Unpaid tickets
In occasions passed by whenever you had numerous unpaid parking tickets, you’d discover a “Denver Boot” affixed to considered one of your automobile’s wheels. Fee was required to take away mentioned boot and hold your driver’s license in good standing with the Registry.
Alas, because of State Senator Julian Cyr and Consultant Brandy Fluker-Reid — with an help from the ACLU — quickly we received’t have to fret about paying parking tickets to maintain our vehicles on the street and our drivers’ licenses in good standing (“Unpaid fines invoice on the transfer,” Jan. 21).
Apparently we additionally received’t be dinged for ignoring these annual excise taxes, freeway tolls, and tax funds to the Commonwealth to remain in good standing with the RMV.
Thanks Senator Cyr and Consultant Fluker-Reid! My plan is to take away the EZ-Cross transponder from my windshield, parking apps — like “Metropolis of Boston: Park Boston” — from my telephone and purchase a paper shredder to get rid of these nuisance tax payments. In spite of everything, as soon as the invoice is handed, I’ll don’t have any downside renewing my license subsequent 12 months on the RMV.
Paul Stewart
Quincy
De-escalation
The latest op-ed arguing that federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis ought to “stand down” within the identify of de-escalation rests on a dangerously oversimplified view of what’s really occurring.
De-escalation is a reliable and worthwhile law-enforcement software when unrest is natural — pushed by worry, confusion, or uncooked emotion. However that’s not what we’re seeing right here. A good portion of the anti-ICE exercise is organized, ideological, and explicitly aimed toward obstructing lawful federal authority. In that context, escalation just isn’t an unlucky byproduct — it’s the goal.
The creator assumes that if federal brokers withdraw, tensions will cool and dialogue will emerge. Historical past and up to date expertise recommend the alternative. When activists are dedicated to stopping enforcement altogether, retreat indicators vulnerability, not goodwill, and invitations additional disruption. One can’t de-escalate a scenario wherein one get together has no real interest in decision, solely resistance.
This isn’t a query of whether or not immigration coverage is sweet or dangerous. Cheap folks can disagree strongly on that. It is a query of whether or not lawful authority might be exercised in any respect when confronted by coordinated efforts to nullify it by intimidation and dysfunction.
Regulation enforcement should be restrained, accountable, {and professional} — all the time. However professionalism doesn’t require withdrawal from lawful duties, nor does public belief rely upon conceding the streets to those that reject the rule of legislation outright.
De-escalation is a tactic, not a governing philosophy. Treating it as a cure-all within the face of deliberate obstruction just isn’t enlightened — it’s naïve, and it dangers encouraging precisely the conduct it claims to stop.
John Guinee
Groton
