Justice

Is It Too Much To Ask To Not Throw People Onto The Highways?

Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

jailLast night I had a situation that I found to be quite disappointing. Just after seven o’clock in the evening, I thought I would have dinner at a restaurant on the other side of town and drove over there to dine out. Along the way, I needed to merge onto a major interstate freeway in the metro area having four lanes and busy traffic. As I drove along in the outside lane, it was after dark at the time, I saw a man walking along the hard shoulder of the roadway. I worried that a drunk might veer off the travelled portion and hit him so I pulled over to offer him a ride. Thus began a conversation that really shows how we can often allow people to be put at risk because the county does not want to offer them a modicum of accommodation.

After I picked him up, the gentleman walking around the roadway told me that he had just been released from the county jail after serving time for driving while license suspended. He did not have someone to pick him up from jail so he had no other option but to walk back home. He lived twenty five miles from the jail. The only way he could get home, since he had no money with him, was to walk along a busy interstate freeway.

We previously wrote about the virtual debt peonage and endless circle of jail and further increases of fines with suspended drivers in an article HERE.

It would have taken him until after six in the morning to walk that far. So rather than drive him to the next exit to find another ride I just drove him home.

He was 57 years old, unemployed and had no family available to drive him. He had no other choice than to walk. I asked him if the jail offered him a bus ticket or some other accommodation to allow him to return home after release. He said the jail used to give bus tickets to people in his situation but stopped doing that several years ago.

We had a good visit with each other, but the entire time we were together I could not help but wonder why the county has a system as such that a person of little means is forced to walk twenty five miles home because no effort was made to arrange for his journey. The risk this man faced from being hit by a drunk driver, stopped by the state patrol for being a pedestrian on a limited access freeway, or simply collapsing from exhaustion is certainly not something that we should accept nor something a person released from custody should endure.

I recognize that the sheriff’s office is not a taxi service and has no obligation to provide transport for released inmates after their term has expired, but couldn’t the county at least take a few more steps to ensure that someone can either pick up the inmate or try to prevent a situation where a fifty seven year old does not have to walk twenty five miles to get home?

Is this too much to ask?

By Darren Smith

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

440 thoughts on “Is It Too Much To Ask To Not Throw People Onto The Highways?”

  1. The sole purpose for any identification is to make certain that I am who I say I am. This is done through the process of voter registration. Once that is accomplished, the documentation delivered to me by the registrar should be sufficient, without more, for the nice volunteers at my polling place. Indeed, my Florida voter registration used to be sufficient identification for clearing customs on dive trips to the Bahamas.

    State legislators who have approved new burdens to voting have candidly admitted that they sought, at least in part, to reduce voting by certain groups, including minorities and students. It is not only racism at work. There are many people who argue that universal suffrage is undesirable, that voting should be restricted to those who are perceived to have a larger “stake” in the outcome of elections. By the word “stake,” voting opponents are referring to the economic interests of those who own something. The assumption underlying this view is that the poor and students, for example, do not contribute sufficiently to societal interests to warrant their inclusion in the class of those whose consent is required for legitimate government. They will frequently buttress their arguments with references to those of the Founders who openly professed the view that their own interests would be at risk unless the reins of government were restricted to “men of affairs,” meaning men just like them.

    We have matured as a society and most of us now recognize that everyone has a societal role to play and everyone has a right to participate in the choice of representatives. Those who reject that notion are reactionary in the classic sense.

    There are certainly times when I read election returns and secretly wish that voting eligibility were restricted to people as smart and well-educated as I. I will likely have that fleeting experience several weeks from now. But until I’m made the king, I’ll just have to accept the fact that I don’t get to decide what’s best for everyone else.

    1. Mike A – if they are trying to reduce voting by students, that is not racism. Not sure what it is educationism?

    2. Mike Appleton wrote: “The sole purpose for any identification is to make certain that I am who I say I am. This is done through the process of voter registration. Once that is accomplished, the documentation delivered to me by the registrar should be sufficient, without more, for the nice volunteers at my polling place. Indeed, my Florida voter registration used to be sufficient identification for clearing customs on dive trips to the Bahamas.”

