gospeed81

iTrader: (51)

That's not a picture...that's Vain Hogh's "Spanish hottie holding white ****"

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

No. But I've got a picture of her doing that, too.

freakazoid

Bah, I've got nothing to prove. I'm not really mad at anything on here. This seems like a pretty cool board. Just hate people freaking out about tickets when most of them are deserved, that's all. I just have an inside view and I really am somewhat biased. My Fiancee tells me a lot of ****, so I just have an understanding of it.

As for the OP, you may not have had anything to do with it. I got "busted" for street racing when I stopped at a grocery store at midnight when I was hungry as **** and just wanted some frozen burritos. The local HS street ricers happened to be in the grocery store lot when I came out, just as the police arrived. Since I happened to own a modified import, I obviously was involved to them. I ended up getting out of that ticket since I had a receipt for the burrito.

9671111

iTrader: (10)

Burrito receipt to the rescue.

gospeed81

iTrader: (51)

Moral of the story: Buy a burrito next time you're standing around doing something stupid so you can get out of it in court.



I kind of bristle when people stand up for cops in general and say that tickets are "deserved" or assume that you were doing something stupid. Yes, I know there are good cops, I've met a few. But in all honesty, in nearly 15yrs driving and dealing with police, it's about 50/50.

I've had quite a few moving violations, but I really drive a LOT, to the tune of 1100miles/week, so per mile I'm probably a pretty good driver. If it proves anything I've never even been stopped on a motorcycle in a decade of riding. Anyhow, here are some of the more fun "unjust" times I've had.



1998 - At 9pm I venture out to help my cousin change a flat tire. Cop pulls up..and without even asking what's going on orders us to put palms on his hood and take our shoes off. My cousin asks why and he pushes him towards car and says so we can't run. When he asks why we're being detained he gets handcuffed. Then he keeps asking and is THROWN into the cruiser, hitting his head on the roof of doorframe pretty damn hard.

Cop searches us and car without a word, uncuffs him, and leaves. WTF? No curfew where we are, did nothing to be suspect. Never offered assistance.



1999 - I pull out of my neighborhood and head down the two lane highway into town on my way to a CHURCH YOUTH GROUP meeting. Cop pulls out of gas station on opposite corner and hangs behind me for the 5 mile drive until we get to the high school, where he pulls me over in front of the band hall where everyone is getting out after practice. I say he pulled me over, I saw the other car coming across 5 lanes cutting me off and stopping there (55mph limit) before I ever saw the tailing car's lights. Both approached me with guns drawn.

I got to go down to jail and questioned...because they were looking for some robbers in a "brown sedan". I drove a tan '65 Impala at the time. When I asked why they decided to pull me over he said that it was because I didn't indicate which lane I was going into when the 2 lane highway opened up into 4 lanes...




2005 - My car died right at the beginning of the semester. I was working full time night shift at a machine shop, paying out of pocket for classes, and needed a ride. My uncle who was going through a divorce had an Integra he needed to get rid of, and took $800 for it. Registration had just expired, and he didn't know which box title was in. No point registering it in his name since I was going to transfer ownership, and I assumed I had a 30day grace period. Car was inspected and roadworthy.

Tuesday I get pulled over by ******* cop. Speeding (4mph over, deserted road), and registration. Wednesday night on way home from work cool cop pulls me over. Was fishing for drunks...lets me know one tire looked low, gave me warning on sticker. Thusday while stopped at light in our local speedtrap municipality a cop passes me, turns around and follows me through light and pulls me over. I get another ticket for the sticker. I let him know I've already got a ticket, am going to pay for that one, and am going to take care of registration that weekend when I'm free to drive the 60 miles to my uncles house again (NO time during week). He tells me he "can't" give me a warning even though I show him the one I received the prior day.

Fast forward 6 months. I had a court date, at the court that meets monthly in Montgomery. Miss last few classes and a few hours work just to "sign up" to be seen on the next month's date. I show up next month and wait ALL DAY. Last person to be seen. Judge asks me why I'm even there, doesn't give me a chance to put in two words edgewise. When I do I mention situation about title and he goes off on a rant about how when he had cancer he managed to make that same drive down to the hospital to get taken care of. I'm wondering what that has to do with the situation, and biting my tongue at the same time because I myself had been a cancer patient at MDAnderson a few years before. I then ask why I wasn't given a warning when I had already been ticketed for the offense in a time span that didn't allow me to rectify the situation. He says that it's a good question to ask the officer. I mentioned how the officer told me he wasn't allowed by law to issue a warning for that. Cop jumps up and starts SHOUTING that I'm a liar, he never said that...yada yada. Judge tells me to get the **** out of his courtroom before he has me arrested. Gee, thanks for the chance.




2006 - My car gets broken into. I call cops, they don't come out for that sort of thing, you make an appointment for an officer to come out. (I later find out this is a lie when my car is broken into again last year and a nice deputy comes out).

I make the appointment, missing several hours of work...he doesn't show. I make another one, same thing. While I didn't really expect them to recover the $1K stereo system stolen from fenced in parking on the back side of my house, I did want a report for insurance, and to have had them out there once in case I had to defend myself while investigating noises next time around (which would happen 3yrs later when I chased the second guy down and form-tackled him in the yard across the street).



2007 - I'm making my usual 100mile commute home from school, no town either direction for over 10miles, completely minding my own business when I see a cruiser, hauling *****, coming at me from the other direction across the grassy median! I nearly **** myself. He had to of been doing 90 when he left the pavement. I nail the brakes and pull over, and get a ticket for a supposed 7mph over. I've compared the speedometer in that Chevy to GPS, and it's dead nuts on. Not much I can do really, and the officer is irate for some reason. He was more likely to cause loss of life with that stunt than I was even if I'd been 10over.



