Many years ago, Tustin police officer Joe Thornton and I worked diligently to put a tow company's owner, Pat Tocher, in jail. His tow company was violating California law by illegally towing cars. Officers from the Santa Ana and Garden Grove police departments were also working to put this guy out of business.
Joe and I worked this case hard. In fact, at one point we were both sued by Tocher for our relentless pursuit of justice.
Tocher's company would prey on those living in poorer neighborhoods. It really riled me to see him tow cars and charge around $200 for someone to get their car back. These were very poor families many of whom didn't speak English and certainly didn't know their rights. He took food from their tables and shoes off their children's feet.
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The Bible has a lot to say about how we treat the poor. When you mock the poor you mock the Lord who made them. Tocher did a lot of mocking.
It troubles me that it took roughly a quarter of a century for this guy to be brought to justice. He was able to hide behind federal interstate commerce law to stay in business. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez stepped up and worked to change the law. A lot of people dedicated themselves to the pursuit of this case. But, it should never have taken this long.
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Rest assured, if he were preying on the wealthy justice would have come knocking a long time ago. The system failed the poor.
The last place you will find justice is the justice system. You can read more about this case in this recently story in OC Weekly.