      You make a good point here. Voter registration also is accepted as a form of identification when trying to get picture ID. States like Florida that require ID have made the registration card almost useless. The polling places don’t want to see a voter registration card. They just want to see your ID. Your name on the list is evidence that you are registered to vote.

      Mike Appleton wrote: “State legislators who have approved new burdens to voting have candidly admitted that they sought, at least in part, to reduce voting by certain groups, including minorities and students.”

      Could you give me any examples of which State legislators have said this? The few times I have checked on these claims, the original sources actually admitted to a strategy of limiting early voting, which to me seems unconnected from the idea of requiring ID. This is because the more time there is for early voting, the more time there is to harass the uninterested voters into casting a vote for your favorite guy. And the party who harasses voters to vote is mostly the Democratic party. They capitalize on the strategy of getting the ignorant and poor out to vote in order to cancel out the votes of the more knowledgeable voters. Republicans capitalize on the strategy of educating voters to vote responsibly for the best candidate.

  2. ‘cat,
    I don’t care if you mention my name, I apparently was not clear in my position and that’s my responsibility. I can see how both sides of this argument can assume the worst motives on the other. This sort of polarization is toxic to rational debate and if we all took a deep breath and try to argue the other point of view then we might find we are in more agreement than we think. 😉

    1. Thanks, Olly. I know there’s a common ground, but the ground seems to keep on shifting. I once could converse easily with people with opposing views, but now it’s far more difficult. I find myself on the defensive quite a bit.

  3. Chestercat,
    I didn’t “mention” the Koch brothers and in fact the article was regarding Steyer’s scheme to suppress Republican voter turnout. I also don’t see David as trying to prove me wrong but rather we are in agreement for the need of securing voting integrity. I’m fairly confident we are both in agreement that we DO NOT desire to suppress any qualified voter from exercising that positive right; we very simply want to ensure ALL votes are legitimate so that the electorate has confidence in the outcome, regardless of who wins.

    1. Olly,

      Sorry if I misquoted you, but he seemed to imply that in his reply to you. I have no problem with voter integrity, but I am sorely tired of hearing that Democrats are against voter ID simply because we want to register illegals, or for whatever other hairbrained reason. I won’t mention your name again, and I again apologize.

    1. Olly, that is fascinating. Everybody talks about the Koch brothers, but nobody talks about the biggest political donor: Democrat Tom Steyer. It is amazing how effective his propaganda campaign has been to demonize Republicans and the libertarian Koch brothers.

  5. chester, As you probably know, we lived in KC and were huge fans of their last great teams in the 70’s/80’s. I love this team. Here’s the irony, the Achilles heel of those teams was the bullpen. This team, it’s their strength. And, in a postseason series, bullpen is key. Got a lotta friends down in that great city and may zip down for some baseball and BBQ if I can score some tix. This is one of the most fun teams to watch in a long time.

  6. NO ONE that I’ve read here has said voter fraud is “rampant.” Many have said it must be “widespread” before measures are taken. “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.”

  7. Chester David gave as an example some folks being, I believe arrested, for ask fraudulently attempting to get absentee ballots. (I think I was the first here to post what Posner said) I am on your side not David’s and the others who keep saying despite all the information out there that voter fraud ius rampant, it is just evidently, invisible. at least to all but David and those on his side who feel their truth is the truth regardless of evidence to the contrary

    1. lee –
      I think I was just taking the opportunity to vent. I know you agree with me. The interesting point in all of this is that the only arrests made for actual fraud have had “R”s behind their names, and some of them were legit errors as well. Posner truly made his case, and made it well, particularly since what he was doing was refuting his previous position. Because of that, he took care to list the reasons why he was doing so. He’s not a careless juror.

      1. chestercat wrote: “The interesting point in all of this is that the only arrests made for actual fraud have had “R”s behind their names.”

        How fraudulent of you! One of the very first cases I mentioned was about Democrat State Representative Christina Ayala being arrested and charged with 19 accounts of voter fraud.

