FARK.com: (1411978) Arlington County will tow your car for overdue library books. Death penalty being considered for jay walking

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(Forbes)		Arlington County will tow your car for overdue library books. Death penalty being considered for jay walking (forbesbest.com)		55
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4908 clicks; posted to Main » on 22 Mar 2005 at 9:14 PM | Favorite | share:

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DarthBrooks		2005-03-22 01:50:22 PM

I had a *lien* placed against my house in PA for 10 overdue books. Had to march down to the library and get the librarian to LOOK at the stacks, NOTICE that my books had been RESHELVED without being checked in, and then get her to write a letter to the Tax Office to remove the lien.

Tying every jackass county office into a central database just makes errors harder to undo.

LoLo		2005-03-22 01:58:55 PM

Uh oh, I owe $38 to the Arlington County libraries!

Seth_J		2005-03-22 02:09:37 PM

If they are going to all the trouble to call a tow truck, find my crappy car, and tow it off - why can they just come get the books? I'll leave 'm under the door mat or something.

procrastin8or		2005-03-22 02:12:41 PM

Why don't they just place a lien on the vehicle and save the equipment and personnel costs? It may not hurt the delinquent now, but it'll be a pain in the ass when they try to sell the car.

I'd sue too if they towed my car without a court order authorizing the seizure of my vehicle in lieu of payment. It's called due process, assholes.

Cake Hunter		2005-03-22 02:14:59 PM

They told me I'd get my son back when they got their copy of The History of Ice Hockey back. I told them to keep him and get bent because I wasn't finished drawing poop behind the old-timey goaltenders.

lunchinlewis		2005-03-22 02:15:46 PM

It's the Arlington Way. La la la. La la la.

DavyBoySmith		2005-03-22 04:58:46 PM

The really interesting part of the system is the use of OCR that the tow truck has installed with a camera and laptop with the "delinquent database".

They have automated tax collection, you owe and refuse payment...

They auction your car. (And I would bet you probably still owe)

ekdikeo4		2005-03-22 08:38:01 PM

my brother had an AD&D campaign with his buddies where the lowest form of punishment of breaking laws was death. So, jaywalking.. death. Anything worse than that, death, and then resurrection and death again. So on, so forth.

Very fun.

UberDave		2005-03-22 09:22:50 PM

What's a library?

whaleburger		2005-03-22 09:22:56 PM

Arlington sucks

/Just Sayin'

Jaboobinator		2005-03-22 09:23:42 PM

One day my friend was sitting in his apartment smoking weed with his friends. There was a blizzard going on outside, and they were watching the local news.

A news item comes on about cars being parked illegaly in snow emergency zones. Next thing you know, there's a reporter standing in front of my friend's car, as city workers put a boot on his wheel.

Comedy gold.

/true story

vendaz		2005-03-22 09:23:49 PM

Speaking as a librarian, all I can say is....

PWN3D!

wjllope		2005-03-22 09:24:16 PM

uberdave beats me by a nose (my version was
"'libraries'? how quaint...")

Arngautr		2005-03-22 09:25:08 PM

Death penalty being considered for jay walking

...by impact with automobile confiscated for overdue book?

Thank You Black Jesus!		2005-03-22 09:29:14 PM

they need to go after the real pieces of shiat, the people who don't wear seatbelts.

littleguy		2005-03-22 09:29:17 PM

Was there a page 2 to this story? I hate cliff...

ClicheName		2005-03-22 09:29:52 PM

Good, they're finally cracking down on criminals. There should be a zero-tolerence policy for people who steal from institutes of learning.

audacity242		2005-03-22 09:30:11 PM

So the question is...if my dad checked out a book from the library when he was in elementary school, and then died at a later point, can they take my car in payment of the debt?

Not that I, ya know, have a book that's been overdue from the San Diego library since the 60s.

nativefloridian		2005-03-22 09:30:45 PM

Why not do an amnesty? Then people would return the books they'd been hoarding.

caryw		2005-03-22 09:32:08 PM

Wow. I'm not surprised at all. Just the kind of rampant overspending that's happening in Northern Virginia. Not like we have a choice, if we don't find something to spend it on Richmond confiscates it and lets Hicktown, VA build another barn. I give it a year before Fairfax County has it too. Speaking on that note:
NoVA Underground: Where Northern Virginia says fark the police

milo_rules		2005-03-22 09:33:33 PM

Headline: "Arlington County will tow your car for overdue library books"

This article is almost a month old, and states that the county "plans" to use this policy against overdue books. Anyone know if this is Actually the case, or is the submitter merely speculating as to what had been "planned" to occur?

"Since last April Virginia's Arlington County has collected $90,000 by using the camera, called the BootFinder, to identify people with outstanding parking tickets and personal property taxes"... GREAT!

