@#$!@#$@% I got a ticket ...

[Nathan Caroland]

I tell you what, I'm ready to just 'spit' when it comes to the law enforcement around here somedays.

I got a ticket for 'running' a stop sign and for not having my seat belt on and the female officer (it doesn't make a difference on the sex of the lady, just .. grrr) was less than friendly. First and foremost, I didn't run the damn stop sign. I HAD to stop, there was a vehicle coming and I sure as hell wasn't going to run out in front of it. It wasn't a long stop, but my wheels sure as hell weren't turning.

Then she got me for not having a seatbelt, when I took the damn thing off to get to my wallet. I suppose I could have waited for her to come up to the damn window, but no, I figure, be friendly, get your license, get your registration, smile and ask what you did wrong. Uh-huh - she cites me for not having a seatbelt on.

At this point I'm about to jump out of the car and start having a coniption fit because this lady is flat out being an ass and is meeting a quota and not giving a rats ass what I have to say. If it wasn't for the fact that my daughter was sitting in the seat beside me, I very well may have said to hell with it and ended up hauled off to jail for letting the woman know exactly where she could stuff those tickets.

So now, I have two tickets, both which are bogus, which tell me that I have to be in court on the 19th of December or loose my license (of course, its in the evening and I work, so there goes lost time). Or I can just pay the damn thing and be done with it. I of course was hoppin' ****in' mad and swore that I would go to court, only to have my neighbor tell me that I might not want to do that.

Apparently several individuals, including my neighbor, have gone in to fight a ticket, only to have the judge tell them that they are wasting the courts time by even appearing, and trippling the fines. WTF?!?! I asked around at work and this seems to be something others have experienced before.

So now, I either pay the bogus damn tickets, or I go and fight it in court, where they very well may tell me that I'm wasting their time and tripple the fine. I think its a scam of the worst frickin nature.

-
Nathan
(severely ****ed off)

[EricJ]

:thumpdown


that does suck. I actually got pulled over for the first time last thursday, (not bad, I've been driving 11 years). It turns out I was speeding and ended up tailgating a unmarked Sherrif's car... (I was late for work!).

So he pulled out of the way, let me pass, watch me speed for about 2 miles then pulled me over...gave me a little lecture about how I basically forced him to do it, even though it wasn't his job. He asked for my licence, sat in his car talking on the radio for about 5 minutes, I think to make me sweat it, then walked back and told me to be on my way, and not do this again...no ticket!

So I don't have much experience to help you about deciding to go to court. How much are the tickets?!

[supervike]

I respect most of our police force, but I have maintained for sometime that writing tickets is not so much an act of punishing someone, as it is for generating revenue.

IF I was in violation, I don't even mind being pulled over and fined as I usually obey the laws, but what do you do in a case like yours Nathan? How can they justify tripling the fines for having your day in court? That sounds unethical at best, and illegal at worse. It maybe worth attending the court session just to ask those questions.

One of the little tricks they play here in Iowa is the random 'safety checks'. I haven't seen them in a few years, so maybe they have dropped it, but basically the cops set up checkpoints on a random road, and stop EVERY motorist, subjecting them to a 'safety check'. At this point they check over and your vehicle looking for violations. I've never been ticketed for anything improper, but it ****es me off to think they can subject me to that. I didn't do anything wrong, why am I being detained, questioned, and viewed as a violator?

[Nathan Caroland]

Just called the police department - $119 for the stop sign, $21 for the seatbelt for a total of $140. Not too bad, but its the frickin' principle of it that has me ****ed now, plus the points on your record and insurance getting up your arse about it.

I can live with the stop sign if it comes to it, but then the throw your information to the DMV and your insurance can pick it up about the seatbelt as well and thus my insurance goes up over that BS.

Grrr.

[Nathan Caroland]

Agree with you Jim. Personally, I give police officers quite a bit of respect, I can understand how they might be on edge around people, bad things happen every day and they are the ones that deal with it for the most part.