        Maybe you should read this link about democrats arrested or convicted of voter fraud:
        http://www.virginiavotersalliance.com/democrats-arrested-and-or-convicted-of-voter-fraud/

    2. leejcaroll wrote: “I am on your side not David’s and the others who keep saying despite all the information out there that voter fraud ius rampant, it is just evidently, invisible. at least to all but David and those on his side who feel their truth is the truth regardless of evidence to the contrary.”

      I don’t think you have ever read me saying that voter fraud is rampant. Based upon my observation of the evidence, it has been well proven that there are dishonest people who abuse elections. Some have stolen elections through voter fraud. The Democrats even tried to steal the election from President Bush but the Supreme Court stepped in and put a stop to their nonsense. So my position is that contrary to some in this forum who have characterized the problem as a non-existent threat of fraud, only one case of fraud is enough to indicate we need voter integrity. There have been thousands of cases of voter fraud, and so we need a secure system of voting for it to have any meaning.

      Now the truth is that I personally do not object to the idea of making the law not require ID to vote. Getting an ID replaced for someone who has just been mugged with all his possession stolen is difficult, and such a person would not be able to vote. Anyone who claims that no voters would be disenfranchised by requiring ID is wrong.

      What I object to is people falsely claiming that voter fraud does not exist. Most of all, I object to people proclaiming without any argument whatsoever that voting is a fundamental human right, and that universal and equal suffrage is the only kind of voting that should be allowed by the law. Voting is whatever the government decides it is. The weight the voting has in how government works is entirely determined by government. The arguments should simply focus upon how much democracy is good and how much is bad. Some would rather assume, probably because of long term indoctrination in public schools, that democracy is good and the baseline for good government. That assumption should be analyzed thoroughly considering that the founding fathers of our government criticized democracy and said that they always fail. The founding fathers chose a different form of government, a republic, with limited voting rights.

  9. David, At one of your links “Henry has been put on administrative leave, with pay, from his position at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach. He’s an assistant principal and has worked there for 18 years. ”

    Great example for the kids. 🙁

  10. David, most of your examples would be taken care of with more rigorous attention to maintenance of the rolls. Obituaries should be used and the state should have a system to notify the old district when someone registers in a new district. When I moved I registered for my new location but didn’t inform my old location. If I had been asked for my previous address, perhaps with proof of previous residence, I would have been on two different rolls.

    1. @bettykath

      Not only that, if you actually read some of the documents cited, they are troubling accounts where more investigation is required not accounts of actual fraud.

      For example the cite to 765 cases of fraud was in fact an article about 765 cases where there were legitimate questions: “Mitch Kokai, spokesman for the right-leaning John Locke Foundation, said in an email that he doubts all 765 cases were legitimate fraud — but some likely were.eg”.

      All of us ought to be against election fraud. But making unsupported claims does not help. And non of these numbers suggest that policies that would eliminate 2 to 3% of legitimate voters would lead to more fair or accurate elections. On the contrary, eliminating 2 to3% of legitimate voters would lead to less accurate elections and would unfairly penalize law abiding citizens.

      As you have pointed out we have techniques in place that can do much to reduce the already low levels of election fraud – if we would just apply them.

  12. The dead can vote in NYC.

    Undercover DOI agents were able to access voting booths in 61 instances — including 39 dead people, 14 jail birds and eight non-residents. Only twice were the agents blocked.

    It was easy to scam the system because poll workers did not closely check birth dates or signatures of the ineligible voters. In all cases, probers voted for a fictitious “John Test’’ instead of a real candidate.

    In some cases, young investigators were able to vote under the name of a dead person three times their age.

    For example, a 24-year female was able to access the ballot at a Manhattan poll site in November under the name of a deceased female who was born in 1923 and died in April 25, 2012 — and would have been 89 on Election Day.

    Also at a Manhattan poll site, a 33-year-male investigator was able to vote under the name of a deceased man who would have been 94 on Election Day.

