Hey guys! Greendale Senator scriblelz here with a poll asking YOU, the public, if it should be a FELONY or MISDEMEANOR offense to go into the Department of Transportation’s impound lot without the need to retrieve your vehicle! Let’s go over the differences.
Trespassing - FELONY
You get charged with a felony C arrest for walking into a glorified parking lot without reason.
Felony expungements are 60 days.
Loitering - MISDEMEANOR
You get charged with a misdemeanor C citation, then arrest, for walking into a glorified parking lot without reason.
Misdemeanor expungements are 30 days.
Q&A
Q: Isn’t it better for the Department of Transportation if it was a felony?
A: Not at all! It makes no difference to them. If somebody loiters in their impound lot they call the cops, same as trespassing. If they obstruct them they get charged with obstructing a public employee. If they bring a gun, no different charge is going to stop them from blasting that transportation worker in the face. The only difference is that it is a lesser offense for a lesser charge, people get charged with trespassing for going into FNG, not the impound lot.
Q: Aren’t there signs saying not to go into the impound lot?
A: Nope! And even if there were, why should it be so easy to commit a felony?
I think y’all take the game a little too serious. It’s literally a place to impound cars. Why does it need any law protecting it? What is dot going to do if LEOs don’t come to remove trespassers? OC then away??
Definitely shouldn’t be a felony. Why make it a crime at all if it’s publicly accessible? Unless they are somehow obstructing tow trucks and stuff like people do at SCFD (which is not publicly accessible) I don’t see the issue here.
At this point they might as well station a National Guard unit, a minimum of three (3) police officers and at least 1 complete SWAT team to guard the honorable impound lot.
I don’t think that people should be charged at all, since it’s easily accessible with no signs or fence. Unless someone commits another crime or refuses to leave, they shouldn’t be arrested for accidentally going in. If misdemeanour and felony are the only two options, it should be a misdemeanour.