The claim that you will get arrested for not paying tickets is not entirely true (not entirely false either). Here's how it goes:
If there's some way your license was suspended because of unpaid tickets and you are caught driving on a suspended license, you could be arrested.
If you get a ticket and fail to pay it AND fail to go to your court date, then your crime is not failing to pay the ticket. You can be arrested for failing to appear in court.
If neither of these is true, they can not constitutionally arrest you only for owing the state money. This is a debtor's prison. Lots of people see the second case (where people don't pay AND fail to appear in court) and call it a debtor's prison when those people are arrested. If they went to court and said "I can't pay," then they would not be able to be arrested for that.
_Bull_Moose3 karma
The claim that you will get arrested for not paying tickets is not entirely true (not entirely false either). Here's how it goes:
If there's some way your license was suspended because of unpaid tickets and you are caught driving on a suspended license, you could be arrested.
If you get a ticket and fail to pay it AND fail to go to your court date, then your crime is not failing to pay the ticket. You can be arrested for failing to appear in court.
If neither of these is true, they can not constitutionally arrest you only for owing the state money. This is a debtor's prison. Lots of people see the second case (where people don't pay AND fail to appear in court) and call it a debtor's prison when those people are arrested. If they went to court and said "I can't pay," then they would not be able to be arrested for that.
View HistoryShare Link