Tyrranical Road Rage From The Virginia DMV

This story is from last week, but it's not going away yet If you think the rules of the road are tough to adhere to in your home state, take look at what happens to the citizens of the fine state of Virginia when they get caught speeding 20 over the limit among other seemingly not so serious roadway transgressions:

Highway Robbery

The American Spectator: "One definition of injustice is grossly disproportionate punishment. You don't put people into prison for a year because they jaywalked. So what do we make of Virginia's new 'civil remedial fines' that slam ordinary motorists with thousand-dollar fines (payable in 'three easy installments') for relatively minor traffic violations?

Beginning July 1, a driver caught doing 20 mph over the posted limit is subject to just such a fine. That means 76 mph in a 55 zone -- and a rude awakening for hapless motorists pinched in a radar trap. You may feel a driver doing 20 over the limit deserves punishment. But $1,000 -- plus another few hundred for the charge itself, plus court costs?"

Skip ahead

It has always been unfair. Now, it's egregious. What had been, essentially, simple speeding is now to be classed, in terms of its punishment, with felonies such as vehicular manslaughter -- also subject to the same $1,000 fine. Doing 76 in a 55? Killing someone? Hey, it's basically the same thing, right?

Talk about brutal. And I thought Illinois was bad! Our worst regulations remedies are nothing like that out of whack disproportionate punishment. There's even more where that cones from if you can believe it...

Even nicer, only in-state drivers will be forced to cough up the dough -- raising serious questions about equal protection of the law, and plain basic fairness. A New York driver cruising down I-81 on his way to Tennessee gets caught doing 85 mph; he pays the "standard" fine for that offense under Virginia's traffic laws -- typically, a couple hundred bucks at most.

But a Virginia licensed driver caught doing exactly the same thing is looking at $1,500 -- plus the "hidden" fees that will come every year as a result of his DMV points. Over a three-to-five-year period the tab could soar to several thousand dollars.

I thought Virginia was for lovers not tyrants. If I still lived there as I did 20 years ago I'd be writing a senator or two, and the governor about those medieval laws, and then get to work by firing a few big-headed over-reaching lawmakers. These bloated elected officials across this country seem to have forgotten that they work for us and not the other way around as they are beginning to believe, particularly while watching them ignoring the will of we the people in regards to the Shamnesty fiasco that seems to have more lives than a black cat or the energizer bunny.

The mighty lord knows it's high time to start reminding 'em who's boss in this country, first and foremost by getting out and voting these crooks right of their offices from sea to shining sea baby.

That's starting next November if not now, that is if it's indeed possible in your area, as some areas have staggered local office elections as we do here in Illinois from county to county, otherwise its D-Day 2008 for these bums.

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