if this garbage legislation, ordinance, whatever you want to call it is any indication of whats in store for us from this new mayoral administration its gonna be a long four years...
the city council and mayor of alexandria, louisiana for all intents and purposes have rescinded the constitution of the united states. specifically section one of the fourteenth amendment:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
according to this town talk article (see link) apparently alexandria has a problem with "abandoned" automobiles. under the new ordinance the definition of an abandoned vehicle is:Any motor vehicle which does not have lawfully affixed thereto, both an unexpired license plate or plates and a valid motor vehicle safety inspection certificate is an abandoned vehicle.
these are the only three exceptions:(1) Race car.
(2) Established antique car.
(3) Military personnel on active duty.
furthermore, according to the town talk: "The change in the law is that there is no hearing in City Court, which means the vehicles should be moved faster now." do you see the problem here? the city of alexandria is taking away due process! the city can just come in and arbitrarily take your property away without any hearing of any kind whatsoever. and by the way where exactly is the law at that says that in order to own property you must also keep insurance inforce and maintain a valid inspection sticker? what the heck is going on here? it looks like the city of alexandria, is taking away the right to own property and making it a privilege subject to the whim of bureaucrats.now who exactly is going to benefit from this new law? looks like certain tow truck companies, junk yards, used auto part houses and on the flip side insurance agents, auto parts houses and state inspection sticker garages.if the city can pass this and get away with it what else will they be able to pass? what other property of ours will they be able to just arbitrarily seize? now if you look at those pictures in the town talk article (better hurry they take their pages down a lot faster nowadays) you will see that they are very deceptive because all the so called abandoned vehicles they show you are in the uh huh black neighborhoods.and thats another thing -- you say well iam a middle class white guy, i have a good job and live in a good neighborhood - tanglewood if you must know. this isnt gonna affect me and my kind this is just for those miscreants over in the sonia quarters and sam town-woodside you know people and places like that. uh huh.
now lets just say god forbid something happens and you inherit grand maw's old car. you got a kid thats going to be getting his drivers license in a couple of years and some extra space in your driveway and hey it will be good training for your kid too because you can use the promise of "their car" to kinda sorta keep them in check and give them something to do by having them wash it ever once in awhile and keep the seats and tires and the dashboard armor-alled so the sun dont crack everything and dry rot the tires. and they will get to crank it up a couple of times a week...so you take grand maw's old car and park it there. naturally, you turn in the license plate because why do you want to pay insurance on a car you arent going to be driving? well now according to this odor-ince you have an abandoned vehicle and the city can come take it. its not a race car, (btw all the race cars we've ever seen parked at someone's house have always been up on trailers,) its not an antique and you arent in the military.now we arent saying that the city is crooked but human nature being what it is lets suppose we have some collusion going on between the tow-truck operators and the junk yards and the auto parts houses and code enforcement and the police. of coz collusion has never happened before right? so lets just suppose it happens over time. everybody is making some extra money going around seizing all these "abandoned" cars and reselling them for parts or whatever and over time the law has been tweaked, administratively, so that now they can sell your grand maw's car instantly because remember they have already taken away your fourteenth amendment due process rights so whats left to protect you? so you come home one day and grand maw's car is gone and theres not a damn thing you can do about it.
oh and since the odo-rince includes cars "abandoned" on private property they can have people going around neighborhoods finding "abandoned" vehicles and phoning in tips for a small commission of coz. or your neighbor and you have a falling out whats to stop them from being vindictive and phoning in your "abandoned" vehicle?
this law is patently unconstitutional and we really expected better from this thomas jefferson quoting mayor and we hope that when the city gets sued over this, that the plaintiff provided they get a cough, cough honest judge, is awarded a hell of a punitive damage judgment.
and to alexandria's african american community when are you going to wise up and realize that you are being used? these five councilmen are all african american's and they all voted against your best interest. heck they even declared this ordinance which denies you due process adopted the day after the martin luther king, jr., holiday. to justify it they used the town talk to make your communities look bad. we hereby nominate "some more negroes who are embarrassing the rest of us for all of white america to see" to the next edition of field negro's, semi-annual, the stepin fetchit awards (the coonies) alexandria, louisiana city councilmen: charles f. smith, jr., everett c. hobbs, louis marshall, roosevelt l. johnson and myron k. lawson
heres the ordinance as published from the town talks website:
ORDINANCE NO. 22-2007
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 13-22
OF THE CITY CODE PERTAINING TO ABANDONED VEHICLES AND
OTHER MATTERS WITH RESPECT THERETO.
SECTION I: BE IT ORDAINED by the Council of the City of Alexandria, Louisiana, in legal session convened, that the Council hereby amends Section 13-22 of the City Code pertaining to abandoned vehicles.
SECTION II: BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, etc., that the amendment is as follows:
Sec. 13-22. Abandoned vehicle considered nuisance.
Any motor vehicle which does not have lawfully affixed thereto, both an unexpired license plate or plates and a valid motor vehicle safety inspection certificate is an abandoned vehicle. Exceptions are as follows:
(1) Race car.
(2) Established antique car.
(3) Military personnel on active duty.
Any abandoned vehicle whether parked on city right-of-way, public, or private property shall be tagged by the police department and/or code enforcement officer for the city to be removed within ten (10) days. If at the end of the ten-day period the vehicle has not been removed, the police department and/or code enforcement officer for the city are hereby authorized to remove or cause to be removed the vehicle and cause the same to be impounded in a designated garage. All charges incurred in the removal of the vehicle and/or retrieval of the vehicle from the designated garage will be at the expense of the vehicle owner. Said vehicle may be subject to forfeiture for failure to claim based upon the Louisiana Revised Statutes.
SECTION III: BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, etc., that this ordinance shall become effective upon signature by the Mayor, or, if not signed or vetoed by the Mayor, upon expiration of the time for ordinances to become law without a signature by the Mayor.
SECTION IV: BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, etc., that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items, or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications, and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.
SECTION V: BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, etc., that all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
THIS ORDINANCE was introduced on the 22nd day of December, 2006.
NOTICE PUBLISHED ON THE 27th day of December, 2006.
THIS ORDINANCE having been submitted in writing, introduced and published, was then submitted to a final vote as a whole, the vote thereon being as follows:
YEAS: Smith, Hobbs, Marshall, Johnson, Lawson, Silver.
NAYS: None.
ABSENT: Fowler.
AND THE ORDINANCE was declared adopted on this the 16th day of January, 2007 and final publication was made in the Alexandria Daily Town Talk on the 19th day of January, 2007.
EXTERNAL LINK
