Stop. I have four children
who need me to get to my job 40 miles away. We will
starve to death, we will
lose our apartment, our fridge, our stove. We will be living on the street!
-----
I DON'T CARE, MISTER. I
get 50$ just for picking it up. My Boss gets 100$. The cop gets points
he needs. and the City will sell this at auction for the really big money.
Activists persuaded the LAPD to amend its policy on unlicensed drivers, and the number of cars impounded last year fell 39%. They hope the Sheriff's Department and other police agencies follow suit. So far they have NOT!
By Kate Linthicum LA TIMES Aug 7 2013
Impound policies protested - Immigrant rights groups are calling on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other police agencies to stop impounding the cars of unlicensed drivers.
A 2011 state law requires police at drunk-driving checkpoints to give unlicensed drivers the chance to call someone with a license to take the car before it is towed.
But that law does not apply to routine traffic stops, and activists complain that unlicensed drivers across L.A county are losing their cars after being pulled over for minor infractions, such as making a wrong turn or driving without a seat belt. In many cases, the cars are impounded for 30 days at a fee of more than $1,000. (The city sells the cars at auction for huge amounts.)
Activists say impound policies unfairly target immigrants here illegally, who cannot obtain licenses in California. At a news conference Wednesday held by a group called the Free Our Cars Coalition, Mexican immigrant Alma Castaneda said she and her husband have had their cars impounded five times for unlicensed driving. Three times they have not had the cash to pay the impound fee, she said, and have been forced to give up their cars to the lot.
Castaneda and other members of the coalition are asking immigrants to share their stories about impounds on a website in hopes of pressuring police departments around the county to make changes.
That is how immigrant rights groups persuaded the Los Angeles Police Department to make major changes to its impound policy, said Zach Hoover, a Baptist minister who leads an alliance of religious and community groups called LA Voice.
The number of vehicles impounded by the LAPD fell 39% last year from the year before, after the department enacted rules prohibiting officers from seizing cars at routine traffic stops if a licensed driver was available to take the car, according to department officials. The rule that required cars to be kept in impound lots for 30 days was also changed; now drivers can retrieve their vehicles as soon as they pay the impound fee.
The new rules drew lawsuits from the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, and from a national group called Judicial Watch that said the policy is unfair to taxpayers. California State Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris issued an opinion that the LAPD's impound policies were legal.
But impounding after routine traffic stops remains common in other parts of L.A. County, the coalition said. Gerardo Leon, a Mexican immigrant in the country without legal permission who lives in Canoga Park, said he was stopped by a sheriff's deputy Tuesday on his way home from work. The deputy told him he had been driving too close to another vehicle.
Leon produced evidence of insurance but did not have a license. He was issued a ticket, and his car was towed to an impound lot, where it must remain for 30 days. He said he was not given the opportunity to call a licensed friend to take the car. He doesn't know how he'll get to his job at a construction company, which is 25 miles away from his home.
L.A. County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sheriff Lee Baca issued a directive several years ago "that made it clear his priority isn't to impound vehicles." But Whitmore said he didn't know if the directive applies only to unlicensed drivers stopped at sobriety checkpoints, or whether it pertains to all traffic stops.
He said he thought a new review of the policy was likely and urged anybody who felt they had been treated inappropriately to file a complaint.
Whitmore suggested Baca is open to changing the policy. "It is not our
intention to impound vehicles if we don't have to," he said.
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COMMENTS FROM READERS
"Activists say impound policies unfairly target immigrants here illegally,
who cannot obtain licenses in California. At a news conference Wednesday
held by a group called the Free Our Cars Coalition, Mexican immigrant Alma
Castaneda said she and her husband have had their cars impounded five times
for unlicensed driving. Three times they have not had the cash to pay the
impound fee, she said, and have been forced to give up their cars to the
lot."
DAMN RIGHT IT IS !!!! But at the same time, there are LEGAL US citizens that are FORBIDDEN from obtaining a drivers license, and they shouldn't be driving either. So to these activists what do you have to say about that ???? Why hasn't the LA Times addressed this ???
TRUE. This poster's SON has had his costly truck impounded many times. He raises 4 children, one totally disabled and constantly cannot go to work or earn a living
These sympathizers of ILLEGAL immigrants have no respect for OUR laws, and the LA Times is doing a DISSERVICE to its readers by writing articles like this that offers EXCUSES for people that DO NOT want to follow OUR laws.
"But that law does not apply to routine traffic stops, and activists complain that unlicensed drivers across the county are losing their cars after being pulled over for minor infractions, such as making a wrong turn or driving without a seat belt. In many cases, the cars are impounded for 30 days at a fee of more than $1,000."
Minor ot not, law enforcement is doing EXACTLY what the voters want them to do which is ENFORCE THE LAW !!!! Something that these activists FAIL to grasp. I have ZERO sympathy for those losing their cars. Why ??? Because they SHOULDN'T be driving them in the frist place without a drivers license...
DO NOT reward law breakers !!!!!
They're impounding the car in Lue of impoundind the Wet*Back.
THIS ILLITERATE MAN and crummy typist
is a RACIST XENOPHOBE too which ALWAYS goes with DUMB. And ya can't
fix STUPID!
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