Talk About A Bullshit Ticket

"sm70- why not Duesenberg?" (sm70-whynotduesenberg) 03/13/2019 at 20:04 • Filed to: None

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Just got a call that my brother got a ticket for careless driving (4 points, essentially reckless driving without intent). He’s been driving for less than two years and is very cautious, never uses his phone and whatnot, so I wondered what the hell happened. A bunch of bullshit and a cop with a power complex, as it turns out.

The map below is the exit from out neighborhood, with the green line being the path my brother took. Apparently there was a crash in the northbound lanes (red “X”/white box), and the police had both directions closed off further down. My brother came out from an unobstructed side street and turned right, heading southbound in the rightmost lane. There was a cop car stopped in the left lane with emergency lights on, but nothing else in the southbound lanes, so he drove past the cop car. As he passed it, the cop in the car jumped out, ran after his car, and once he stopped, proceeded to berate him at some length. According to my brother and his friend who was with him, it was bad enough that a second cop from the crash scene had to come over to calm him down. He slapped my brother with a careless driving ticket, which is $100 and 4 points. My brother was scared about going to court (both what would happen if he lost and facing the RageCop again) so he’s currently enrolled in an eight hour defensive driving course (hopefully taught by someone more intelligent than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) to get rid of the ticket. All because some cop had more spite than sense and couldn’t effectively close a road, or bring himself to tell an obviously confused kid, “Hey buddy, turn around!”

Seriously, if I can !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , this should not have been A Thing.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/13/2019 at 20:11

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File a complaint with the precinct supervisor? Won’t help the current situation, but maybe the department can get that cop to chill?

Chariotoflove > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/13/2019 at 20:13

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I know this is probably ill advised, but if I were passing a cop in that situation, and he started motioning to me out of the corner of my eye, I’d pretend like I didn’t see him and keep going.

Spanfeller is a twat > Chariotoflove 03/13/2019 at 20:15

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LOL, I know I've done that like a billion times.

Chariotoflove > Spanfeller is a twat 03/13/2019 at 20:19

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I mean, unless they’re prepared to actually chase you, they’ll let it go.  And if they do chase you, you have a great defense in this situation.

Spanfeller is a twat > Chariotoflove 03/13/2019 at 20:26

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“ I’m sorry I didn’t see you! I thought you were attending the crash serious enough to close a four lane street for two entire blocks ”

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/13/2019 at 20:28

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Cops are supposed to be the good guys... but so many times... screw them.

Danimalk - Drives a Slow Car Fast > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 03/13/2019 at 20:47

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

P romoted, probably.

In all seriousness though, you're right, this is probably all you can  do.

Under_Score > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/13/2019 at 23:51

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Ouch, that’s terrible. At least he’s getting it straightened out.

Off topic, but what car does he have, and does he have a specialty plate, too?

oldmxer > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/14/2019 at 00:03

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i know about being in the wrong place wrong time, i got pulled over by state trooper for doing nothing wrong, except it was the end of shift and he saw me pulling a cycle trailer with a Focus, must be something i can find wrong there right? he said he pulled me over for window tint, really, totally factory sir. he pulled his tester out and it passed. so.... i can go now? nope, he asked me if my trailer lights were hooked in properly with the car, “did you notice that they blinked when i pulled over?” he noticed that they didn’t come on when I braked. “in texas a trailer like this that is rated for a half ton doesn’t have to have brake lights, there are only 4 wires on an approved wiring harness and one of them is a ground, so with three wires you don’t have enough circuits to have fully functional lights. you can have tail lights and brake lights, or you can have tail lights and turn signals. a Mansfield TX officer told me this when he pulled me over when one of my lights were out.” he stared at me for a second and asked me where i was headed. “ i live less than 10 miles from here but i am returning home from a 500 mile round trip to Marshall TX” (in other words i have been seen by many other officers in the last 5 days of travelling but they didn’t seem to think i needed pulling over) he stared at me again a few seconds and let me go i guess since i only had a few miles to go maybe he decided i wouldn’t be endangering the public on his watch after all

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Under_Score 03/14/2019 at 00:17

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He’s got a black Jaguar X-Type wagon and yes he’s got a message plate too.

Under_Score > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/14/2019 at 07:52

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That’s the spirit.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > oldmxer 03/14/2019 at 09:37

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there are only 4 wires on an approved wiring harness and one of them is a ground, so with three wires you don’t ha ve enough circuits to have fully functional lights.

I’ve had plenty of 4 wire trailer harnesses that have fully functional lights. The brake/signal lights need to be double duty, but I’ve never seen a trailer that doesn’t do that.  A 4 wire harness has the ground, one lead does right side stop & turn, one lead does left side stop & turn, and the final hot lead powers all the running lights.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 03/14/2019 at 09:45

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That is a ticket that needs to be fought. It isn’t your brothers fault that he wasn’t prevented from pulling on to the road. Sometimes with a ticket like that you don’t actually need to go to court. In my home state you have the option of pleading innocent with a letter of explanation. In a situation like that where it is very clear the ticketed driver was driving in a perfectly legal manner there is no reason for the ticket to stick.

Many years ago I got pulled over for going “35 in a 25". I explained to the officer that the road is clearly posted as 30mph limit and that he was parked LITERALLY ACROSS THE ROAD FROM A 30mph SPEED LIMIT SIGN. He said “no, it’s 25mph here”. At that point I shut my mouth and took the ticket because I knew it wouldn’t stick. The next day I went back, verified the locations of the speed limit signs, where the officer was parked, where I was when he clocked me in relation to all the speed limit signs, and where I was pulled over. I wrote a letter explaining the traffic conditions (no other cars), weather conditions (night time, dry roads, no precipitation), the proper posted speed limit, etc. The magistrate pointed out to me that the officer could request that go to court, and that he could just update the ticket to 35 in a 30 if he wanted to. I said that was a risk I was willing to take, the ticket ended up getting dropped.