Well, as long as we're at it, jon e prevo is not the only long haired
hippie musician type to have an "interesting" encounter with my car and
an officer of The Law.
I didn't even have to be moving.
I stopped by a carryout for a quick restock of pop, half and half and
smokes. I pulled into a parking spot and sat there for a minute thinking
about what I needed to pick up. Just as I'm grabbing the door handle to
open the door and climb out, suddenly somebody is knocking on the side
glass. There is one of Toledo's gendarmes, and I look up in the mirror
and see that his car is parked sideways behind me in the lot.
He asks for my license, and asks why there is no front plate on the car.
I replied that I thought it wasn't required on the front. In Ohio, it
is. Stupid me. Well, I was better informed about that, then.
Cop goes back to car, makes me wait about 15 minutes sitting there (in
the meantime, I can't even go into the store as I was about to before he
showed up). Comes back, hands me a ticket for no front plate. The whole
time, he never comes any further toward the front of the car than about
even with my back seat, so I have to contort just to talk to him, and
take my paper award. Like I'm obviously out parking in carryout store
lots in search of a policeman to gun down, or something.
Oh, and he casually mentions that he's also (in addition to the $70
ticket for lack of front plate) issuing me a $70 citation for not
wearing a seat belt. Stopped. Parked. On private property. Engine off.
Keys in left hand. For over a minute. Right hand reaching for door
handle. Incredulous, I say "I was WEARING my seat belt!" Cop says, "no
you weren't". I say, "yes, I was". Cop says "that's what court is for"
and walks away, climbs in car and heads off in search of another sucker.
I was livid. The plate ticket was no argument. My ignorance was my own
fault. A $70 lesson. The seat belt ticket, there was no way I was
letting that go.
So, sometime later I take part of a day off from the day job, and go to
spend most of an afternoon at traffic court. It really was most of an
afternoon thanks to courthouse bureaucrat bumbling that I won't go into
now (a long story by itself). Finally I get to plead not guilty to the
stupid ticket and get signed up for another wasted chunk of time
downtown at a later date.
At the later date, I show up. Packed court. Lots of cops, including Mr.
Enthusiasm. Lots of people there, including people in handcuffs and jail
overalls there for things like assault, robbery, and other wonderful
acts. It appears to be your basic arraignment, as far as I can tell. I'm
as prepared as I can manage, including having my black overcoat that I'd
been wearing that day, one of the dark blue seatbelts that I'd unbolted
from the back seat, and a printout from the U.S. Naval Observatory
website detailing the time of sunset on that date (the ticket was issued
around twilight), and a weather report from then showing that the sky
was cloudy. All that just to help, for whatever it's worth, if (when?)
Cop decides he's going to just flat lie and say he saw me on the road
not wearing the seatbelt.
Before things get started, the seriously overloaded prosecutor wants to
go through some cases before going before the judge. She gets to my
file, calls my name, and calls over Cop. After confirming our
identities, she looks at me, looks at cop with this expression that
fairly screams "why are you wasting my time with this, you damned
buffoon!", and says to both of us "I'm recommending dismissal". I say
fine with me, Cop shrugs like it doesn't matter to him, and that's that.
I still have to wait for the case to be called, and the prosecutor then
asks for dismissal, judge concurs, we're done. Cop gets an easy few
hours hanging around the courthouse on the public dime. Oh well, the
"bonus ticket" didn't pay off, who knew the schmuck would be the one out
of a hundred to not just mail a check "because it's less hassle than
fighting it".
For every law officer dedicating their lives to trying to make their
world a safer and just place, there are a bunch more just trying to rack
up points in a game and looking for those "easy odds scores". Very
unfortunate.
JLE
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