You Can’t Fight City Hall
by A friend of mine told me a tale of her day in Traffic Court trying to defend herself from a bogus, trumped-up citation that she had received about one year earlier.
Your Day in Court: Approach, and you Shall be Heard
A few weeks ago at the school where my son attends I happened to chat with one of the custodial/teachers from the school. We were talking about several topics and eventually, the topic of travel and driving came up. I must have stroked a nerve for she because suddenly she had a lot of things to tell me about driving…
She told me that she was due in Traffic court later that day to fight a moving infraction citation she had received not far from the school for an alleged incident that occurred just about a year prior. A parked police car that she said was plainly visible to her as she was approaching a 4-way stop had ticketed her for failing to come to a complete, full stop. ‘Failure to obey a traffic device,’ or ‘running a STOP sign’ was the actual charge, to be specific.
She said that this ticket was bogus and disputable, she HAD fully and intentionally stopped because she seen this parked police car trolling for violators to ticket. She was being extra cautious exactly because this parked patrol car so so prominently visible. This intersection has a four-way stop with STOP signs on poles, no traffic lights and no pedestrians. Not that this makes any difference, -a STOP sign is a STOP regardless of location or the presence or absence of pedestrians.
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Having seen the parked police car from some distance, she said that she was quite sure of having come to a full and complete stop and tried to explain this to the officer. ‘Tell it to the judge’ is about the only remark that she got back. The ticketing officer cited her for the alleged offense. She was going to fight it in Traffic Court as the fine was going to be $150.00 and 3-points on her Driver’s License if she plead no contest (that is, you do not disagree and accept responsibility.)
All Rise for the Honorable Judge…
Long story short, just over one year later she got her day in court. She realized once she got into court that this was going to be a long day. There were some 15 other traffic court plaintiffs there defending their immaculate driving skills against this officer whom according to my friend ‘…had rested well the night before and had probably came to court early that day’ for what would turn out to be an all-day affair of watching plaintiffs unequivocally lose to the decision of the judge.
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She realized that her parking meter was running low and asked to be excused to go feed the meter. A demeaning and penetrating glance over the rim of the court officer’s glasses met her seemingly spurious request but she was permitted to go flip the meter for more time.
Turns out her case was tried last, some 6 hours after she had gotten there. This was probably a punitive act for her having to be excused to go deal with the parking meter. She had more-or-less decided at this juncture that she had lost the case already and the judge and ticketing officer seemed to acknowledge this as mea culpa and she plead out on no contest.
She was telling me all of this and she was livid and mad as hell!
Had She WON. -She was NOT going to jail and they were going to let her LIVE, -but $40.00 poorer and with just 2-demerit marks on her Driver’s License.
This goes to show that you can’t fight City Hall.
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Post CommentWilliam H. Sloan
On March 26, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Good one stickman! My paralegal lives in a POS small town and she had me go to Court with her for a violation. She got so discouraged when there were so many people. You’re right! Can’t fight Town Hall.
stephencardiff
On March 26, 2009 at 12:34 pm
What a stupid rule… nothing like that here.. the officer is just out getting points for his promotion..
Mrs M
On March 26, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Ugh….I hate the government sometimes. You get tickets for such silly things. And then when you go to fight them it is such a hassel and sometimes costs you more then you want to pay just to get it deferred.
barbie67013
On March 26, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I have to say that the cops here in our small town are actually pretty easy going. However if you do something more than once or have an attitude when you talk to them then you better watch out. When my husband was on the force he was a hardass. He wouldn’t necessarily give alot of tickets, but he would defintely chew your ass for doing something illegal. lol I feel bad for this person. That sucks! You have a very good point!
Jo Oliver
On March 26, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Stick- I love ya, but you and the friend are wrong on this issue. You have to fight! Otherwise, people in power will only continue and worsen their abuse of power.
I was going under a yellow light in pouring rain when an officer stopped me. He gave me a ticket because he said the light turned red as I was under it. He clearly saw traffic was bumper to bumper and throwing on breaks for a yellow light would have caused a wreck. So, I too went to court. But, I brought stats on wrecks caused by breaking for yellow lights, recommended auto deceleration rates for wet asphalt, etc etc.. I don’t know if the judge didn’t want to have to go through the over 700 papers I brought with me…or if he agreed with my point. Either way, I didn’t pay for the ticket!
thestickman
On March 26, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I am not advocating not fighting, just that she decided that day, not to. And I saw a leeeeeetle tiny bit-o-attitude in her voice as she was telling me this story… enough to make me wonder if maybe that was part of the outcome. After all, nobody i traffic court is ever “guilty” of breaking traffic code.. :-
Her hope had been that the ticketing officer would not appear in traffic court that day (which does happen, they either forget or are otherwise unable to appear, etc.) and the judge usually dismisses the ‘lighter’ infractions such as ‘failure to obey/avoiding a traffic device’ which is like approaching an intersection STOP light but pulling into the corner gas station as if to get gasoline, changing your mind and re-entering the highway on the ‘other side’ of the red light. You have ‘avoided a traffic device’, which is ticketable. :-
Anyway, I thought it was an amusing little anecdote. She was more concerned about the ‘3-points’ on the license. Points come off in a year or two so, no biggie there really.
Edward J Rodrigues
On March 27, 2009 at 1:02 am
i had a recent experience…the police said i violated the traffic signal…in India its left hand driving…i asked him where is the signal..he said its on the right side, the one on the left wasn’t working…and the view of the signal was being blocked by the big bus that was next to me…i was very upset…but had no other option but pay the fine as he was not ready to understand.
Annie Hintsala
On March 27, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Traffic cops are not there to necessarily uphold the law. They have a quota to meet, like a factory worker, and are expected to meet that monthly quota of tickets written and fines given so that the wheels of buracracy can keep on spinnin’. Nope, you can’t fight city hall.
DA Cournean
On March 28, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I hope I never drive through that town. Thats a bunch of B.S. Her word against his though, that is what makes it tragic. That way you definately cannot fight city hall.