Many states now use a similar system to prohibit deadbeat parents (those parents delinquent in maintenance payments/child support) from obtaining driver's licenses - IMHO a most outstanding idea.

"Dad, what's a library?"

"Oh, it's just a place where homeless people go to shave and go BM"

Dinjiin		2005-03-22 09:33:53 PM

Well, if you owe the Man some money, he does have a right to come after you. Theft is theft, even if the organization you stole from is a greedy, heartless spawn of Satan himself.

Driver		2005-03-22 09:34:20 PM

and if the library book happens to be locked in your cars trunk, you're doubly PWN3D.

PWN3D??? I thought it went P R N D D2 D1 unless you drive a manual tranny.

ZAZ		2005-03-22 09:35:48 PM

A news item comes on about cars being parked illegaly in snow emergency zones. Next thing you know, there's a reporter standing in front of my friend's car, as city workers put a boot on his wheel.

That'll get his car out of the way of snow equipment.

One school up here punishes people who leave their bikes blocking pedestrian traffic by chaining the bikes to whatever they are leaning against with a school-supplied lock. Like booting a car in a snow emergency zone, this punishes the owner while overlooking the problem they claim to be solving.

dudemanbro		2005-03-22 09:36:23 PM

Bad idea. Stuff like this will push some people over the edge and all of a sudden we'll have a hostage situation (or shooting) in a library or county office.

smeag0l		2005-03-22 09:38:45 PM

Only the last sentence mentions a possible being use for overdue library book

The article was more about city running peoples plate through a database looking for farking everything:
-outstanding parking ticket
-unpaid personal property taxes
-motor vehicle taxes

/submitter taking a page from politicians.
//take small unrelated divisive anectodal evidence, add gasoline throw match

icepal		2005-03-22 09:41:43 PM

I liked it better when we just starved brain damaged people to death. this seems like a bit of over kill, lets just stop feeding them.

milo_rules		2005-03-22 09:49:15 PM

ZAZ:

"One school up here punishes people who leave their bikes blocking pedestrian traffic by chaining the bikes to whatever they are leaning against with a school-supplied lock. Like booting a car in a snow emergency zone, this punishes the owner while overlooking the problem they claim to be solving."

what does it take to get your bike unlocked by the school? I mean, a bolt cutter only costs $15 at your local hardware store; if it costs more than that to get your bike back, I would say the school would soon have to purchase alot more locks...

/me wonders if it would be legal for one person to cut off ALL of the offending locks, if that person had the permission of the bicycle owners...

Seufzer		2005-03-22 09:50:29 PM

The man in charge of chasing down these delinquents:

/couldn't find the pic I wanted
//close enough

skinnydwarf		2005-03-22 09:52:57 PM

The Constitution said:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (4th Amendment)

No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law... (5th Amendment)

Personally, I blame Bush. j/k.

ubermensch		2005-03-22 09:55:25 PM

Good. Maybe now people will stop thinking about themselves. I hate people who steal from the public. That includes ripping or cutting pages from the library book. If I ever catch that bastard who stole HR Giger's Necronomicon and Necronomicon II from my local library....

The Immortal		2005-03-22 10:07:53 PM

Oh God! That's my county!

/needs to remember to turn in "Disco Duck...and Other Novelty Songs"

rallen88		2005-03-22 10:08:13 PM

Funny, no one actually mentioned using this device to try to find stolen cars or know wanted criminals or deadbeat dads?

I think this camera has promising uses... like getting people their stolen property back from dickhead car thieves and criminals.

Yes, by all means, let's get the people who have books out still. Morons...

Wonko Fortytwo		2005-03-22 10:10:47 PM

I got a parking ticket in Alexandria (NoVA). Promptly paid it. Got a notice for not paying the ticket. Got that straightened out, got another notice for not paying the ticket. Got that straightened out. Haven't heard shiat since.

Figure the data input farks were under staffed and the data output fark just pushed a button. Oh, Arlington....Falls Church may want to rent it.

bgodot		2005-03-22 10:12:10 PM

How about a Statutory 'Collection Cost' limit, of 100% of the cost to be collected?

50 cent library fine?, postage, paper, labor: max they can bill you for is $1.00; they can still deny you the ability to check out any more books until that $1.00 is paid, but that's it.

