Opinion

Over-Criminalization Is Not the Answer

George Landrith and Dina Roumeliotis President, Frontiers of Freedom; Research Fellow, Frontiers of Freedom
Font Size:

Most Americans prize their freedom of mobility. Yet most do not realize that many states criminalize driving only 10 mph over the speed limit. For example, in Virginia, the top highway speed limit is 70 mph and driving faster than 80 mph can get you a criminal reckless driving conviction — facing up to one year in jail and fines up to $2,500,  plus, thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Let’s put this in perspective, on an open freeway with a 70 mph speed limit, the natural flow of traffic is at least 78 to 85 mph. So for driving with the flow of traffic, you could become a criminal and be threatened with a year in jail and thousands more in fines and legal fees.

If government continues criminalizing small, ordinary infractions occasionally committed by everyone, soon every American can be a criminal and even spend time in jail.

Over-criminalization — imposing draconian and wildly unbalanced penalties that have no reasonable relationship to the gravity of the offense — has become a real problem in America. More and more, government is criminalizing insanely idiotic things like paperwork errors, misunderstanding the regulations or laws of a foreign nation, following procedures provided by your employer that unbeknownst to you contravene some obscure environmental policy, etc. Government shouldn’t be criminalizing minor things that virtually everyone does at some point.

We are not arguing that speeding laws should not be enforced. We are simply saying that speeding should be treated as a traffic violation with a reasonable ticket and fine — not as a jailable crime.

There are societal costs to this craziness — jobs lost, careers ruined, families damaged, and upstanding citizens unfairly labeled criminals. What happens to a teacher convicted of so-called criminal reckless driving, or someone with a security clearance?

When an officer can treat a traffic stop as a simple speeding violation or a crime — how comfortable are you that your bumper stickers, vehicle type, or appearance won’t factor into the determination of whether you get a ticket or go to jail?

Most police officers (and all that we know personally) are dedicated and fair. But a few bad apples can abuse their discretion to single out drivers they don’t like and threaten them with serious criminal sanctions.

This isn’t just a theoretical problem. In researching for this article, we spoke with a young professional whom we will call him Robert. He studied criminal justice in college. He works as an advocate for at-risk youth with a local government. Robert is friendly, articulate and cerebral.

One night, Robert was visiting a college friend to work on cooperative youth programs. As the meeting ended, Robert learned that his aging grandmother had fallen seriously ill and was in a hospital about an hour away.  He drove his Toyota Camry on a rural freeway towards the hospital. Traffic was light and Robert traveled with the flow of traffic using cruise control. The posted speed limit was 70. Soon an officer who hadn’t used radar, pulled Robert over and accused Robert of reckless driving.

Despite Robert’s calm demeanor, the officer was antagonistic, unwilling to listen and made wild accusations and threats. While it shouldn’t matter, Robert is a black man. And while we may never know for sure, Robert felt like his race was a factor in the officer’s treatment.

Robert hired an attorney and went to court. In the end, he decided to accept a criminal reckless driving conviction with no jail time and paid about $3,000 in fines, court costs and attorney’s fees. That seemed a lot better than the threatened jail time. Given the law’s unreasonable criminalization or normal highway driving and the government’s willingness to use the threat of jail and criminal fines as leverage, he was left with few other options.

Robert was out $3,000 and a lot of time off from work to attend multiple court hearings. Now Robert lives in fear that if his boss found out about his misdemeanor conviction it could jeopardize his bright future. In contrast, a simple speeding ticket would have cost about $200, with no time off from work and no worries about his future. As bad as all of this is, it could have been even worse. Had Robert not had the resources to hire an attorney, he could have received jail time.

Some naively argue that states have these draconian laws to promote safety. But Germany has higher speed limits and comparatively fewer highway deaths. The real reason states criminalize simple speeding is it makes highways cash machines for nearby jurisdictions. A criminal reckless driving conviction can generate ten times the cash. And the threat of jail, allows prosecutors to extract huge fines.

This, simply put, it immoral. It is an abuse of power and shouldn’t be tolerated.

Virginia and other states must review their traffic laws and treat speeding as a traffic violation with appropriate fines. Imposing jail time for a simple traffic violation opens the door to abuse and injustice. Let’s hope that government stops making criminals of good, decent, and productive Americans who happen to drive a little too fast on the freeway.

George Landrith is the President & CEO of Frontiers of Freedom.  Dina Roumeliotis is a Research Fellow at Frontiers of Freedom. 

Tags : crime
George Landrith and Dina Roumeliotis

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel