Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Court Update
Went in at 8:00. First stop, the Yankified office, of course. And guess what? The Yankee thing wasn't there anymore! At least the not the one in the window facing out. On the office wall, though, I could see the A-Rod one, which is now joined by a Mariano "602" newspaper cutout. I am glad the one right in the public's face is gone--and I really hope complaints are what took it down. (Better: that somebody ripped it right off.)
From there I went into the courtroom. As always, I was on time, and the judge was very late. My name was called pretty quickly, and I again went outside with some others to do the stand-and-wait. And again beefy cops stared me down solely for the reason that they are all assholes. This time, though, I saw one cop who I was pretty sure was the one who pulled me over. In this procedural prom, neither he nor I had found a dance partner yet, so I think we both kinda knew we were there because of the other. The guy is big--but not workout big like the others. More like Lennie from Of Mice and Men. Like he'd crush the pretty flower while trying to pet it. He also seemed to be a loner. He went into the little room, then peeked out, and motioned to me to come in.
There I was with the inspector again, only this time my cop was with me, along with a woman who sat and did nothing. Inspector asked me if I'd been there before. Uh, yeah dude, twice. He again said that I should be able to have the ticket thrown out due to the good driver thing, especially since it's now been 3 years since my last ticket. I explained that I didn't get my old driving record as requested, but he said it shouldn't be a problem. When he asked if pleading guilty and having the ticket tossed was what I wanted to do, I asked him to explain the other option, since of course I still wanted to take this dirty cop down. He said I could plead not guilty, "but then this would be on your record." (Your permanent record!)
I don't understand this. If I get ticketed for doing nothing wrong, have a trial, and win, I still have a "record"? Wouldn't this "record" state "DID NOTHING WRONG ON MAY 28, 2011"?
At that point, I didn't ask. It sounded like the ticket was getting tossed so I just went with that. I was told to follow the officer back to the courtroom. As we walked toward the front, he motions with his hand to sit down. Guy had no interest in being civil, and never made eye contact with me after peering out from the room, nor did he ever say anything to me.
I pled guilty (While the court butt-boy yelled at me for having my hands in my pockets! Can anyone in the entire building NOT be a dick, for maybe a second? Maybe at that point I should have said, Yeah, let's try to get here on time, mmkay?) and left that stupid courtroom, hopefully for the last time. Had to go back to Yankee Central to pay my $35 court fee, though. Had one more chance to say something about it, but failed. Maybe I would have if the one thing was still up right in my face.
The final summary: Did nothing wrong. Paid 35 dollars plus 10 dollars in parking fees, and spent 5 hours in court, mostly with my thumb up my ass. And worst of all--for me--had to GET UP EARLY three times, and wear formal clothes with shirt tucked in three times. Had hatred of ALL cops confirmed. Learned the legal system makes no sense. All that adds up to worse than the $85 I could have paid for the ticket--but I do admit having it thrown out is better despite it all. In closing: terrible job by everyone involved, except me.
From there I went into the courtroom. As always, I was on time, and the judge was very late. My name was called pretty quickly, and I again went outside with some others to do the stand-and-wait. And again beefy cops stared me down solely for the reason that they are all assholes. This time, though, I saw one cop who I was pretty sure was the one who pulled me over. In this procedural prom, neither he nor I had found a dance partner yet, so I think we both kinda knew we were there because of the other. The guy is big--but not workout big like the others. More like Lennie from Of Mice and Men. Like he'd crush the pretty flower while trying to pet it. He also seemed to be a loner. He went into the little room, then peeked out, and motioned to me to come in.
There I was with the inspector again, only this time my cop was with me, along with a woman who sat and did nothing. Inspector asked me if I'd been there before. Uh, yeah dude, twice. He again said that I should be able to have the ticket thrown out due to the good driver thing, especially since it's now been 3 years since my last ticket. I explained that I didn't get my old driving record as requested, but he said it shouldn't be a problem. When he asked if pleading guilty and having the ticket tossed was what I wanted to do, I asked him to explain the other option, since of course I still wanted to take this dirty cop down. He said I could plead not guilty, "but then this would be on your record." (Your permanent record!)
