Long story short: Man gets speeding ticket for going 40 in 25 zone. Goes to trial to plead for reduced fine, ends up getting fined $1,000, a year of probation, driving school and a lifetime ban from the county.
At first glance, it’s basically an epically large punishment for a seemingly innocuous 15 mph over the limit offense. Now most people probably wouldn’t really care about getting banned from Walton County, Georgia, considering it’s outside the perimeter, east of Atlanta and really isn’t known for anything other than being a scenic route on the way to Athens. Honestly, in spite of the fact that the punished claims to feel that it’s unfortunate that he can’t legally visit friends he has in Walton County anymore, or capitalize on free babysitting, I can’t imagine the ban is the end of the world for him either.
The thing is however, the probation that he’s put on, which makes him legally incapable of leaving the country during the year in which it’s in effect. Considering he’s a legal US citizen having emigrated from Jamaica, it doesn’t sound like he has a habit of visiting his homeland on a regular basis, but now it’s off the board as an option for the next year; I know people simply don’t like it when the options are taken away from them.
So ultimately, the question is was this punishment justifiable or was it overkill?
A part of me is curious if this is one of those race things, because according to the omniscient Wikipedia, Walton County’s demographics is pretty much over 80% white, and less than 16% black; with Georgia being a historically racist state, and Walton kind of falling into the criteria of “outside the realm of progression,” it begs to wonder if this a little bit race motivated.
However on the flip side, we have no idea how the guilty party acted in court. For starters, he didn’t have to attempt to plead the fine down, in which the situation may never had escalated to his eventual banning/probation/escalated fine, had he simply just paid the initial fine. Although he claims to not have been disrespectful to the judge, it’s ultimately his-word-against-theirs, and in the court of law such is pointless, and he clearly raised the ire of the preceding judge.
Ultimately, Mr. Guilty still broke the law when he was going 40 in a 25 zone. I know how much getting caught for that sucks, because the first ever ticket I ever got in my life was exactly the same circumstance, but all I had was a $129 fine to pay. I wasn’t banned from my county, nor did I even have to take a driving class afterward. It didn’t affect my ability to be able to get on a plane to go wherever I may have wanted. A part of me feels for the guys for getting such a harsh punishment, but based on the seeming lack of remorse or notion that he hasn’t learned that speeding is bad, it makes me wonder what hidden facts might have made the punishment worth the crime.
