AP Exclusive: 1.4M Pa. Warrants Pending

[Ken]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070408/D8OCIJ400.html

How is this even possible?


(no police state here)

[dreamingwolf]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070408/D8OCIJ400.html

How is this even possible?


(no police state here)

Im not even sure what ken thought he would achieve with posting this one.

ok ken tell us how this is bad



"Because of this automation, it's becoming harder to run from the law," said Steve Schell, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.


atleast point to something in the article your upset about. I know your hate America feeds told you to rant about this article but come on come out about it with your own feelings.

[Ken]

Well I gotta assume that the majority of them are for driving violations of some sort (too many tickets, reckless driving, parking violations, ect, ect) that people just didn't show up to court for, nor would did they pay the fine.

Still, thats a lot . . .
Yeah, they are mostly for traffic violations, but you still will go to jail.

There is 12 million people in all of PA according to 2000 census numbers.

1.4 million of them have arrest warrants. :laugh:

[Ken]

Im not even sure what ken thought he would achieve with posting this one.

ok ken tell us how this is bad



atleast point to something in the article your upset about. I know your hate America feeds told you to rant about this article but come on come out about it with your own feelings.
I don't know, I'm just amazed at the number of people who have arrest warrants in PA right now. Your not?

I know all about how they track everyone and the methods they are using to make it easier to catch people with warrants. I am merely amazed at the number of people that have warrants, as anyone should be, imo.

[dreamingwolf]

that retraction is fine, but what I want you to avow publiclly on this board is that America is not a police state.

[Switchgear]

1.4 million unserved warrants, the overwhelming majority for minor traffic violations. Quick story, I got a speeding ticket (74 in a 55) a few years back and rather than just pay it I went to court hoping the officer wouldn't show. He did but the judge offered to drop the ticket if I completed traffic school. He set a court date for a couple of months later to follow up. I forgot all about the school, and the day of the next court date I went to the courthouse to just pay the fine. They said it was too late to handle it that way since I was already on the docket. I had other plans for the day so I just didn't go to court. A couple of days later I got a letter saying if I didn't show up to the court house and pay the ticket plus some extra fees, a warrant would be sworn out for my arrest. Warrants are how the court enforces its rulings. Should they write angry letters to people who refuse to show up? Do you want people to ignore the court system?

The funny thing is a real police state wouldn't bother with warrants, they'd just grab people up in the middle of the night and they'd never be heard from again.

[Burgold]

The number is astounding. However, I wonder within those 1.4 m warrants how many of those are double warrants. You could have a guy with 30 speeding tickets hypothetically and each time he skipped out on paying or going to court the court issued a warrant. Also, this isn't 12 m vs. 1 m. at this time,this is 1.4 m generated over a period of time. Still, the number is absurdly large. Then again, it is the land of the Eagles, we've all heard the story of the Vet. Are you really surprised that there are a bunch of criminals in Eagles' territory?

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

This is somewhat off-topic since these seem to be mainly for traffic violations where the offenders will see little, if any, time. But I am still not surprised by the number and I also believe that we are somewhat a police state. Why?

Because you can't make money off of empty prisons. Prisons are a HUGE money-making industry. And more prisoners equals more money.

1) Building prisons (These super prisons they are building now costs millions of dollars. Then they are being built in small rural towns where they immediately become the biggest industry around.)

2) The products produced by prisoners while being paid slave wages. (Look up UNICOR. Only federal employees can own stock in it. In 2005 it had net sales of $765 MILLION.)

3) The products sold to prisoners at inflated prices

4) The fines imposed on people.

I'm sure I'm missing something but I'm just doing this off the top of my head.

We hear all the time about how it costs so much to house a prisoner. $35 BILLION is spent each year on corrections. Someone is making that money. Since 1991 the rate of violent crime has dropped 20% while the prison population has gone up 50%. Do you really think they would be locking all these people up for petty, nonviolent crimes if somone wasn't getting paid?

This is also why they have cut back the rehabilitation programs everywhere. It used to be a person could go to prison and get an education or learn a skill that they could use to lead a productive life when they got out. They've cut back on all of that now. People just go, sit there, sleep there, do their time, and go home. And they go home with NOTHING. If you rehabilitate someone they aren't going back to prison ya know. Not too mention the stigma of felony conviction that is placed on a person for life.

Now I know the whole arguement of "well they shouldn't have broke the law." I agree to an extent. The problem is that the punishments don't fit the crimes. Also, the fact that 80% of those arrested can't afford an attorney is pretty ****ing disturbing. If you bring up public defenders I will laugh at you.

Sometimes enough is enough. They are breaking up families, ruining lives, and basically burying people for nothing. Now don't get me wrong and think I'm supporting child molestors or murderers or anything like that. I'm not. I'm talking about the millions of people that are locked up for nonviolent and nonsexual crimes.

Google "prison industrial complex." Do some research into it. It really is crazy what's going on right under our noses and we either don't know about it or don't care about it.

I also recommend the book "Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor" by Paul Wright. It's a real eye-opening read.

[Larry]

Yeah, they are mostly for traffic violations, but you still will go to jail.

There is 12 million people in all of PA according to 2000 census numbers.

1.4 million of them have arrest warrants. :laugh:

I'd bet it's more like 0.7 million of them have an average of two warrants each.

[Larry]

There are lots of possible reasons for a jurisdiction to have a lot of outstanding warrants.

There's folks who didn't pay traffic tickets or who bounced a check. Yeah, there's a warrant out for the guy, but face it, the police really don't want to catch those folks, cause if they catch them then a bunch of cops have to spend about 10 man hours of labor processing the guy into the jail.

I've even seen storied on 60 Minutes about people wanted for things like, say, murder in New Jersey, who are publicly and openly living in, say, Nevada. The cops know where the guy is. He's in the phone book. Had the same job for five years. New Jersey can have him any time they want. All they have to do is pay the Nevada cops to arrest the guy, and then pay the US Marshals to ship the prisoner cross-country, and when he arrives in New Jersey, they can pay to keep him in jail for 20 years.

Or they can pretend that they don't know where he is. And if he shows up in New Jersey he'll get arrested, and if he stays in Nevada then he's not New Jersey's problem.

[mboyd784]

There are lots of possible reasons for a jurisdiction to have a lot of outstanding warrants.

There's folks who didn't pay traffic tickets or who bounced a check. Yeah, there's a warrant out for the guy, but face it, the police really don't want to catch those folks, cause if they catch them then a bunch of cops have to spend about 10 man hours of labor processing the guy into the jail.

I've even seen storied on 60 Minutes about people wanted for things like, say, murder in New Jersey, who are publicly and openly living in, say, Nevada. The cops know where the guy is. He's in the phone book. Had the same job for five years. New Jersey can have him any time they want. All they have to do is pay the Nevada cops to arrest the guy, and then pay the US Marshals to ship the prisoner cross-country, and when he arrives in New Jersey, they can pay to keep him in jail for 20 years.

Or they can pretend that they don't know where he is. And if he shows up in New Jersey he'll get arrested, and if he stays in Nevada then he's not New Jersey's problem.

I call BS. Link, please.

[Ken]

that retraction is fine, but what I want you to avow publiclly on this board is that America is not a police state.
I disagree that america is not a police state.

If you want, I can start a seperate thread and just dump in every example why I believe this.

We can let it accumulate for a week and then you can decide for yourself.

[Switchgear]

From Wikipedia:
"Because there are different political perspectives as to what an appropriate balance is between individual freedom and national security, there are no definitive objective standards to determine whether the term "police state" applies to a particular nation at any given point in time. Thus, it is difficult to evaluate objectively the truth of allegations that a nation is, or is becoming, a police state. One way to view the concept of the police state and the free state is through the medium of a seesaw, where any law focused on removing liberty is seen as moving toward a police state, and any law which limits government oversight is seen as moving toward a Free state."

Unless you agree beforehand on a definition of what exactly constitutes a police state, you are not going to have a worthwhile debate.