Illegal Traffic Tickets
Minneapolis recently had to remove their traffic cameras as per court order. It seems that these cameras were taking pictures of folks running red lights, then sending the owner a speeding ticket. Statistically, accidents at monitored intersections were down 13%. This all seems pretty reasonable.
The ACLU argued that the approach violated our civil liberties. By sending the ticket to the owner of the car, the state was making the claim that the OWNER of the car was presumed to be guilty of DRIVING the car through the intersection, thereby placing the burden of proving innocence on the defendent. Our legal system assumes innocent til proven guilty, so this is a big no-no.
This morning there was a letter to the editor who argued that the same thing is true with parking tickets. The owner of the vehicle is liable for fines incurred when a parking meter runs out. I'm not seeing how you can have one and not the other, so I'll be curious to see what happens here.
The ACLU argued that the approach violated our civil liberties. By sending the ticket to the owner of the car, the state was making the claim that the OWNER of the car was presumed to be guilty of DRIVING the car through the intersection, thereby placing the burden of proving innocence on the defendent. Our legal system assumes innocent til proven guilty, so this is a big no-no.
This morning there was a letter to the editor who argued that the same thing is true with parking tickets. The owner of the vehicle is liable for fines incurred when a parking meter runs out. I'm not seeing how you can have one and not the other, so I'll be curious to see what happens here.
posted by Aras at 10:06 AM
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