Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

All of the vehicle license plates available in America

beautifulpublicdata.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 289 posts

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#211

Post by philwelch »

actuallyalys wrote: post #208
gambiting wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>so removing one's ability to drive is a seriously major punishment. Being caught drunk driving 3(!!!) times is a seriously major crime. I'm a strong advocate for a complete driving ban after a single drunk driving episode, 3 is just crazy to me. I get the argument that in US that basically makes it impossible to get anywhere without a car but I don't know - get a bicycle or something, literally anything is preferab…

I was curious how many people caught driving durnk go on to drive drunk again, and a NHTSA study found an average of about 25 percent of people arrested for drunk driving had a prior arrest. About 30 percent of people with a drunk driving conviction had a prior conviction [0]. This is pretty high. I'm not sure if it's high enough to warrant a permanent ban, but long-term suspensions and mandatory interlocks seem just…

“Proportion of offenders who previously offended” is not necessarily an indication of “proportion of first-time offenders who will reoffend”.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#212

Post by philwelch »

gambiting wrote: post #185
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is "slavery"... why should anyone care? The idea that they can be forced to work without pay bothers you, but that they can be forced to live in a cage doesn't?

Because literally no prisoner in the USA has been explicitly sentenced to this. If you are in prison your sentence is almost certainly restriction of your freedom for a period of time, and not imprisonment + "being forced to work". The fact that the prison system can benefit off of that should offend you and you should be outraged that this is happening across the country.

> Because literally no prisoner in the USA has been explicitly sentenced to this.

False. Arizona law, for one example, specifically provides for sentences of “hard labor”:

https://www.azleg.gov/ars/31/00141.htm

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#213

Post by Scoundreller »

fsckboy wrote: post #191
Scoundreller wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in Europe you’re a lot less likely to get charged with a DUI. Rare to see random checkpoints, and generally rare to have non-automated “mobile” enforcement of traffic rules in Europe (in my US, Canadian, French, German and Croatian driving experience). Heck, in France most collisions don’t even involve police while they’re generally a mandatory report in US/Canada. If you get a DUI in Europe, you were probabl…

collisions in the US only have a "mandatory" report because your insurance company requires it. And you have like three days to go into the police station and file one, and the police don't really pay attention to them. Many drivers think that the police will get involved in every car accident, and when two cars have a little bump, people will stop and get out to "preserve the evidence" for the investigation into "wh…

In Ontario Canada, we have "fault determination rules" - fault gets "Algorithmically" assigned, sometimes illogically. Anti-consumer, but saves the insureco a ton on lawyers and balances out for them.

Often police make you go to them. Tow trucks aren't supposed to bring unreported collision vehicles anywhere but a police station.

Cops here do like to take the interaction as an opportunity to issue a ticket, such as "improper lane change" or "careless driving" (which can be another "hit" on your next insurance renewal in addition to the "hit" from being assigned fault).

source: got summoned into court because the physicist who crashed into me tried to fight their ticket. They lost. My work treats this like jury duty and pays me, but I didn't realize until months later they took it out of my vacation. Grrrr.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#214

Post by actuallyalys »

philwelch wrote: post #211
actuallyalys wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was curious how many people caught driving durnk go on to drive drunk again, and a NHTSA study found an average of about 25 percent of people arrested for drunk driving had a prior arrest. About 30 percent of people with a drunk driving conviction had a prior conviction [0]. This is pretty high. I'm not sure if it's high enough to warrant a permanent ban, but long-term suspensions and mandatory interlocks seem just…

“Proportion of offenders who previously offended” is not necessarily an indication of “proportion of first-time offenders who will reoffend”.

That's a good point. Since it's looking at offenders and not offenses, I don't think they can diverge too much (but perhaps I'm not thinking of the math correctly). I did find a study looking at just first-time offenders, which found a similar level after five years: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095888/figure/....

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#215

Post by chasd00 »

oakesm9 wrote: post #89
some_random wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People usually drive their own car, and taking away someone's license can be life destroying in most parts of the country.

Wait, is it not possible to get banned from driving in the USA? For comparison the drink driving penalties are here: https://www.gov.uk/drink-driving-penalties

Just because you don’t have a license doesn’t mean you miraculously no longer remember how to drive. I recently got my driver’s license renewed after it had been expired for at least 15 years. Never seemed to impact my ability to operate a car safely.

