Imagine not paying parking or traffic tickets, only to end up with your car being sold and you receiving none of the money on top of that. It's outright theft/robbery, sanctioned by the state.
After receiving citations for whatever reason, if unpaid, the city has granted itself legal authority to seize the car and sell it to a private company. The owner gets nothing back. Thousands of residents are pulled into this "legal" racket where they fall into a nexus of corruption.
Chicago had 67,000 vehicles booted (wheels clamped down) for unpaid tickets in 2017. When the driver wasn't able to pay for the ticket, the vehicle is impounded. 20,000 cars were impounded, and 8,000 of them ended up being sold off without receiving a penny. The towing contractor who bought the vehicles pocketed millions., while car owners were left with a debt to pay on a car they didn't even sell.
Since 2011, there have been almost 50,000 of these corrupt car "sales". But it's theft. The poor are the most affected, and the city doesn't care.
Residents are being targeted like criminals for simply being unable to pay debt. And this debt is a scam too. Parking tickets. Who has honor in being a meter-maid, giving out tickets to people to extort money from them for violating city ordinances. No one brags about that job.
Apparently Chicago still operates by an old Prohibition-era term where they call ticket crime! Let's go steal their car and sell it. That will show them! Seriously... that's what the mentality is to allow such corrupt behavior.
All that is requires is 2 or 3 outstanding tickets, and the city revenue workers boot a car. Then, owners only have 24 hours to pay the $100 to remove the boot, which is quite unrealistic in such a sort period of time. If not paid, you then owe a $150 towing fee for having the car impounded.
After as little as 3 weeks, the car can be sold while drivers are charged for storage and others fees.
On the first day of booting, you could owe $360 for three tickets, and after 15 days it's over $1,500 being extorted from you for not paying the initial $360. No wonder people hate meter-maids.
Car owners, or former car owners, still have to pay the tickets, towing costs and any related fees, such as storage or late fees. None of the car sales are returned to the owner to pay the debt. It's criminal. The city is a criminal enterprise, yet they treat people who haven't paid tickets as criminals when they go around stealing cars. How Orwellian!
They even sell the car for the scrap price, not even the actual price it's worth. there is a whoel big business involved in this corrupt thievery:
Workers and private contractors issue tickets, collection agencies are hired to recover fines, salaried city workers operate impound lots, hired contractors boot and tow cars, and the city manages sales of cars for scrap prices.
This is all supported by Bush-junior era neo-Con warmonger turned Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel. I guess he knows how to build a controlling authoritarian enterprise. Fines and fees have increased, as have the number of cameras to catch drivers violating traffic or speeding laws. After all, this is an important source of "revenue" for a city. What a farce.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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