$100 parking ticket?

if they end up impounding your car, and selling it, the max they can keep is $200 of the proceeds, the rest goes to you (or the bank) Allow the cost of the tow if it's an obstruction, but any 'storage' fees would have to come from that 100%.

because, seriously, if someone owes you $1000 and you spend $2000 trying to collect it, you're retarded.

theeagle		2005-03-22 10:22:07 PM

gotta love our justice system.

your car is guilty of some crime and impounded/stolen until they come and arrest your butt and the 75 cent library fine paid. it's easy to find tax evaders. sitting on the couch eating twinkees in the middle of the afternoon.

too bad they towed your car and now you are going to have to roll home in your wheel chair through the 6 foot high snow drifts clinging onto your oxygen bottle. they'll find your corpse in the spring with the words "damn tow truck" carved into your frozen flesh. your family called it involuntary manslaughter. but the feds called it justice served without proper thought and please pay the fine from the inheritance.

bush sucks. oh and duke sucks too...

please remember your constitution .
your government has forgotten it.

texasbob		2005-03-22 10:29:38 PM

Police state!
police state!
POLICE STATE!!!

Mad Scientist		2005-03-22 10:40:18 PM

"I remember returning that book in 1971!"

/never tried Blackjack gum

depafeo		2005-03-22 10:40:43 PM

Don't worry. It's Virginia. They wouldn't even put a needle in the arm of this dipshiat.

bingo the psych-o		2005-03-22 10:50:46 PM

Does this mean that you have to own a car before you will be alowed to check out books?

cob2f		2005-03-22 10:54:05 PM

Do you know how they paid for the cameras? My Freaking Real Estate Taxes!!!11!

MikeXpop		2005-03-22 10:54:51 PM

Death is usually the penalty for jay walking if you get caught.

/"Look out! It's a tru-" *BAM*

luvAlibrarian		2005-03-22 11:02:21 PM

As a librarian and a former resident of THE VIRGINIA (not NOVA), all I have to say is:

hehehehehehehehehehehe

THE VIRGINA (the conservative part) would never ever do a thing like this. Heck, they considered the red light cameras in my hometown for say, oh, a minute, and decided that government needn't be meddlin' in people's rights to break the law....or something.

CanSomeonePleaseKilltheChristmasShoes		2005-03-22 11:06:15 PM

Seig Heil.

We can't own real estate in this country, now we don't own cars either. Libraries are exposed as a silly excuse to set people up to steal their property later.
(let's eliminate huge waste-of-money libraries immediately; anything they do, Borders does better AT NO COST TO THE TAXPAYER) Public schools after that, and reduce taxes 50%

I guess the only thing to learn from this is to buy cars on long term (extremely long term) payment plan.

And get insurance that covers you if the thief who steals your car is Uncle Sam.
/Does any insurance company cover this?
//Is "our" government stealing more from us than Godwin stole from the you know who's???

Le Petomane		2005-03-22 11:26:51 PM

Nothing intrusive that Arlington does surprises me. We're talking about one of the only places I've ever been where cars actually stop at crosswalks to look for pedestrians, because everyone's afraid of getting ticketed for failing to yield to a ped who has started to cross.

The parking meters in Arlington Say "ALL may park, ALL must pay" in order to taunt the handicapped, who had the nerve to fight for free parking a while back.

DarkSoulNoHope		2005-03-22 11:34:11 PM

Guess who's leading this crime effort. Why, it's Judge Dread!

Hectropolis		2005-03-22 11:45:27 PM

C'mon now guys; if you're driving a Jag and you owe $8,000 in either back property taxes or parking tickets, I'm sorry I have a hard time feeling sorry for you. I think some are reading a little too far into Arlington's plans as well. If you honestly think they're going to tow your car because you have a $5.00 fine for overdue books, I think you should wear a tinfoil hat. If they do find your car and you owe over a certain amount, they may just boot your car, something they can and do utilize to make you pay (never can get away from death or taxes).

IvyMike		2005-03-23 12:47:14 AM

Draco was the first law scribe of ancient Athens, Greece. The laws, transcribed in 621 BC when he was archon eponymous, were particularly harsh, as the death penalty was the punishment for even minor offenses. Hence expressions such as "draconian punishment" or "draconian laws", and more generally, "draconian measures" (far-reaching).

/plagiarism

mmm hmm		2005-03-23 01:21:16 AM

I think the US is going down the tubes. I really do. Used to be, people could go about their business doing things and if they happened to break a few laws along the way, well, usually they weren't caught. (I'm talking like speeding on the way to work, parking in nonparking areas, whatever, even overdue books)

Let's call that the tradition of cutting corners and getting away with it. It has been with us since before recorded history. It has been with humans for so long, I don't see how it isn't a right of sorts.

But now, with such things as red light and radar cameras, RFIDs, surveillance cameras, PATRIOT act info sharing, everyone is going to be ever-increasingly caught for every infraction. Zero tolerance this, zero tolerance that.

And, on the other hand, the right to fight back and just live is being reduced too - the ability to wage class action lawsuits and the right to file bankruptcy have been just recently hobbled. And SS will likely be screwed up so that benefits will have to be reduced.

I can only see it getting a lot worse.