September 22, 2009 09:19 PM UTC

Bad Idea, Made Even Worse

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

A initiative on the November ballot aims to toughen Denver’s impound ordinance, guaranteeing that people caught driving without a license will end up paying a $2,500 bond to get the car out of the impound lot, even if a valid license is sitting at home on the counter…

The Denver vehicle impound law that voters passed last year was designed to keep unlicensed drivers off the road. It gives police officers the ability to use their discretion about whether to impound a car.

If this new initiative passes in November, police officers will be required to impound the car of every driver without a license.

City Council member Doug Linkhart said that city impound lots are overflowing with vehicles of people who cannot afford to get them out…

Linkhart said that Denver police officers are opposed to the law and the initiative.

“Their job, by definition, is discretion,” Linkhart said.

What this really comes back to is illegal immigrant hysterics, of course, but it’s still unusual to see this plainly counterproductive a measure make the ballot. Peter Boyles and half a dozen Minuteman crackpots may think this is a good idea, the rest of us have left our wallet on the counter enough times to know better. A measure drafted totally ignorant of its effects–the way only real crazies can draft them. Doug Bruce, call him what you will, knew what he was doing.

Between this overkill nonsense and Craig Silverman calling for people who “look like a Muslim” to have their “puchases tracked,” we think some serious getting of a grip is in order, folks.