Vehicle Impounds Are Too Much Hassle For Illegal Aliens

[peejay 327]

LAPD: Vehicle Impounds Are Too Much Hassle For Illegal Aliens

by John Hayward

Posted 12/15/2011 ET

Updated 12/15/2011 ET

It’s a real bummer when you’re an illegal alien, driving without a license, and your car gets impounded. That can just ruin your whole day. Luckily, the Los Angeles Police Department is working to make things easier on the unlicensed and undocumented, as reported by the L.A. Times:

Unlicensed drivers without prior convictions would be given the chance to avoid having their vehicles impounded under new rules outlined Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The proposed changes to the impound procedures are a potentially explosive issue because LAPD Chief Charlie Beck designed the reforms to remedy what he believes is the unfair burden that impounds place on illegal immigrants. Since immigrants who are in the country illegally cannot get driver's licenses in California and most other states, they make up the majority of the drivers who have their cars impounded for the infraction.

Beck contends that the hundreds of dollars in fees and fines that must be paid to retrieve an impounded car and the disruption to illegal immigrants' often tenuous hold on jobs deal a disproportionate blow to people "who are a valuable asset to our community and who have very limited resources."

I swear to you that I am not making this up. Follow the link. It’s a real L.A. Times story. Wait, it gets better, as Chief Beck clarifies his reasoning:

In an interview Tuesday, Beck amplified his position: "It's a fairness issue. There is a vast difference between someone driving without a license because they cannot legally be issued one and someone driving after having their license revoked."

To correct this hideous inequity, the new rules will allow unlicensed drivers to keep their vehicles, provided someone with a valid license shows up to drive the car away. I am still not making this up.

The police union is strongly opposed to the plan, which they see as "an effort to score political points through reforms the union warns could hurt public safety.” Their position is supported by studies that show unlicensed drivers are five times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes, and roughly 14% of those involved in fatal crashes did not have valid licenses.

A few other holes in this wise and compassionate “call a buddy to get your death-mobile back” policy also came up at city council meetings:

Commissioner Alan Skobin suggested that owners who repeatedly allow unlicensed drivers to use their cars, not just drivers, should be held accountable. He urged Beck to expand the plan to include instructions that officers impound cars that have been impounded previously.

Skobin also questioned how the department plans to identify and keep track of repeat offenders who avoid detection by giving police different names each time they are stopped.

So the rule, as currently proposed, would impose no greater inconvenience upon the owners of a vehicle that has been repeatedly impounded? Brilliant!

This is but one of the many ways in which the inherent contradictions of our bloated local and national governments are causing them to become psychotic. We have fairly strict rules about driving – soon states might be adding even more, to forbid the use of cell phones while behind the wheel. Losing your license is meant to be a severe penalty, imposed in the interests of public safety.

On the other hand, the government, at nearly every level, is absolutely hell-bent on ignoring immigration law. This ideological commitment trumps even the overbearing public health and safety concerns that produce thousands of regulations and cost us billions of dollars. Thus, a government of laws – great big moldy piles of them – is obliged to concoct increasingly deranged justifications for ignoring the laws it doesn’t like, even when these rationales explicitly violate its other stated priorities.

I have a suggestion for the city of Los Angeles: if you want to enhance public safety, how about impounding the living daylights out of those cars, checking the immigration status of dangerous unlicensed drivers, and giving them a one-way trip across the border if they’re illegal aliens? Then you could sell the impounded cars to cover the cost of deportation. Be sure to check the license and immigration status of whoever shows up at auction to buy the cars.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48176

[Ban Hammer 13,508]

I have a suggestion for the city of Los Angeles: if you want to enhance public safety, how about impounding the living daylights out of those cars, checking the immigration status of dangerous unlicensed drivers, and giving them a one-way trip across the border if they’re illegal aliens? Then you could sell the impounded cars to cover the cost of deportation. Be sure to check the license and immigration status of whoever shows up at auction to buy the cars.

the above makes too much sense.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Can't we saw Cali off into the Ocean yet??

I'm really looking forward to having beach-front property in Arizona!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Can't we saw Cali off into the Ocean yet??

I'm really looking forward to having beach-front property in Arizona!

If there was ever a state that should be thrown out of the union on it's illegal loving ####### it's California. It's a screwed up cancer is what it is.

[TBoneTX 46,042]

Also notice how, regardless of (seemingly) any state's vehicle-emissions or safety-inspection laws, illegals always seem to be driving rusted-out cars that belch blue smoke and have completely bald tires, see man?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

So they want to be fair to illegals who drive without a license? Priceless. We deserve what we get.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I understand where all of you are coming from, and I agree with you to some degree, except with T-Bone.

Dude, California is not Texas; even illegal aliens don't drive rusty cars here because cars don't rust here. I have a 1911 Ford Model T Torpedo with factory original paint (what's left of it) and zero rust, for crying out loud!

Anyway, illegal aliens can't get a driver's license in California (but in Washington, Utah, and New Mexico!) and without a DL they can't get auto insurance. But they drive, and they will drive to work with or without a license, believe it.

So if that illegal alien T-bones (no pun intended) me, nobody's payin' the repair bill (perhaps even the hospital bill) but me. What I would propose is giving anybody a DL who's applying and passing the test, but mark those licenses with a big read bar reading: NOT VALID FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES! So they could drive and get insurance, but couldn't use that license to get a job or any other benefits related to having a state-issued ID.

[Danno 1,228]

Seems this change would limit the impounding of anyone in that same condition so I can support it.

Really these cops have no business impounding cars as a perfunctory measure anyway.

The court system is designed to punish the offender .. not the impounding company.

SOmeone I know just got popped for a DUI last week at the entrance of his neighborhood.

They insisted his car be impounded though his wife who was not in the car at the time offered to bring it home.

He now has to pay $300 + dollars to get his car back, seems like a racket to me as a normal tow-fee is about 80.00 here.

If the car is in a dangerous place and no driver can be located in a timely manner than having it towed is reasonable but other wise it seems the person is being punished before anyone is convicted of anything and I would imagine you don't get reimbursed the Hundreds of dollars paid for impounding if the case is dropped.