In many liberal communities, police are instructed not to arrest someone for burned out lights or expired license plates. Shouldn’t there be consequences for breaking the law?

In Minnesota a few years ago, an African-American member of the state’s house of representatives was arrested for a burned out taillight. He claimed that he was arrested because he was “driving while black.”

However, during the process of his arrest, it was found that his driver’s license came from Wisconsin and that his home address in Minnesota was not in the district for which he was the representative. This is not legal by Minnesota law.

Many times police arrest people for expired license plates or burned out lights and in the process, learn that there is an outstanding warrant for the person’s arrest. A scofflaw is a scofflaw.

Ignoring minor violations such as expired license plates and burned out lights teaches people that there are no consequences to breaking the law — and promotes law-breaking attitudes.

Also, if a person driving a car doesn’t care about or cannot afford to replace a burned out light or keep the license plates valid, perhaps that person should not own a car. There may also be serious mechanical problems with that car putting the car at risk of causing an accident.

Public transportation is intended for people who cannot afford car ownership and is usually heavily supported by taxes. Let’s promote better use of public transportation, reducing tax subsidies while also reducing the number of unsafe cars on the roads.

Therefore, there are many important reasons why cars with expired license plates and burned out lights need to be stopped and their owners charged with breaking the law.