The whole point of having judges and juries is to weigh the individual case and circumstances against the law and make a determination that considers both.
In this case he heard evidence from the defendant, that the charge was wrong, that he wasn't driving fast and he weighed both sides.
Following your argument we could replace the judge with a flow chart.
They also aren't known for driving fast. A school zone speeding ticket means he was going faster than 20 miles per hour. "Old Man Is A Danger to Society at 25MPH" is not the headline you think it is.
Speed limit is important because of reaction times and time to stop. As we age our reaction time decreases. At 96 this dudes foot wouldn't even be on the brake before a younger person could manage a full stop. 20 vs 25 could easily be the difference between nothing and a dozen dead kids.
The evidence was the defendant saying "I don't drive that fast". If that was the standard for dismissing a case then we wouldn't need prison.
We don't have enough details to say whether the case should have been dismissed or if he should have been let off with a warning due to his circumstances. We don't know what speed he was recorded doing, was it just a couple of miles too fast? Was it's so far over the limit that it was clearly a measurement error? Was it just his word against a cop?
There's good reasons why the ticket might've been dismissed but "I didn't do it" isn't enough on it's own.
Since when is someone saying "No I didn't" evidence? The way this is portrayed, that's all it was plus a sob story of why he was driving, which isn't relevant in any way to the charge. Getting a blood test isn't an emergency where you need to hurry. In fact, all of this points to this dude not being suitable to drive and having his license revoked, but I guess that doesn't make a high-karma feel-good post.
Real "a child worked to clear the enormous lunch debt applied to 10 year olds" vibes around here, sad that people are turning off their brains this much.
He did not hear evidence. He heard an old guy say he didn't do it and then tell him why he was out driving.
I'm sure there's testimony by the police officer that says different.
Following your argument, we could replace the judge with a gameshow called "Who Has the Saddest Story?".
This is a shitty situation because capitalism puts people in shitty situations, but this has nothing to do with the rule of law or the interpretation of those laws.
This is the typical fake wholesome "look at people briefly coming together to overcome a small part of late stage capitalism" that gets crapped out on local news and this subreddit.
This video is obviously edited. You genuinely think this was the extent of the proceedings and the judge heard or saw nothing before dismissing the case?
I have an idea because I’ve seen the judge before and I know how judges operate. There’s a zero percent chance he didn’t watch any footage or review evidence prior to his decision.
Here's the source video; They cut out a bit about the judge introducing his own son, but there wasn't any review of video evidence or officer testimony in there. Not sure if the original video is uncut though.
What are you talking about? This was in Rhode Island where they have speeding cameras only in school zones, where this old guy was speeding. The charges weren't wrong.
The way a justice system should work is that any law can be 'gotten away with' if society deems the individual circumstances sufficiently outside the behaviour the law is there to prevent.
Movies are full of protagonists doing illegal things because of the unlikely circumstances they find themselves in.
An example for your murder would be a man who lies in wait for the killer of his daughter. It's possible such a crime would be 'overlooked' or shelved in some way at some point in the journey to justice.
The law is both objective AND subjective. When you commit a crime and are found guilty there are sentencing guidelines. You can’t get off with community service if you’re found guilty of murder and you can’t be put in jail for 10 years for a traffic infraction. But many crimes will have huge differences in how a person can be sentenced dependent on mitigating factors. If you’ve heard “they’re facing 10 to life” that means they could go to jail for radically different amounts of time depending on how the judge and jury feel about the circumstances of the crime. This allows for judges and juries to have some level of discretion without throwing out objective standards. The law shouldn’t be wholly subjective, but it shouldn’t be completely blind to the circumstances of the situation either.
Agreed on all your points in your second paragraph. And I agree that speeding is far more dangerous than people generally accept. Maybe if you or I were the elected judge we would have given the guy a ticket. I just don’t think this case is an example of the justice system failing. It is simply the normal use of discretion in sentencing guidelines.
Yeah, it's just a thing you typed. It's fine, you made a silly argument. I don't know why Reddit always has to double down at the blackjack table like a kid who failed third grade math.
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u/TomDestry Feb 27 '25
Nope.
The whole point of having judges and juries is to weigh the individual case and circumstances against the law and make a determination that considers both.
In this case he heard evidence from the defendant, that the charge was wrong, that he wasn't driving fast and he weighed both sides.
Following your argument we could replace the judge with a flow chart.