I don't understand this. If I get ticketed for doing nothing wrong, have a trial, and win, I still have a "record"? Wouldn't this "record" state "DID NOTHING WRONG ON MAY 28, 2011"?
At that point, I didn't ask. It sounded like the ticket was getting tossed so I just went with that. I was told to follow the officer back to the courtroom. As we walked toward the front, he motions with his hand to sit down. Guy had no interest in being civil, and never made eye contact with me after peering out from the room, nor did he ever say anything to me.
I pled guilty (While the court butt-boy yelled at me for having my hands in my pockets! Can anyone in the entire building NOT be a dick, for maybe a second? Maybe at that point I should have said, Yeah, let's try to get here on time, mmkay?) and left that stupid courtroom, hopefully for the last time. Had to go back to Yankee Central to pay my $35 court fee, though. Had one more chance to say something about it, but failed. Maybe I would have if the one thing was still up right in my face.
The final summary: Did nothing wrong. Paid 35 dollars plus 10 dollars in parking fees, and spent 5 hours in court, mostly with my thumb up my ass. And worst of all--for me--had to GET UP EARLY three times, and wear formal clothes with shirt tucked in three times. Had hatred of ALL cops confirmed. Learned the legal system makes no sense. All that adds up to worse than the $85 I could have paid for the ticket--but I do admit having it thrown out is better despite it all. In closing: terrible job by everyone involved, except me.
Comments:
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That blows. I hate this kind of nonsense. Sounds like the $35 court charge is a new thing actually, since a couple of years ago I went down to get a ticket expunged via the good-driver rule and didn't have to pay anything.
In my case I did do something wrong, but everyone still managed to be a dick. I was driving back to my mom's house in Bristol since it was a couple days after X-Mas, it was about 1 AM, and deserted. Her house was at the corner of a one way street and a normal street but the driveway was about 10 ft up the one-way. So somehow some cop noticed me do what was essentially a U-turn into my driveway, and then gave me a ticket. Fine, it's against the law. You *CAN* be a jerk about it, or you can use some common fucking sense, realize that there is no one around, and there is no chance that anyone is endangered by this kind of stuff, and maybe police the main street that's probably full of holiday drunks. Anyway, instead of giving me a warning the pig makes a big show of how nice he's being with a little prepared condescending speech about how the good-driver rule works -- how that is kinder than, you know, not giving me a ticket for a very minor infraction, who knows. But this is obviously something they do a lot so that they can keep up ticket quotas without pissing everyone off.
The judge in Bristol was on time and I didn't have to spend very long with the crackheads that frequent the 7 AM court, but I wouldn't thank anyone for the splitting headache I had for the rest of the day or the 4 hrs I had to spend to enjoy their beneficence.
In my case I did do something wrong, but everyone still managed to be a dick. I was driving back to my mom's house in Bristol since it was a couple days after X-Mas, it was about 1 AM, and deserted. Her house was at the corner of a one way street and a normal street but the driveway was about 10 ft up the one-way. So somehow some cop noticed me do what was essentially a U-turn into my driveway, and then gave me a ticket. Fine, it's against the law. You *CAN* be a jerk about it, or you can use some common fucking sense, realize that there is no one around, and there is no chance that anyone is endangered by this kind of stuff, and maybe police the main street that's probably full of holiday drunks. Anyway, instead of giving me a warning the pig makes a big show of how nice he's being with a little prepared condescending speech about how the good-driver rule works -- how that is kinder than, you know, not giving me a ticket for a very minor infraction, who knows. But this is obviously something they do a lot so that they can keep up ticket quotas without pissing everyone off.
The judge in Bristol was on time and I didn't have to spend very long with the crackheads that frequent the 7 AM court, but I wouldn't thank anyone for the splitting headache I had for the rest of the day or the 4 hrs I had to spend to enjoy their beneficence.
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