A Florida woman has been slapped with fines amounting to over
$160,000 for offenses she committed on her own property. What were these
heinous crimes? Was she harboring a longtime meth lab? Selling illicit drugs
and/or running a sex-trafficking ring out of her home? No.
She
parked one of her cars partially on her lawn.
According to Section 6-30 of the Code of Ordinances of the Town of
Lantana, "all off-street parking spaces, including driveways but not
including parking spaces located in swale areas as permitted by section 17-34,
shall be asphalt, concrete or block and shall be hard surfaced and in good
repair in compliance with town codes."
Sandy
Martinez lives with her mother, her sister, and her three children — two of
whom are of driving age. Since her household includes four drivers, their four
vehicles don’t fit neatly into the driveway. Therefore, one of the four
vehicles is often parked partially on her grass. The horror!
Martinez—and
the Institute for Justice— announced via a recent news conference that they are
suing the town of Lantana, WPTV-Television reported. You go girl!
Martinez says that after she was originally
cited for the violation, she called the city, but an inspector never came to
her residence. More than a year later, she learned that she had been fined $250
a day for 407 days for the offense, totaling $101,750. On top of that, the
city hit Martinez with $65,000 in additional fines for cosmetic violations,
such as cracks in the driveway and a broken fence.
"I've been living here for 17 years now and I'm
being fined over $160,000 for parking on my own property," Martinez noted
during the press conference. That is government of, by and for the people!
Good thing she didn’t have a non-standard trash or
recycling receptacle, or she might be in prison. If the government can fine its
citizens for this, it can fine them for anything. Paint your house the wrong
color? Cough up the green, offender! Put your Christmas lights up to soon? That’s
going to cost you 50-grand! We may soon be fined for putting our Christmas
lights up at all, come to think of it. The only proper response to this
egregious bureaucratic overreach is a hearty “F**k you”-- and a lawsuit.
In this case, it is a local
government that is to blame. Florida as a whole is a great state in which to
live. Therefore, I’m calling on the state’s great governor, Ron DeSantis, to
step in and do the right thing by Martinez. No resident of the United States
should be treated like this.
We
are paying for illegal aliens’ health care and education, and shielding them in
sanctuary cities, regardless of their criminal background.
We
should not treat our own citizens far worse.
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