/I have a state ID and passport I use when I need to present valid ID

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#216

Post by Dalewyn »

thrashh wrote: post #192
gambiting wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>so removing one's ability to drive is a seriously major punishment. Being caught drunk driving 3(!!!) times is a seriously major crime. I'm a strong advocate for a complete driving ban after a single drunk driving episode, 3 is just crazy to me. I get the argument that in US that basically makes it impossible to get anywhere without a car but I don't know - get a bicycle or something, literally anything is preferab…

This is going to sound maybe insensitive but I've noticed driving drunk is a cultural thing. I've been with certain groups of people and pretty much it seems everyone and their cousin has a DUI and no one regarded it as a major crime. It sounds crazy but I bet if you were born 40 years earlier, you wouldn't care. Drunk driving wasn't even a thing until Mothers Against Drunk Driving made it a thing in the 80s. I don't…

There's also drunk driving the crime and drunk driving the act.

What I mean by this is that when people go out to eat lunch or dinner, they drive to the restaurant. They obviously need to drive back when they're done. They obviously also had some good drinks while they were there; beer, wine, the works. Even just a sip of alcohol will count as drunk driving, legally speaking.

The police largely turn a blind eye to this, because it's so utterly commonplace and a fact and part of life that policing this would quickly lead to a community and public revolt. Restaurants also happily serve alcohol because drunk driving is not their problem, and restaurants that don't will quickly go out of business anyway.

On the other side of the coin however, if you drive to a liquor store at an ungodly hour the police will be on you in an instant to check if you're driving drunk and arrest you if you are. Why? Because everyone wants or needs to eat and drink, but nobody needs to drop by a liquor store at 10pm.

The police will also check if you're driving drunk if they see you on the road and it's blatantly obvious you can't drive straight. This should go without saying, though; and it means most people who drink at restaurants can drive safe (FSVO safe).

Obligatory IANAL, obligatory don't drink and drive disclaimer.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#217

Post by standardUser »

jdpedrie wrote: post #80
nunez wrote: post #73

> Yes, license plates are still made by cheap prison labor in most states. 80% of all license plates issued in the U.S. today were made by state prisoners, with only 12 states opting out of the practice. According to a 2022 ACLU report on prison labor in the U.S., many states offer no pay at all to prisoners, while the average hourly wage across the country was between 13 and 52 cents per hour So slavery's not dead,…

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

America literally has an exception for slavery.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#218

Post by standardUser »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #84
nunez wrote: post #73

> Yes, license plates are still made by cheap prison labor in most states. 80% of all license plates issued in the U.S. today were made by state prisoners, with only 12 states opting out of the practice. According to a 2022 ACLU report on prison labor in the U.S., many states offer no pay at all to prisoners, while the average hourly wage across the country was between 13 and 52 cents per hour So slavery's not dead,…

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." 13A A. I guess I'm confused you ever thought it was dead. B. The license plate programs are optional, and as I understand it most work details are a desirable distraction from the all encompassing boredom of pr…

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime"

Mince words all you want, the constitution doesn't and makes it very clear that there is an exception for slavery. Of course we could simply pay people for work, as is our custom, and end this depressing argument once and for all.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#219

Post by actionablefiber »

cratermoon wrote: post #66
Tarball10 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Revoking their license does not stop them from driving.

This is a good argument for having a robust and useful public transportation system, as well as designing cities to support such a system. Won't happen in the US in my lifetime, but one can cream.

One can, but I think it is better to dream.

Re: All of the vehicle license plates available in America

#220

Post by Eisenstein »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #210
gambiting wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because literally no prisoner in the USA has been explicitly sentenced to this. If you are in prison your sentence is almost certainly restriction of your freedom for a period of time, and not imprisonment + "being forced to work". The fact that the prison system can benefit off of that should offend you and you should be outraged that this is happening across the country.

> Because literally no prisoner in the USA has been explicitly sentenced to this. I think it's implied in the "incarceration" part of their sentences. But when and where it isn't, I'd be happy to include that in the sentence, if that's your only objection. For the record, some sentences do seem to include the term "hard labor" and the like.

> I think it's implied in the "incarceration" part of their sentences.

The legal profession and justice system is anything but friendly to things 'implied'.

> But when and where it isn't, I'd be happy to include that in the sentence

Are you a judge or a legislator?

> For the record, some sentences do seem to include the term "hard labor" and the like.

I have searched but can find no source which will cite anyone in the recent era sentenced to 'hard labor'. If you can find one I would be grateful.

Post reply on HN