"If we let everyone go then there would be no one in jail"

  A story on MSNBC details the plight on one young woman who was stopped for a tag light being out on her car.  The officer that stopped her discovered the lady had an suspended driver's license and a failure to appear on another traffic charge.  He was just going to give her a citation and have her car towed but another officer talked him into arresting her.
   This article isn't about this particular woman but about the plight of many people, particularly blacks and especially young black women.  It details their plight because so many are to poor to afford bail money. It is written so as to make us feel sorry for those ladies and to set us against the bail system.
   In fact the bail system is in place so that people do not have to spend time in jail while awaiting trial.  I do not believe the bail system is unfair to poor people.  The lady should have registered her car as required by law.  If she had then she would not have been charged in the first place.  If she had gone to court instead of skipping the court date because she could not afford the ticket, the courts would have worked with her.  If she had made sure her car was legal to drive she would not have been stopped the second time.
   In other words if somewhere in this scenario she had acceptable responsibility for her actions she would never had needed bail in the first place.
  Being poor is no disgrace.  I'm poor.  My income places me just barely above the poverty line.  I keep my car repaired and I obey the law.  Recently I mailed my taxes to the tax department.  It should have been mailed to the NCDMV so my tag expired before I got my new sticker.  I had to arrange rides for the important stuff and skip the non essential things for a couple of weeks.  I could have easily just jumped in my car and driven it to the church which is a straight shot of 1/2 mile from the house.  Chances are high I would never had been stopped.  But if I had been I would have had a ticket to pay plus court costs.  If I just didn't go to court because I didn't have the money for the ticket I could have ended up in jail just like this woman.  It has nothing to do with being young, black or female.  It has everything to do with  making proper decisions and accepting responsibility.