Rock Island, Illinois review: cora ordinance

The CORA (Car Owners Responsibility Act) of Rock Island Illinois Tow Ordinance is a shameless cash grab. At hearing they list 3 reasons that are the only defense, 1) That the driver was found "not guilty" 2) That the car was stolen 3) That the car was sold. In this case, the defense was both 2 and 3, the driver did not have permission to take the vehicle as driver was demanded to take title to the car as a gift or return the vehicle immediately to the owner months prior to the CORA Impound. Driver never gave permission to drive vehicle out of state, no permission to drive to Illinois, or even to take the car out of town which CORA hearing board gave no merit. So either driver owned the car as it was gifted to driver OR driver stole it. But even if car was sold CORA Hearing board would just reassign the ticket to the new owner, that is if the new owner goes to court and accepts responsibility for the fine and the fine doesn't go away. I suppose they might not have had any choice if there was a stolen vehicle report with the Police, then they would have got their money through the criminal indictment I'm guessing. I do see arresting the car as an affront to property rights of the owner. If the driver would have had some illegal substance or other crime the fine would have been worse. Makes sense to me, penalize the owner of the car, instead of the driver. In this instance, the driver got off with something like $150 in bail and an arrest, the car however, penalized between $500 and $1500, sat in impound for weeks depriving the vehicle owner of the use of the vehicle for weeks or longer. Ordinances like CORA, seem unconstitutional and I would be glad to see it overturned and injustices to car owners made right.