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Dropped your keys? That'd be a $200 fine
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 2:50 am
by Rookierookie
A housewife was fined $1,500 for littering after dropping what she says was her house key near her home.
Her penalty notice, seen by the South China Morning Post, charged her with littering with a key on January 3.
"While I was pulling out my coin purse, I felt that some other thing might have slipped out from my pocket," Lau Shiu-fun, 55, wrote in a complaint filed with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, and the Ombudsman. "Within seconds, I found that a door key of mine was on the floor. As soon as I started to reach down to pick up my key, four male officers of the FEHD rushed in and essentially formed a man-wall, totally blocked my way and forbade me from picking up my key.
"They claimed that I had committed littering! Oh, for God's sake, who would litter with their own home's door key?"
The incident occurred at 4.30pm in Lok Shan Road, less than a block from her home in Ma Tau Wai.
Mrs Lau said she tried to reason with the officers but was warned police would be called if she tried to resist. On being told that, she insisted that they called the police. Instead four more hygiene inspectors showed up.
"All eight big men formed a circle around me while bystanders were watching," she said. "Were they about to fight an armed, 6-foot tall, soldier-like male criminal? I am just a 4-foot-11, 95-pound woman doing grocery shopping. I felt totally intimidated and insulted."
She said that after waiting 10 minutes without any police showing up, she gave the hygiene officers her personal details and accepted the penalty notice because she realised they would not let her go otherwise.
"I let the officers record my information and left the horrible place, while insisting that I did not commit any offence."
The hygiene department yesterday acknowledged it had received Mrs Lau's complaint but would not comment on any of her allegations.
"Ms Lau has written to us on January 6 disputing her liability ... for the offence," it said.
"We are considering her representation. If it is rejected, Ms Lau may also seek redress in court. In the same letter, Ms Lau lodged a complaint against the approach undertaken by staff of this department when issuing the . We are looking into the allegations."
Quoted from [url=http://www.scmp.com,]www.scmp.com,[/url]today. No link - paid website. $1500 is approximately $187.5 in American dollars. Hong Kong, following Singapore's footsteps, recently implemented a penalty system for littering.
A good thing? Certainly. But God, haven't these people ever heard of, say, accidents? Don't they know the meaning of the word flexibility?
Maybe the woman wasn't being entirely truthful. But let's look at the facts for a moment. She was charged with littering with a
key? That seems just a little unlikely. Keys aren't the kind of things that are regularly seen in rubbish bins, even old keys. I would have thought that common sense dictates that the woman might have just dropped it on accident.
I'm quite interested to see how this turns out.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:46 am
by Magrus
She was fined for littering her house key? First of all, anyone who has the lack of sense to actually accuse someone of littering the object which permits entrance into their home is a moron. Second, why are they in a position to do such a thing without a brain worth metioning? Third, I do wish to know whether the lady is actually forced to pay the fine. Accidents happen, next they'll be charging people who trip and fall with littering.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:56 am
by jakkomik
That is totally correct... I guess the littering fine is a good thing, the streets might be clean again. But has anyone ever seen a street littered in keys???
If we continue on this route we might end up being fine for breathing!
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:38 am
by Legend
The government must be in desperate need of money. So is ours, but they stick to harassing cardrivers.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 10:23 am
by RandomThug
@Legend I was just about to say...
Its just like that sometimes everywhere... like in one of the beach cities near my home... at the end of every month the cops need to meet thier quota's.. which means the last week of the month cops will sit at every stop sign and ticket you for not stopping for like 10 seconds... its horrible. I have a friend who became a cop and he says that they need to make a certian amount in tickets and if they dont they will harrass people for the smallest infractions.
Of course they dont harrass me for stupid things, I usually commit the actual problems worthy ofa big ticket.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:12 pm
by giles337
I need help! The Hygiene inspectors are coming for me! I littered some CO2!
Hoenstly, this is ridiculous.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:17 pm
by Legend
[QUOTE=RandomThug]@Legend I was just about to say...
Its just like that sometimes everywhere... like in one of the beach cities near my home... at the end of every month the cops need to meet thier quota's.. which means the last week of the month cops will sit at every stop sign and ticket you for not stopping for like 10 seconds... its horrible. I have a friend who became a cop and he says that they need to make a certian amount in tickets and if they dont they will harrass people for the smallest infractions.
Of course they dont harrass me for stupid things, I usually commit the actual problems worthy ofa big ticket.[/QUOTE]
I assume you live in the Netherlands then ? Yep, it's true they have to reach a certain quota every year. I've heard that last year they didn't make nearly enough, and got orders to hand out more fines.
And what about the new identification law ? Now not onl;y the cardrivers are outlawed, the pedestrians can expect the same treatment. And half of the time i forget to put my ID card in my pocket, so sooner or later they'll get me i guess.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 5:13 pm
by jopperm2
I most places in the US there are no actual Quotas. WHat happens is the local government is not making its budget so it will put presure on the police to do a little "fundraising" or fishing as we always called it.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 7:41 pm
by Magrus
Here in NY, they set up "nets" to catch speeders the last 4 days or so of every month. I'm fairly certain they have monthly quotas and do that to meet them. They've also instituted cameras that look like lamp posts, and new license plates with a barcode on them. The cameras track speeders, scan the license plate, take a snapshot, and you get a ticket in the mail. It's still in the early stages of testing, but once it's perfected, well less need for actual police on the highways. They are slowly phasing in the new plates as everyone needs to get new ones eventually and slowly popping in the new camera's as the budget allows.
If China is THAT hard up for money, to fine an old lady for dropping her keys by mistake, then they need to seriously find a better way to get money. Nailing the elderly for funding is definately the wrong way to do fund-raising.
Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 8:00 pm
by jopperm2
In Florida we have a serious problem with collecting on speeding tickets. So what they have done is put up fake cameras. They look like a speed limit sign and they have a radar device that checks your speed. It then shows the speed on a big display and if you are speeding a bright light that looks like a camera flash starts flashing. The government claims it's just to get your attention, but I swear they are trying to trick people into slowing down. Rediculous. I'll see if I can find ao pic of it.