3 ms·

I caved in a year ago and boought two $15.00 dash cams off Amazon. I haven't been pulled over for No Reason since I got the cam. (I bought two because they we

I caved in a year ago and boought two $15.00 dash cams off Amazon. I haven't been pulled over for No Reason since I got the cam. (I bought two because they were cheap, and keep one behind my seat in case the device fails.) I thought about buying Gopro, but figured for my needs the price was too high, and a potential thief might break a window to get to the expensive cam? I have been pulled over for no reason so many times, I wish they had these cheap cams when I turned 16. I have never understood bail. Why don't they make it coincide with a person's yearly income? While I'm at it, why aren't traffic infractions tied to income? I gringe when I hear about $500 traffic tickets, or $280 for jaywalking? A wealthy person gets a ticket--he tells his wife over diner. A poor person gets a ticket, it can ruin their living situation? Never seemed fair?

function_seven 11y ago
Can you link to those cams and tell me how good they are? I just did a search and was surprised how many < $30 cams are available now.
- codecamper 11y ago
  Start a new thread, this one is about the US criminal justice system.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
gizmo686 11y ago
Making bail/tickets linear still places a disproportionate burden on the poor. If a poor person looses a week of income, it could mean struggling to put put food on the table until the next paycheck. If a middle class person looses a week of income, they are much more likely to have liquid savings they could dip into.
- mc32 11y ago
  It's better than what we currently have which is just a flat fee. On the other hand, you don't want to make it free for the unemployed --like students, etc.
alexhawdon 11y ago
In Finland, fines DO correspond to income. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-... From the article: "Finland’s system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. " That's so sensible it almost feels insane to read... Completely agree with you that it's the right thing to do, for exactly the reasons you state.
LordKano 11y ago
I have been pulled over for no reason so many times, I wish they had these cheap cams when I turned 16. I didn't get my first car until I was almost 19 but I agree. I wish there had been cheap cameras back then. I know a lot of people who have the "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from the police" mindset. They stare at me in disbelief when I tell them some of the things I have been stopped for by police. The most egregious example was the time I got pulled over because "your rear passenger tire looks kind of low". Two police cars, on the side of the road in a distant suburb of Pittsburgh because it LOOKS LIKE the air in one of my tires is low... Bail is punitive, regressive and coercive. I remember another occasion where I got a ~$100 ticket and the cop says he's doing me "a favor" by not writing me a ~$200 ticket. This was at a time when I was making $9.00/hr. After taxes, that was two days of work to pay that ticket. There's also the part where people with money are less likely to be arrested or ticketed in the first place. The fact that you can afford to hire a good lawyer and fight the good fight discourages police officers from making nonsensical arrests and writing bogus tickets in the first place. If you wouldn't mind, will you tell us that make and model of the dash cams you bough? I have been thinking about getting one and I prefer to hear from actual users than to read spec sheets.

function_seven 11y ago

Can you link to those cams and tell me how good they are? I just did a search and was surprised how many < $30 cams are available now.

codecamper 11y ago
Start a new thread, this one is about the US criminal justice system.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

gizmo686 11y ago

Making bail/tickets linear still places a disproportionate burden on the poor. If a poor person looses a week of income, it could mean struggling to put put food on the table until the next paycheck. If a middle class person looses a week of income, they are much more likely to have liquid savings they could dip into.

mc32 11y ago
It's better than what we currently have which is just a flat fee. On the other hand, you don't want to make it free for the unemployed --like students, etc.

alexhawdon 11y ago

In Finland, fines DO correspond to income. See: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-... From the article: "Finland’s system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. " That's so sensible it almost feels insane to read... Completely agree with you that it's the right thing to do, for exactly the reasons you state.

LordKano 11y ago

I have been pulled over for no reason so many times, I wish they had these cheap cams when I turned 16. I didn't get my first car until I was almost 19 but I agree. I wish there had been cheap cameras back then. I know a lot of people who have the "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from the police" mindset. They stare at me in disbelief when I tell them some of the things I have been stopped for by police. The most egregious example was the time I got pulled over because "your rear passenger tire looks kind of low". Two police cars, on the side of the road in a distant suburb of Pittsburgh because it LOOKS LIKE the air in one of my tires is low... Bail is punitive, regressive and coercive. I remember another occasion where I got a ~$100 ticket and the cop says he's doing me "a favor" by not writing me a ~$200 ticket. This was at a time when I was making $9.00/hr. After taxes, that was two days of work to pay that ticket. There's also the part where people with money are less likely to be arrested or ticketed in the first place. The fact that you can afford to hire a good lawyer and fight the good fight discourages police officers from making nonsensical arrests and writing bogus tickets in the first place. If you wouldn't mind, will you tell us that make and model of the dash cams you bough? I have been thinking about getting one and I prefer to hear from actual users than to read spec sheets.