to $100 if you get insurance before the court date and waived if you had it but simply didn’t have documentation. Fair enough. Pisser if they HAULED YOU OFF TO JAIL when you had it, but not your insurance card. The article doesn’t discuss that.
Furthermore, with my company (Progressive) I can prove that I am insured by making a phone call. I would be interested to know if the fascists running around that city would deign the telephone an acceptable device with which to avoid jail time, or if a legislator has already outlawed the phone as an invention of the devil.
On the off chance that anyone from Yazoo City involved in this debacle is out there reading this: excellent work so far and please don’t rule out mandatory cremation for drivers caught without their registration documents when it comes to 2001’s Winter Lineup of new laws. Unbelieveable.
(re-reading the article)
Come on now. This quote: ‘Bail bondsman Bill Havens says this interpretation of the law is good business.’ No WAY is this thing legitimate.
There might be a provision somewhere else that allows an arrest,since the article states that it’s up to the individual dept. to decide whether or not to jail violators and more importantly, the statute defines the offense as a misdemeanor. For example, in NY, the actual statute describing an offense doesn’t specifically whether you can be arrested or jailed for it.It describes the offense, and states what class of felony, misdemeanor or violation it is. The Criminal Procedure Law ( an entirely separate law) has a section about when the police can arrest without a warrant.They can arrest for any offense they have reasonable cause to believe was committed within their presence, and for any crime ( felony or misdemeanor) when they have reasonable cause to believe that person committed that crime.
You get a car fucked up by an uninsured motorist and see if your mind changes.
My understanding is that, in ANY and EVERY state you have to have BASIC insurance to drive a car. Fuck you but that seems more than fair. I mean really, fuck you but you haven’t been through what I’ve been through. Here’s the FWIW:
Uh, hey, For What It’s Worth: I got into an accident with someone who DIDN’T have a lick of insurance. You think that doesn’t hurt someone? It does. It cost me plenty. Thank the Goddess that I had uninsured driver insurance or I could have kissed my ass bye, bye. I almost could have lost my HOME over this but I was insured against it!
That fucking twat (yes, she was/is) cost me plenty. She was in such a big fucking hurry to get home that me slamming into her was the LEAST of her problems. Yeah, I hit her when she made an illegal left turn on red and I hit her. It really helped that all the cops who showed up knew her by NAME and ignored ME and the other FOLKS involved. Yeah, these ASSHOLE cops (and trust me, I don’t say that lightly with several peace officers in my family and in my pool of friends) but they were ASSHOLES because they wanted to take HER side of the story and not mine. She tried (desperately, shamelessly) to blame the accident on me when, if you looked at the facts, SHE was the cause, instigator, of the accident.
Her car was damaged in the back panel of the passenger side but my car was totaled. Only, ONLY by a very sharp turn of my body during impact was I saved from having my car motor shoved into my legs. That bitch waltzed away and I, through luck, was able to walk away with only wetting my fucking pants. She had the fucking audacity to say I was speeding; when everyone who stopped to file a report said I wasn’t. Thank the very Goddess for those folks or I would have been screwed. The cops who “investigated” were cited for “favoritizim” and lost several weeks pay (but not thier jobs like I wanted) but because of them I almost had to pay for EVERYTHING that bitch caused. If you think that’s okay why don’t you take a mile through my shoes.
Yeah, I sure as shit don’t think you’d like it if this happened to you. It sucked. But I had good insurance (Allstate) and they fought it. And that stupid bitch got cited, and was held liable for what happened (as she should have been). So don’t tell me to “hate” cops who cite drivers for no insurance. They should and I support them in this. You can’t afford insurance? Than don’t fucking drive a car. You’ve got no damn right to do so. Having a car is a PRIVILEGE, not a right! If you can’t afford it than take the fucking BUS! Just like I did for 10 years! Don’t give me this I HAD to shit; I took a bus for YEARS because I couldn’t afford a car… get bent, shit head… yeah, I’m angry, but fuckitall, I have a very good REASON for being so pissed off!
Damn shit head!
Oh, yeah, FWIW, do you realize that by your dumbass shit, driving without insurance at a certain age that some driver you hurt, injure or fuckover could come back against your parents? Do you realize that someone, with a good claim, could take away your parent’s home?
Does this make more sense to you now?
Shit! Get a fucking clue! This is LAWSUIT nation! Where in the fucking hell have you been for the last 20 years?!
