To the Editor:
Upon casually reviewing the court reports this week I noticed a troubling trend.For just the week of Oct 14-21 the majority of the infractions were dealing with people driving either without a license (or a suspended one), no insurance and/ expired registrations.
While this wasn’t surprising to me what was disconcerting was that the only penalty these people received was to show up in court, pay $100 and go on their way. Case Closed!
Why do we even waste the time of law enforcement to issue these tickets and the court to process them if there are no real penalties. Of course these people are going to offend again and why not? I don’t blame them, I blame the “system.” My guess is the cost of issuing and litigating these cases is in the thousands yet they pay $100 and go on their way.
Why don’t they instead give litigants the option of paying a $2,500 fine, $1,000 of which will be refunded if they bring in evidence of a valid license/permit, insurance and registration? This type of fine would definitely get their attention and perhaps make them stop this irresponsible behavior.
Hate to see the penal system so trivialized by this ridiculous fine.
Jean Kelleher
West Tisbury