2008 - I'm working an internship in town, running some errands, happy to be paid for driving around. I get off of IH-45, and as I'm coasting down the exit ramp I see someone running across the road. At the time we were living with in-laws in town, and I was used to idiot pedestrians, and start to judge where he's going, and which lane I need to be in to miss him, and start braking while checking blind spot for the lane I'm about to go into.

Guy stops in middle of road, and I lay on brakes. As I'm rolling up I see it's a cop. He starts banging on car...shouting...telling me to get over, pointing to a gravel lot. I pull in where 5 other cops are all writing tickets to stopped drivers. He comes over, PISSED, shouting "what the ****, were you even going to stop, you coulda hit me!" Well, yeah...you were running into traffic.

I get a speeding ticket, even though I was clocked while still in the exit lane. It's impossible to slow down to the 45mph feeder road speed limit before hitting the off-ramp...you will get run over. Court didn't care.



2009 - I'm leaving College Station to head home and pick up my daughter to get her Swine Flu vaccine they finally told us she's eligible for, have to be there. She's high risk due to childhood asthma, and I was in a little bit of a hurry. By now I have enough tickets I know not to speed, but just to conserve momentum. I am approaching a red light that has been on for some time, and slow to 30mph hanging back a little when it changes. The car in the middle lane, in front of me, gets moving faster than the inattentive driver in the left lane. As I approach them the gap opens up sufficiently I can make a lane change with at least 10ft on either end, at about 35mph.

A bike cop just appears, beamed by Scotty, behind the brick planter on the median a few feet in front of my nose. He gets off the curb and catches up, pulling me over.

First he tells me I was speeding. I politely inform him I wasn't, and I always watch my GPS in town.

Then he says I didn't use a blinker. I inform him that's a pet peeve of mine, and I always use my blinker.

Then he says I didn't have my seatbelt on. I told him I did in fact secure my 5pt harness before leaving campus, and was quite secure.

Then he goes off "Well, you were driving like a mad man, swerving and changing lanes (this was first lane change since pulling out, and I needed to join that lane to merge on highway down the road). You need to keep the race car antics on the track. You scared those people behind you, I saw the looks on their faces..." I'm sure they, like me, were more scared that he jumped 5ft on his motorcycle until his headlight could have nicked our mirrors as we passed.

He gave me an "unsafe lane change" ticket. On that one when I called they misinformed me of my court date when I called, by a week, and I found out I had a warrant when I did show, and now had to pay 3X as much, and be placed on deferred adjudication.



I'm always very polite and respectful. I'm a courteous driver. My only difference between most is a higher exposure risk due to higher annual mileage, and I have twice as many crap stories as I do real tickets.



So tell me, is the impression some of us have of law enforcement and the judicial system really unwarranted?

Blaize

Lucky you were not down in the bible belt. A receipt for a burrito, purchased after 11pm, would be considered drug paraphernalia.....

ScottFW

iTrader: (4)

Some similar **** happened in Houston about 7-8 years ago. Bunch of ricers gathered in the parking lot of the K-mart along Westheimer, which also had/has a Sonic (that's a fast food restaurant for those who may not know) and the cops raided the entire parking lot on suspicion of street racing. They arrested about 300 people, of course many of whom were non-ricers and not affiliated at all with the ricer gathering. There you are enjoying perhaps a burger and a delicious Sonic shake, and bam, you're handcuffed (many at gunpoint) and being hauled to jail in a motherfucking paddy wagon. The police had about 100 people sue them in federal court for civil rights violations, the Captain who organized the raid got fired and the Chief of Police himself wound up resigning because it was such a cluster ****. It took a few years but the lawsuits wound up being settled out of court.

What's funny is that nobody was ever charged with street racing, but after the fucked up raid the cops filed BS curfew, loitering, or trespassing charges to make the arrests seem legit. What proved that the cops were completely full of **** was when a bunch of the arrested people were able to produce their receipts from Sonic.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Ta da! This is really fucked up.:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publics...cle1012528.ece

$151 and 3 points for observing criminal behavior, even if you are a 12 year old kid there with your dad.

turotufas

iTrader: (7)

Holy crap!

Rafa

iTrader: (22)

It definitely looking like there is a trend all over the States. Cops are looking for excuses to fine people and compensate for lack of funds. If I were you guys, I'd watch my back

SolarYellow510

Sounds about right. I'm thinking maybe Texas wouldn't be a good place for me to live. I am really, really not from around there, boy.

I have a couple rules.
Always postpone your first appearance.
Always submit a trial by declaration. (This is a written "I didn't do it" in Cali.) One of my friends did that. It literally said "I stand by my plea of not guilty." He was guilty as hell, but the officer had retired and the case was dismissed. The beauty of this is, in California, if you don't like the outcome, you can start over.
Always plead not guilty and go to court. I've kept a tally several times, and more than 50% of cases are dismissed because the cop doesn't bother to show. I've only been that lucky once.
If the cop does show, the traffic school option will pretty much always be offered before the trial.
If it does go to trial, the odds are good that the commissioner (not judge around here) will rubber stamp the ticket "**** You". I've even seen one where the commissioner basically saw a long stream of people who were poor, ignorant, confused and barely spoke English. They just plead for mercy, and were happy when he knocked the fines down a bit. There were two people who actually knew what the **** was going on and dressed professionally (a suit, and that suit better be made out of some kind of cloth). It seemed as if he was actually offended by the audacity to think it would be possible to not be found guilty, and fucked them both. This is where a lawyer might come in handy.