HOME | DD

gregterry480 In reply to BulldozerIvan [2017-11-26 03:37:03 +0000 UTC]

Interesting. Why would you think that should stay permanent? 

👍: 1 ⏩: 1

BulldozerIvan In reply to gregterry480 [2017-11-26 07:25:23 +0000 UTC]

Depends on what happened to Hans.  If he's dead, then under the circumstances, it was arguably a justifiable homicide.  However, killers need to be known as killers.  So others know not to cross them.  Otherwise, death by stupidity runs rampant.  She needs consequences somewhere.  However, I'm not a fan of turning convicts into cash cows.  It reeks of greed and exploitation.

I saw a video recently from 2014, about why states have begun abandoning private probation firms.  So much corruption and greed, it was despicable.  In Georgia, these firms really jumped the shark when they began reinstating probations out of thin air, and not even informing the ex-probationers, without a single cause and with zero judicial oversight.  Why?  All so they could continue to collect monthly fees.  And they loved to target the especially poor, who could barely afford the fees in the first place.  Why?  Desperation guarantee.  A wealthier client could pay them off, or even afford a lawyer and sue the private firm.  The especially poor didn't have those options.  And if the judge received kickbacks, he couldn't care less how unfair this was.

But it also meant that if you ever did pay off your debts and got free, arbitrary reinstatement without judicial oversight meant that they could charge you more fees behind your back without telling you.  Robbing you blind.  And then, when several months of non-payment went by, they could send the Marshals after you.  To lock you up.  At that point, your real crime is not needing the firm anymore, thus cutting them off from continuing to fleece you over and over.  So they can punish you for ever imagining that you can be free just by paying your debt off.

I rework justice systems in my writing wherever possible to be about justice, not greed.  If the situation didn't involve money in principle in the first place, then making it all about money is just plain wrong.  Especially if you can place someone in quintuple jeopardy, usuring them at a 400% simple interest rate without penalty, and essentially reinstating debtors' prisons.  Criminalizing poverty itself.  Such real-life systems make my blood boil.  Bunch of mosquitoes is all they are.

Even in the Gerosha Chronicles, where the Kirby Act is essentially blatant fantastic racism forcing internment of individuals who have near-zero control over what strands of altered DNA they were born with or what abilities they were given, the minor "crimes" that are invented and charges often trumped-up to make their incarcerations look better on paper seldom involve monetary fees.  Unless they're really rich and want to pay to get lesser sentences.  Money for time exchange.  Otherwise, if you're poor, you don't get charged money that doesn't exist.  You just get extra time.  Probation often comes without excessive fees, if any fees.  Just more time to compensate for less money. 

Candi is charged with reckless driving when she is fleeing for her son's life in the Vindication arc, when terrorists are clearly trying to kill her and her son and are stalking them in traffic.  She was already on probation because she broke a man's arm during the Determination arc, and because she left Texas without permission to help thwart an alien invasion in Louisiana.  (All of these cases are arguably justifiable, yet Candi is seldom allowed to defend herself in any meaningful way.)

She gets a rotating three month schedule of day release and full-time incarceration for five years, due to her priors and her juvie record ("leaking" of classified info, being born a GAH, destruction of property, assault, probation violations - mostly consisting of being late coming home, for understandable reasons, yet almost getting blown up on the highway is never allowed as a defense in court.)

However, they don't go fleecing her bank account.  At least, not usually.

So I apply that same standard elsewhere.  Candace "Lemon Witch" Mason goes on mercenary trips to dangerous places, and this erases any monetary fees she might have to pay for her conviction - which she would not be able to afford anyway.  She gets to be a hero and pay her debts, so long as she doesn't die.

Therefore, why not afford such luxuries to Elsa in your scenario?  I hate fleecing just like I hate being fleeced.  And will look for any possible way around it.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0