Fuck The Police, pt. 1,347
What do you do when you're driving down an interstate highway at 1:00am the Sunday following Thanksgiving while you are the only car on the road and deer stand on the shoulders threatening to dart out without warning?
Why, the speed limit of course!
Which is what I was doing when I got pulled over by Connecticut State Policeman Deslaides (or something - his handwriting is unreadable), badge number 440 (or 448, 441, or possibly 446 - again, illegible handwriting).
As per usual, I had my license and registration (in this case, rental agreement) out and ready for him when he approached my vehicle.
"Good evening."
"Good evening, sir."
"Do you know why I pulled you over?"
"No, sir."
"Do you know how fast you were going back there?"
"Yes, sir. Sixty-five miles an hour."
"I clocked you back there at speeds ranging between 75 and 85 miles an hour."
"I find that pretty hard to believe, sir, as my cruise control was engaged and set to 65 miles an hour and plus with the deer I was being pretty careful with the speedometer."
"Well. My. Radar gun is calibrated. Your speedometer must be wrong. I'll be right back."
Fifteen minutes later he returns with a ticket for $213.
Anybody know how on earth I'm supposed to fight this? I know I can bring up all sorts of issues about calibration, etc. etc. if I actually WAS speeding, but since I was going the limit, I mean... What the fuck? I can't just say he was lying, can I?
Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't seen this already, I've got a nice little video here of our troops - camouflaged policemen, as far as I'm concerned - taking care of business.
And if this is what these armed, immune motherfuckers get up to when public television is following them around with a camera crew, I wonder what they do when no one is watching?
Maybe they rape little girls and murder entire families? Nah, of course not, that's something only a terrorist would do.
Did you see this one on boing boing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9A_vxIOB-I
Well, contesting tickets generally require you to appear at a hearing in the county where the ticket was issued. So unless you wanna trek out to Connecticut on a Tuesday morning, I'd probably just suck it up. Is it really worth it? Sucks, but at least you don't have to pay for insurance at the moment so it won't cost you like $400 extra.
As per usual, I had my license and registration (in this case, rental agreement) out and ready for him when he approached my vehicle.
I'm always afraid to get things ready 'cause im afraid they'll think I;m reaching for my gun and shoot me in the face.
also Ive been driving on expired plates for 3 months.
CT is notorious for tickets. I'm always of the opinion if you can make it to the court date, do it. Otherwise, even after you've scheduled it, you can usually pay off the ticket beforehand if it turns out you can't be there. If the cop knows he has a weak case against you, he may not even show; they tend to target out of state people because they won't come back to contest.
We need a law to state that illegible writing by cops lacks any legal validity.
Kate Gladstone - the Handwriting Repairwoman
http://learn.to/handwrite