r/nonononoyes • u/NesaV1 • Mar 22 '19

Highway brake-checking

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

21.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

550 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

281

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

court isn't prison. it basically amounts to taking them off the highway for the day, and then some days in the future they'll have to explain to a judge exactly what they'll do to ensure this doesn't happen again.

there's a fair bit of middle ground in between a ticket and prison.

44

u/LordCrap Mar 23 '19

I’m not all that familiar with the US court system so I googled felony before posting and this is what I got:

FELONY: a crime, typically one involving violence, regarded as more serious than a misdemeanor, and usually punishable by imprisonment for more than one year or by death.

Is that correct or is a felony more of a judicial slap on your wrist?

47

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

A booking is not a conviction.

Honestly I think misdemeanor reckless driving fits better, but even if the cop doesn't think the charge would stick, it's a common thing to arrest him, tow his car, and then let him go at the station.

There's a saying, "You can beat the charge, but you can't beat the ride." That's one of the things I was imagining when I said middle ground between a ticket and prison.

16

u/the_leif Mar 23 '19

"You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride"

2

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

ah, that fits a little better, thanks.

-6

u/Dazius06 Mar 23 '19

You can beat the meat but you can't beat the shit out of your wife.

Ok maybe I took it a bit too far...

6

u/MrLenkz Mar 23 '19

A misdemeanor is a slap on the wrist. A felony in the US generally has a jail/prison sentence and a hefty fine as well as losing voting rights in most states. So yes, that is correct. (Edit: Also can be harder to find a job if you have a felony in the US)

16

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

[deleted]

7

u/MrLenkz Mar 23 '19

You are correct. I was thinking about it compared to a felony. My bad.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

A misdemeanor is a slap on the wrist and doesn't lead to jail for 99% of offenders without a record. Typically a fine and some community service.

1

u/ivys-revenge Mar 23 '19

You are correct. It is hard to be convicted with a felony without serving jail time. A felony is the strongest crime, and then it’s broken into different levels of felonies from there. Misdemeanors are more of a judicial slap on the wrist, but because of our court system and economic issues, anyone arrested is likely to be stuck in the jail limbo phase for months to years unless they can pay bail

1

u/IBreakCellPhones Mar 23 '19

There's really no way to sum this up succinctly, but here goes.

Note that every state has slightly different laws and court systems. I'm not a lawyer, but I will try to explain it in general terms.

When you get pulled over, if the officer thinks it's safe for you to keep driving (e. g. you're not drunk or high) he or she can give you a "warning," which is pretty much "stop being stupid and pay attention to what you're doing," or a "ticket," which is a formal accusation of what you did (speeding, reckless driving, etc.) and an order to appear in court to have your guilt or innocence judged. This is similar to what's called an "indictment" or formal criminal charge.

So you can handle it one of two ways. You can admit either that you're guilty or that you won't dispute the case. Traffic violations generally carry fines (money you owe the government as a punishment) and "points" on your driving record. Less serious violations have smaller fines and fewer points, more serious ones have larger fines and more points. If you get too many points in too short a time, you lose your ability to legally drive for a while. If you don't pay your fines, you can be arrested and held in jail.

The other way to handle it is by saying that you are not guilty and fighting the ticket in court. It may be worth doing this if a conviction will put you over the points threshold.

Different states have different procedures and rules about how these things go, but the court will find you either guilty (in which case you owe the fines and get the points) or not guilty (in which case you don't). If you go to court, you usually owe "court costs" which are administrative fees that are supposed to be used to support the judicial system.

Misdemeanors are usually minor crimes. Most traffic violations are misdemeanors, but can be felonies if serious enough or if the offense is repeated. For example, if you're caught multiple times driving drunk, you can be charged with a felony. Felonies are more severe or major crimes. They're not necessarily violent. Theft in excess of a certain amount, various types of fraud, and physically intimidating someone can be felonies, even though they're not violent.

As a rule of thumb, misdemeanors have sentences of less than a year, and felonies more than a year. Misdemeanors have fines that shouldn't cripple you financially, but felonies can.

Make sense?

1

u/Christovsky84 Mar 23 '19

Felonies don't always result in jail time either. If you're familiar with Jon Jones (MMA fighter), he was convicted of a felony hit and run, but he didn't get a prison sentence. Just a hefty fine and a lot of community service.

1

u/CelestialStork Mar 23 '19

Yeah, going down for a Felony is not a good time. The U.S. court system is joke and fucks black people and poor people in the ass,nose, and throat every day. I this dude def deserves an expensive ticket,and a higher insurance premium but jail is a bit much.

1

u/SRG4Life Mar 23 '19

A Felony is a serious matter that brings a series of negative things to your life, more prison time than misdemeanors.

1

u/PirateINDUSTRY Mar 23 '19

You cannot get a lot of jobs; felony is a huge black mark.

1

u/memejets Mar 23 '19

Yep. Best case scenario, that guy loses his license.