WND 11/19/2022
Program takes entire vehicles over fines of a few hundred dollars
A federal judge has dashed hopes by officials in Wilmington, Delaware, that their scheme to confiscate vehicles will escape review.
The Institute for Justice has confirmed that U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly rejected the city's demand that the case be dismissed.
"Wilmington can’t have it both ways," he said, noting that either the victims have an argument that taking the whole value of their car for simple parking tickets is an excessive fine, or the owners have a claim that the city is taking property from them without compensation since their tickets don’t rise to the value of the cars, the IJ reported.
In 2021, two victims of Wilmington’s tow-and-impound racket, Ameera Shaheed and Earl Dickerson, filed a lawsuit seeking to bring an end to Wilmington’s unconstitutional impound system.
The IJ explained Wilmington "contracts out its municipal impound system to private towing companies and funds the whole system by letting these companies wrongfully take and keep people’s cars."
The IJ explained, "The city ticketed Ameera’s legally parked car six times in nine days. While her appeal of the wrongly issued tickets was pending, the city towed her car and demanded payment in full. When Ameera, a disabled grandmother of three, could not afford to pay the more than $300 in tickets within 30 days, First State Towing scrapped her car. Though Ameera’s lost car was worth over $4,000, Wilmington still demands payment and has actually increased what she owes with added penalties to $580."
More:
https://www.wnd.com/2022/11/judge-dashes-citys-hopes-car-confiscation-scheme-will-escape-review/