    DOI said the agents cast votes for fictitious candidates so as to not affect any races.

    http://nypost.com/2013/12/30/the-dead-can-vote-in-nyc/

  13. Reyna Almanza and her son strolled into the Progreso, Texas, school board election in 2009 just like 1,100 of their neighbors, cast their ballots and left. But hours later Almanza took her son back to the polls, where he used his incarcerated brother’s name to vote a second time, breaking election laws and landing both mother and son in court.

    1. David – All the examples you cited were apparently found out before the votes were tabulated, and in no event would an ID have stopped them. I have voted by mail for the last 14 years, not because I don’t have proper ID, but because I also fear voting fraud; that of electronic tabulation. I worked as a precinct captain during the 2012 elections, and it took several of us over 2 hours after the polls closed to get the number of voters to match the number of votes. They finally did. Why? I don’t know – for all I know, maybe Diebold realized that there were people looking into the tallies in my precinct. See how this can all be fraught with fraud (forgive the alliteration)? Don’t forget, too, that I’m one who CARES about voting.

      1. chestercat1 wrote: “All the examples you cited were apparently found out before the votes were tabulated, and in no event would an ID have stopped them.”

        Wrong. In the case of the New York investigators, 61 votes were cast for “John Test.”

        The following two examples should have easily been stopped by examining ID:

        1) a 24-year female voted under the name of a deceased female who would have been 89 years old on election day.

        2) a 33-year-male investigator was able to vote under the name of a deceased man who would have been 94 on Election Day.

        3) the man who voted under his own name, then after he left, he changed his clothes and went back in to vote under his father’s name.

        There are several more examples, but I am not going to keep doing your research for you. I’m just pointing out to the few reading this thread that election fraud happens despite your attempts to marginalize it.

        One problem you don’t seem to acknowledge is that nobody in the polling places or overseeing elections are looking for fraud. Most of them think like you do, that people are honest and so the problem does not exist. Then you try to use their lack of prosecuting fraud as evidence that it does not exist. This is absurd faulty reasoning. Paucity of evidence is not evidence it has never happened unless very diligent efforts have been made to prosecute it. The truth is that not too many are looking that hard for voter fraud, and many people are working hard to make sure that the path for voter fraud remains open. They have even invented a lie that the Republican strategy to insure voter integrity is really all about disenfranchising voters who are uneducated and poor. Can you believe that some people actually believe that lie that lacks any evidence whatsoever? They don’t even have a lame interview recording from Lee Atwater taken out of context in order to try to make their case. All they have is their lie.

        The best you can manage is to show one specific form of voter fraud, voter impersonation, does not happen as much as other types of fraud, but then after showing its rarity, you change your language to claim such voter fraud has never happened. Some even transition to say voter fraud in general is not a problem. These assertions are lies, which is why I took some time to document otherwise.

  15. The N.C. State Board of Elections said last week that an interstate initiative found 765 voters who cast more than one ballot in the last election.

    The voters, who went to the polls in North Carolina and another state, shared first and last names and the last four digits of their social security numbers. The initiative found thousands more that matched only in first and last names.

    http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/04/study-finds-765-cases-of-nc-voter-fraud-in-2012-election

  17. Of course there are corrupt politicians but getting more people to vote won’t fix it. ID’s and increased participation are the least we should be doing.

  18. There is vote fraud, but requiring ids won’t fix it. The biggest fraud is committed by those who own the machines and put in back doors so they can manipulate the outcome (see blackboxvoting.org). Paper ballots can also be counted fraudulently (google Scotland referendum fraud). Instances in the US can also be found. (see blackboxvoting.org)

  19. I wont get into a tit for tat with you Paul. As I said to me neither of your theories hold water. (esp when there still is no information that the man was an addict or alcoholic nd yet you continued to cling to that “theory” President Obama is not a Muslim but many still cling to that theory. I is a matter of having an open mind to reality and facts, or not

  20. Paul re your theory about the immigrants. That holds as much water as your theory that the man Darren picked up had to be an addict or alcoholic.

    1. leejcaroll – would you like to go back to where I said it was a theory the guy was an addict or alcoholic? You can be co-dependent all you want. I refuse to be.

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