Tickets though, that's a whole 'nother matter. It's a revenue gimmick, and they do have quota's which is even worse! Hell, I get pulled over for this (which is BS) when I do everything by the book 9 out of 10 times. I am religious about signaling, giving space to other drivers, etc. Here in Georgia though, that is a liability, because most of the people here don't even know what a damn turn signal is (really ****es me off) and are just a happy to run you off the road as not.

If there is excessive speeding, reckless driving, whatever, I think that should be stomped on. The rest of this stuff, like those safety checks you mentioned, is the product of a bored police departement going through the motions and making money for their next holday departement cookout.

Either way, I'm out money. I go to court, I have to take the day off work. I pay the ticket, I'm out cash that I shouldn't have to pay at all and top that off, might end up trippling. Believe me, if I end up in court and they up the fine, ya'll won't hear from me for a good bit because I'm liable to just let the court hear my displeasure in a loud and rather 'sensational tv' way.

[Ritual]

That sucks, Nathan!

:imsorry:

I don't know what I'd have done in your situation. I'd be tempted to take the fight for the sake of principle, but then I'd probably succumb to rational thinking and pay the damn thing.... :mad:

[EricJ]

It's true, I respect the police, and I was actually not really upset at all when they pulled me over, since I knew I was wrong. I even told the guy that, that he had to do his job, and pulling me over for driving dangerously was his job, so how could I be upset.

However, I think there should be a law again quotas in ticket giving.

[cdukino]

I had 2 speeding tickets in my life so far... both were for driving about 4-8 miles an hour to hard on a in town road (which means a ticket of about $35 each)... Basically bad luck and I didn't even do it deliberatly. But oke I was speeding.
I didn't complain there eventhough my boyfriend who drives to fast much more than me (moderate so though) never got one.

But I really wanted to twist that snotnosed police agent's neck a few months back. He didn't fine me, though he basically had the right... but he lectured me and my sister.... relentlessly. We had walked through a red stop sign at a crossover in the middle of the shoppingcenter in our town. It was absolutely deserted at that moment, no cars at all. But this little brat who wore a police hat cought us. I think he was an inturn (sp?), and his female "teacher" was with him (I swear he was younger than me). And he kept going on and on on how we were wrong and shouldn't do that and acting all stern and big (he was a tiny guy at that... and did I mention quite a bit younger?). Even after we said, yeah you are right, sorry won't do it again, yeah we told you we are sorry 3 times now, yes we know we shouldn't, yeah I saw the red light... yeah I know it means I shouldn't cross when it's red... yeah I know green means go and red doesn't... I already said I was wrong... sorry... again...and so on and so on... I stopped apologising after a bit as nothing was comming through and started thinking about my shoppinglist instead to do something usefull with the time. I was ready to beg of him to stop making us look like little dumb kids in front of his collegue and all people on the street at the top of his voice and stop doing it in such a drama supirior way... I even told him he had the right to give me the ticket now and have it done with.... He didn't give me one but kept on lecturing. I swear he embarassed the hell out of his collegue cop as well, who was looking at everyone save us and started to try and interupt the lecturing cop. Man I was ready to strangle him... but atleast it didn't cost me any money. There went 15 minutes of my life.

[Spacemunkie]

Wait until they start sticking speed cams on every corner.

You can gather a tidy sum of points on your license without even knowing!

[vincegamer]

I have never heard of a judge increasing fines if you show up in court.
First of all, usually the fine on the ticket is the maximum fine by law.
In my experience, showing up usually results in the judge reducing the fine.
Also, if you show up and the officer does not, you win. I would try to fight the ticket and apply to get the date changed. Move it to the day after Thanksgiving or something when you think the Cop will be on vacation.

Finally, if traffic school is an option to erase the ticket from your record you should definitely do that. Heck, I think everyone should go to traffic school at least once. I learned a ton of fascinating things there.