Remind me not to go to New Hampshire
Sep. 15th, 2007 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lilfluffApparently New Hampshire recently put a man in jail for three days. His crime? Using state issued toll tokens. Apparently they issued the tokens, then decided to switch to using EZ-PASS and told people, "Hey, know those tokens we encouraged you to buy? BWAHAHA! Better use them up quick, because once we stop taking them you're screwed. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, no you can't turn them back in for a refund."
So one Massachusetts man who had purchased a good number of them simply declined to stop using them. As a result he was arrested recently for trying to pay a 50 cent toll with toll tokens Given a choice between a $150 fine, community service, or three days in jail he had a simple response. "Over my dead body was I going to give the state another dollar for the tolls," and chose the jail time. In another article he said he has no intention to stop using the tokens and is considering a lawsuit if the state doesn't change its mind and allow people to finish using up their leftover tokens.
Seems pretty straight forward to me. If you tell people, "Hey, buy toll tokens, they'll be more convenient, you won't have to worry about whether you have exact change or not," you should give people the chance to recover the value if you decide to switch to another system. Either offer them cash, or offer them credit on an EZ-PASS account. Simply saying, "Well gee, better drive the toll road alot before the deadline so you can use them up," isn't a proper answer.
From the articles I ran across it sounds like alot of people are upset about this. What ever happened to civil disobedience people? Swamp the local jails. Let's see even twenty people in a row line up and say, "Either take my tokens or arrest me. And if you arrest me I plan on choosing jail time."
Seems to me there is one man in the area and a whole bunch of whiners. So remind me to avoid the area to avoid both a thieving government and whiny citizens.
So one Massachusetts man who had purchased a good number of them simply declined to stop using them. As a result he was arrested recently for trying to pay a 50 cent toll with toll tokens Given a choice between a $150 fine, community service, or three days in jail he had a simple response. "Over my dead body was I going to give the state another dollar for the tolls," and chose the jail time. In another article he said he has no intention to stop using the tokens and is considering a lawsuit if the state doesn't change its mind and allow people to finish using up their leftover tokens.
Seems pretty straight forward to me. If you tell people, "Hey, buy toll tokens, they'll be more convenient, you won't have to worry about whether you have exact change or not," you should give people the chance to recover the value if you decide to switch to another system. Either offer them cash, or offer them credit on an EZ-PASS account. Simply saying, "Well gee, better drive the toll road alot before the deadline so you can use them up," isn't a proper answer.
From the articles I ran across it sounds like alot of people are upset about this. What ever happened to civil disobedience people? Swamp the local jails. Let's see even twenty people in a row line up and say, "Either take my tokens or arrest me. And if you arrest me I plan on choosing jail time."
Seems to me there is one man in the area and a whole bunch of whiners. So remind me to avoid the area to avoid both a thieving government and whiny citizens.
