Don't Mess with Alabama

JimBob1952 said:
Read the whole article. She wasn't arrested for not paying her bill. She was arrested for not appearing in court in answer to a summons. This would be true in any state in the Union. She was booked and released immediately.

I'm sorry this happened, she's 82 and all, but even if you're old you're supposed to obey the law.

Update, I read the whole thread and see that ohioboy has addressed this cogently as per usual.
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Thanks for the update. Sometimes, when you get older, you sort of become a bit of a recluse away from society. Unfortunately, the court system doesn't allow any sort of "reclusing" if there is such a word which I think there isn't. LOL

There is an old joke that says something like this:
"If you think nobody cares, just try not to make payments for 3 months in a row"
 

JimBob1952 said:
Get fined by your local municipality, refuse to pay, and you will find out soon enough. Not paying a fine is like not showing up for a jail sentence. It's lawbreaking.
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Refuse and will not should not be in the same category as cannot.
Individuals should not "go to jail" simply because they have no money.
 

Packerjohn said:
Thanks for the update. Sometimes, when you get older, you sort of become a bit of a recluse away from society. Unfortunately, the court system doesn't allow any sort of "reclusing" if there is such a word which I think there isn't. LOL
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True enough. The old and infirm need people to watch out for them, but such people aren't always available.
 
Packerjohn said:
Thanks for the update. Sometimes, when you get older, you sort of become a bit of a recluse away from society. Unfortunately, the court system doesn't allow any sort of "reclusing" if there is such a word which I think there isn't. LOL

There is an old joke that says something like this:
"If you think nobody cares, just try not to make payments for 3 months in a row"
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Actually, that is a word.
 

JaniceM said:
Refuse and will not should not be in the same category as cannot.
Individuals should not "go to jail" simply because they have no money.
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You understand that the woman a) did not answer a summons and b) did not go to jail, but rather was arrested and then released, right? And that the BBC has an agenda here, which is to make Alabama look like some godforsaken Orange Man loving hellhole.

Which it may be, I've only been there once, and then just for a day.

I have a relative living in Britain under difficult circumstances, single mother of three children. Her "council" (whatever that is) hassles her constantly about various fees and fines, threatening all sorts of legal action. It's the Anglo-American justice system at work. I can't imagine French or German authorities being any more lenient.
 
horseless carriage said:
You can't actually be jailed for not paying the TV licence. It's when a court imposes a fine for non payment and you fail to pay said fine that you can be sent to jail. The charge being: "Contempt of Court." It has happened, there have been a number of reviews to decriminalise non payment of the TV licence.
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HC... my friend...I personally know 2 people who were jailed for non payment of the TV licence, one of them was a mother of 6 children .. who was arrested at 6am while still in her nightie. She was taken straight to Holloway prison, and 48 hours later when someone paid the fine.. she was released at 6am..out on the streets in the same nightie to wait for someone to pick her up

Semantics as to whether you can go to jail for not buying the licence or not paying the fine.. both are a criminal offence...

I should know having worked for the BBC for 30 years, and my husband still works there after 40 years..
 
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hollydolly said:
HC... my friend...I personally know 2 people who were jailed for non payment of the TV licence, one of them was a mother of 6 children .. who was arrested at 6am while still in her nightie. She was taken straight to Holloway prison, and 48 hours later when someone paid the fine.. she was released at 6am..out on the streets in the same nightie to wait for someone to pick her up

Semantics as to whether you can go to jail for not buying the licence or not paying the fine.. both are a criminal offence...

I should know having worked for the BBC for 30 years, and my husband still works there after 40 years..
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What is a TV licence????
 
JimBob1952 said:
You understand that the woman a) did not answer a summons and b) did not go to jail, but rather was arrested and then released, right? And that the BBC has an agenda here, which is to make Alabama look like some godforsaken Orange Man loving hellhole.

Which it may be, I've only been there once, and then just for a day.

I have a relative living in Britain under difficult circumstances, single mother of three children. Her "council" (whatever that is) hassles her constantly about various fees and fines, threatening all sorts of legal action. It's the Anglo-American justice system at work. I can't imagine French or German authorities being any more lenient.
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Released on bond. The article doesn't say what happened afterward...
 
JaniceM said:
What is a TV licence????
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the BBC..don't allow anyone to watch tv without having annual licence.. ...the daft thing about it is we don't need a licence to watch all the other channels which show adverts.. the BBC don't.. but to enable us to watch the Commercial channels.. we have to pay the TV licence because the BBC channels are included...

