Lauren Canario is in jail but her mind is free
Lauren was arrested on October 3rd. She was asked for her license and registration at a traffic stop. She didn’t reply. When arrested, she didn’t follow orders. She went limp and they dragged her to the police car. As of this posting, she’s still in jail and has not been arraigned. Arraignment is supposed to happen within 24 hours of arrest.
A driver’s license isn’t really about competency in driving. The crime Lauren is really being punished for is not respecting their authority.
“I have just spoken to the people who are holding Lauren. They said they are treating her the same way that they treat any thief or murderer that they have in custody.” - Jim Johnson, Lauren’s husband 10/14/2007
You can get updates about Lauren’s protest at the Free Lauren Canario blog.
The video below shows a demonstration against National ID in New Hampshire. Lauren and her husband, Jim are very visible dressed in Nazi-esque uniforms and asking people for their papers as they pass on the sidewalk.
Video: NH Real ID Protest
Cartoon text ( Why is this here? )
Police Officer: License and registration. Nazi Officer: Show your papers.
October 25th, 2007 at 3:46 am
I apologize for a few bugs in the site in its’ first few days of operation. There were some problems with the server setup that prevented comments. Obviously that’s been corrected. Keep checking back to see new cartoons on a roughly weekly basis and further improvements to the site.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:38 am
So she decided not to get her car registered and then goes out driving it? What does she plan to do if it gets stolen?
November 9th, 2007 at 1:51 am
I’m not sure I understand Geoff’s question. If her car were stolen, she would probably either replace it or do without. Do you really think she would entrust to the cops the task of retrieving her car? They’re friggin’ useless.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:54 am
The vehicle would still have a VIN number.
SHe could hire a PI to search for it.
November 9th, 2007 at 3:18 am
My question is really simple. What would she do if her car were stolen? She can’t report it to the police because there’s no record of the car. She can’t file a claim with her insurance company, because they wouldn’t have insured it if it’s not registered. That leaves two choices: first, simply accept the fact that it was stolen, or second, turn to some form of vigilante justice.
I personally wouldn’t be happy with either of these choices. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think society would function well if laws against thievery weren’t enforced.
November 9th, 2007 at 4:23 am
Geoff, what do you do when any other thing is stolen?
The insurance company can have its own record of the car. In fact, I would prefer a system where the licensing of cars is run totally by the insurance companies. Instead of license plates displaying the name of the state, they would display the name of the insurance company. Any car without a plate would be considered uninsured, thus alerting other drivers and pedestrians to the fact so they can act accordingly.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I’ve never had anything of great value stolen from me, so I can’t really say. All my valuables are insured, so I’d start there. Items of small value aren’t really worth the overhead, but honestly those small items of mine that were lost or stolen were my own fault. I had $20 stolen out of my wallet at the gym once when I didn’t lock up my stuff, not much I can do about that except not make the same mistake later.
Turning over registration to the insurance companies is an interesting idea, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it tested on a small scale.
Marking uninsured drivers is a great idea, but in this case people would probably counterfeit the simpler plates or just steal them from insured cars.