"We have video evidence of you tossing a lit cigarette next to a hiking trail in Yosemite National Park. You are hereby fined... 2.3 cents, payable within 30 days. You can appeal this ruling."
"Umm... I don't actually carry any coins..."
> [...]
> I received 2 citations with each carrying a $500 fine.
A $1000 fine in the absence of any actual damage is completely insane and potentially life-altering for low-income people. I cannot imagine what would make you think such a fine is "too low".
I guess this is what happens when people are raised in a society where crippling punishments for slight offenses are the norm, as long as the offender is a person and not a corporation or government institution.
based on the max fines being $500 for the tickets i received, i would absolutely hope that some idiot throwing a lit cigarette to the ground in a national park would be hit with a maximum fine as well. at this point, i wouldn't mind living in whatever cotton candy land you live in where a lit cigarette starting a forest fire than burns down half the state is a "slight offense". "potentially life-altering for low-income people" means nothing to me in this regard when other people can lose their home or worse because someone can't be bothered to put out their cancer stick.
This is what I read. You didn't know you were attending a non-permitted event (I.e., "accidentally attended an unpermitted event"). Obviously you knew you were in attendance, but not that the event wasn't allowed, just like you said. Not sure how I could possibly be "reading into", sounds like I got it exactly right. I also understood from your original telling that the ranger knew you had no idea what was going on. It's more alarming that the organizers got more severe punishment than you, not less. Nothing you've said makes a max $1k fine less insane.
As you can tell, I'm intentionally not going into the minute details. I'm not Sam Bankman-Friedman talking about a criminal case that I had to deal with. It is however something that I do now have a personal experience with fines from the breaking the rules in a national park. If the fines the fines for tossing a lit cigarette that could burn down the state are not at least in the vicinity of what I faced for a trivial offense, I will be very unhappy.
This is well past where I've wanted to take this, and I'll take it no futher
The exaggeration isn't even necessary, this is like a $1 fine for someone who makes $100k/yr and $30k on hand. I've had parking tickets which cost more for things which weren't even my fault (missing signage) but had to pay anyways because it's even more costly to take it to court.