I’m sorry to get so mad but fuck me running; get a fucking clue!
how angry would you be if you happened to be arrested for not having your insurance card with you. If your like me, you ALWAYS have your documentation with you, but on just one occasion forgot your papers somehow. Tail light out on the way to 7-11 for something and get pulled over for it. Wham-Bam, off to jail with you, do not pass go, guilty til proven innocent. It should be up to the courts to decide if jail time is required, or a license to be revoked, not the police to arrest you for an insurance violation, unless your a repeat offender. Yup, your FWIW sucked big time, but why pull out the massive flame thrower over this post?
later, Tom.
::PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT::
Call your insurance agent TODAY and make sure you have uninsured/underinsured driver insurance. (And plenty of it). My dad got hit by an uninsured driver, and although the guy was penalized for it (has to make restitution to my dad for some amount of money), you can’t get blood from a stone. Make sure your OWN ass is covered by your insurance company, in case the person that hits you is uninsured or underinsured.
In NY, we have what’s called “No fault” insurance (state law). It allows payment for some medical claims, etc (Through your insurance, I believe),without having to sue and go to court. Be aware that if you are hit on a motorcycle, no fault does NOT apply to you, and you are not covered.
http://www.insurance.com/profiles_insights/ask_expert/ask_question_0200_6.asp
Also, make sure you have enough coverage, too. The guy who hit my husband on his bike only had $100,000, which we sued and got all of. If my husband had needed any additional proceedures done, we would have had to sue him personally and taken his property. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. If I had been on that bike, he likely would have lost his home and farm. $100,000 may sound like a lot, but when you’re talking multiple surgeries, CAT scans, MRIs, etc it adds up really fast.
Zette
The quoted part of the Mississippi law mentions specifically the insurance card–not insurance. This means that even if you have insurance, but, oh, let’s say your term just ended, and you’ve forgotten to put your new card in your car–you lose your driving privileges. I don’t know about MS law, but in SC (where I am), any loss of driving privileges requires the driver to obtain “special high-priced insurance” for three years (in SC it’s called SR-22). However, in SC, while it is a law to have the insurance card, it is only a simple fine (with no loss of privileges) if you can later prove that you had insurance on the day you were asked to present it.
The only time you need insurance in Tennessee is if you owe money on the car. Once you’ve paid it off, you can take the insurance off it.
Stupidest doggone thing I’ve ever heard of because Tennessee has some of the worst drivers in the entire known universe. Bubba off the farm, driving his one-headlight, rust-bucket, 4WD pee-kup with 4 dogs in the back and a herd of kids in the front running loose is a terror on the roads of Nashville. Drive there one day in rush hour and tell if you don’t then understand the term “road rage”.
Idiots.
Michigan, OTOH, is a no-fault state and boy, do we pay for it. High rates, etc.
bunnygirl,
Are you sure that you’re not referring to comprehensive insurance? That’s the way it is in Georgia. If you owe money on a car, you have to have it insured with comprehensive. Once you get the debt paid off, you can lower your coverage to liability.
You always have to have liability.
I have to strongly disagree here. They are not just “doing a job”. Every time a police officer enforces an illegal law, rule or regulation he or she is every bit as culpable as the politician or other idiot who created the rule. The police are the guns the “leadership” uses to enforce its will.
As a result, every police officer who has enforced an unconstitutional law, detained a citizen without probable cause and proper warrant, performed a search at a roadblock or on less than probable cause, participated in a “no knock” raid, used force of any kind in an interrogation, or any of the thousands of other complaints we hear about police officers every day is one of two things:
That officer is either:
a) Too stupid / ignorant to realize that he or she is being used by some insulated special interest to enforce that interest’s agenda at gunpoint and without regard to the lives or liberties of those affected, or
b) Too evil to care.
I’m not saying there are no good cops. I WILL say, though, they are few and far between. Most follow orders blindly, and then they and their defenders say, “They’re just doing their job.” I will remind the readership here that defense didn’t play for the Nazis at Nuremberg, and it is no more valid here. Whether they are shaking down motorists on trumped up searches or incinerating innocent citizens, the OFFENSE is the same; only the severity is different.
To clarify:
The illegal act I referred to in my first post is the trumping up of reasons to make the stop in the first place, as noted in the OP.
I agree that if you drive, you should have insurance.
There, hopefully, that will head off any straw men that could start marching my way.