It'd be easier than typing it all to give you a link which explains..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence


Actually it's good value for all the BBC programming, which includes radio stations as well... however it's completely outdated, as most of us pay for some kind of Satelite or cable system.. and have done for many years.. but attempting to not pay the licence doesn't really get us anywhere. When we buy a TV, the Store has to by law contact the TV licensing Authority, and if we have no licence registered at the address, they will quickly contact us and remind us we need one..or face a possible 1,000 fine or worse..

If we are found watching TV without a licence ...and yes they have TV detector vans that prowl the streets... then we're given a chance to buy one immediately.. or face a fine and even after paying the fine, the licencestill has to be purchased or face more fines..or ultimately prison
 
hollydolly said:
the BBC..don't allow anyone to watch tv without having annual licence.. ...the daft thing about it is we don't need a licence to watch all the other channels which show adverts.. the BBC don't.. but to enable us to watch the Commercial channels.. we have to pay the TV licence because the BBC channels are included...

It'd be easier than typing it all to give you a link which explains..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence


Actually it's good value for all the BBC programming, which includes radio stations as well... however it's completely outdated, as most of us pay for some kind of Satelite or cable system.. and have done for many years.. but attempting to not pay the licence doesn't really get us anywhere. When we buy a TV, the Store has to by law contact the TV licensing Authority, and if we have no licence registered at the address, they will quickly contact us and remind us we need one..or face a possible 1,000 fine or worse..

If we are found watching TV without a licence ...and yes they have TV detector vans that prowl the streets... then we're given a chance to buy one immediately.. or face a fine and even after paying the fine, the licencestill has to be purchased or face more fines..or ultimately prison
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Well that's just plain awful!!
 
JaniceM said:
But what's the reason for it- government wanting to make money, or to control what people do/see??

Gotta admit, I've never heard that before.
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no..it's so they don't have to pay for the service by showing Commercials... so we get 4 BBC channels on Terrestrial TV.. and many more Radio channels which are advert free.. All the rest of our Terrestrial Channels are funded by adverts ... as of course are all the satellite channels.. of which I have 999
 
JaniceM said:
What is a TV licence????
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In the United Kingdom, you are required to pay a license fee in order to receive through the air TV signals using a roof top antenna. Most of the over the air TV signals there are commercial free. The fee system is widely ignored and of course at some time the scoff laws will end up getting a fine notice that has to be paid at a court office. It is a continual argument in UK media. JimB.
 
hollydolly said:
HC... my friend...I personally know 2 people who were jailed for non payment of the TV licence, one of them was a mother of 6 children .. who was arrested at 6am while still in her nightie. She was taken straight to Holloway prison, and 48 hours later when someone paid the fine.. she was released at 6am..out on the streets in the same nightie to wait for someone to pick her up

Semantics as to whether you can go to jail for not buying the licence or not paying the fine.. both are a criminal offence...

I should know having worked for the BBC for 30 years, and my husband still works there after 40 years..
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You did me a favour Holly, the reason that I argued about contempt and imprisonment was because I didn't get my information from Google. A dear friend whom I was at school with, a lady, with whom I enjoyed a strong friendship without a romantic involvement, graduated in law. She had also met and married a fellow law student, or maybe he had graduated by the time of the wedding. She it was who had explained about non payment of the TV licence.

The favour being that I enjoyed about two hours of catch up on the phone to her, hopefully, we might meet up in the new year.

Right or wrong, about the Beeb's dictatorial attitude, I'm no lover of The Corporation. You may have read in other threads that my wife and I, are both out dancing, or teaching dance or even choreographing a dance for a competition, we were so dance orientated that there was little time for anything else, other than work.

To that end we didn't bother with having a TV for the first thirty years of our marriage. It was only when mother-in-law came to stay. She was addicted to daytime soaps, so we got a TV for her. But I tell you, the correspondence about our lack of a TV licence. I wish I had kept it. I do wonder who, at the BBC, wondered if we were real, when I replied about their threat of prosecution, that Tyborn gallows were dismantled centuries ago.
 
Trash bill? Everywhere I lived in New York State, we never had trash bills. The town, city, or village, pays for it. In New Jersey, we didn't have one. In Florida we didn't have one either. But now that I think of it, when my family lived in Lake Park, there was no garbage collection service. We had to take ours to the local garbage dump.
 
Paladin1950 said:
Trash bill? Everywhere I lived in New York State, we never had trash bills. The town, city, or village, pays for it. In New Jersey, we didn't have one. In Florida we didn't have one either. But now that I think of it, when my family lived in Lake Park, there was no garbage collection service. We had to take ours to the local garbage dump.
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This is my second tour of duty in Florida, and the fees for trash pick up are on the same bill as water and sewer. Twice a week pick up for trash, once a week for recycle.

YMMV
 

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