A sobriety checkpoint set up at 8AM outside a home depot in Pomona, California. A sobriety checkpoint set up at noon outside a home depot in Napa, California. A sobriety checkpoint set up at 10AM outside a parole/probation office in Santa Ana California.This sobriety checkpoint set up in Fontana.
They all have one thing in common. None of them is looking for drunk drivers. All of them impounded a tow yard full of cars belonging to unlicensed, mostly immigrant drivers before the checkpoints were torn down mid-afternoon. This was one of the primary methods the city of Bell was known to conduct to finance their operations.
Little noticed on Friday was Assembly Bill 1389 that is designed to clarify that the purpose of sobriety checkpoints is to look for intoxicated drivers, not to impound the cars of undocumented drivers whose primary offense is typically driving while poor or being an immigrant.
While the law and order people are outraged, they’re missing that the drivers can still be cited. They just can no longer have the means to their livlihood taken away from them without due process. They will be given an opportunity to have a licensed driver come retrieve the vehicle as opposed to an automatic 30 day impound where the money collected by the tow company is shared with the local municipality.
We look at it as justice being more aligned to the offense. It’s just another step towards reducing the influence of privatization of minor infractions into a cottage industry serving special interests and local municipalities.
Judicial Council Watcher 
JusticeCalifornia
May 28, 2011
Someone ought to do a story on what San Diego is doing to older drivers.
Talk about lack of due process/cash cows/ and creating cottage industries with an eye on baby boomers. . . .
I am not at liberty to tell the story yet.
But I will eventually tell.
The new San Diego/UCSD “pilot” program that is supposed to “help” older drivers may very well surpass the “kids for cash” scams in scope and damage to the most vulnerable members of our population.
Mark my words.
Judicial Council Watcher
June 4, 2011
The state appears to have put a task force together to get older drivers off the road.
First an MSNBC article about the challenges and then a video about the state program from the “older driver traffic safety task force” which sounds like the makings of a cottage industry to me.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27051758/ns/travel-travel_tips/t/when-its-time-grandma-stop-driving/
Why don’t they just make an annual requirement for range of motion, vision and reaction time tests for drivers over 75 (or those otherwise appearing physically impared) and let people know that passing is mandatory?
Today, many people age far away from alternative transportation centers, a situation that will get substantially worse over time and would be somewhat alleviated if people could plan accordingly, rather than some abstract method of removing them from the road.
This program takes older drivers off the road if they don’t appear at an administrative hearing on short notice. It then railroads them into paying for this myriad of tests and driver counseling paid for by the seniors who are trying to protect their privilege to drive, who can least afford to be railroaded into such programs. In many cases, it is with a false hope that they will ever get their licenses back.
Since these are administrative actions, they don’t involve the courts yet it sounds like someone should be challenging the randomness of people caught in this net unexpectedly.
SF Whistle
May 29, 2011
The “creative” revenue generating programs are ALL manifestations of what should be topic #1 for National debate.
At issue is whether we have a revenue problem or a spending problem….
Our State, local and Federal governments are all so badly screwed up for so many reasons and scrambling for a method to keep up the binge spending.
Our fine State’s Judicial branch provides a fabulous example of why there is no prospect of ever developing a budget that according to law must be balanced.
The facts—are the facts—we have people running a multi-billion dollar agency with hundeds of real properties that have never run ANY business…..
Can anyone please identify Minimimi’s business background?—-what is on her CV that causes any comfort that she has the skills to turnaround this out of control agency?—-We are all witnessing the deepening of the damage that placing persons with NO management experience or skills bring about—CCMS—unlicensed contractors—get rid of whistleblowers–fleets of rentals cars–terminate employess and hire “temps”—more court closures…
So—give us all a ticket—place parking meters in more residential neighborhoods—-raise gas taxes–raise all use taxes–find more creative and inventive ways to drive up the costs involved in living in our beautiful State—-I hope the last person that leaves turns out the lights…
Tony
October 17, 2020
Those dirty police…..they no difference from a criminal.