• @grue
    link
    English
    52 months ago

    In the UK we have a points system and if you get enough points you lose your licence and have to reapply. This was introduced because the wealthy didn’t really care about getting tickets if it was just a small (relative to their wealth) fine. You can get points for any automatic fines from speeding, running red lights, illegal U-turns, etc, plus any court issued fines.

    In the US we also have a points system, which means that the wealthy hire lawyers for traffic offenses to plea-bargain them down to zero-point ones.

    Also, criminal offenses can only be charged by a human (because the accused has the right to confront their accuser and there’s nobody to confront if it’s a machine), so the automated systems only ever issue civil “infractions” with no points.