fucking cops--or--how bad i suck

Non-Phish General
#1

four tickets in as many days. yeah, yeah, it’s my own damn fault, but still. christ.

so i’m not great at renewing things on time. i’m just not. i got pulled over the other night for expired tabs. they expired on July 4th and so was my licence. turns out i had an unpaid “Driver Responsibility Fee” from a ticket that i paid for several months ago. didn’t know about this mysterious fee. noone ever mentioned such a thing to me. well, if you don’t pay the fee, your licence gets suspended. the cop was nice to me that night and just told me to take care of it, and proceed to renew my licence and tabs. which, of course, i tried to do today.

i had to call State of Michigan today to pay the fee. oh, don’t worry. it was only a mere $700 now, another $500 in Sept plus two $125 re-instatement fees. no lube on that fucking. anyway, i just bit the bullet and paid the shit. operator on the phone says i’m free and clear of the suspension, but can’t renew anything until the check clears on the 18th. but the loophole is i have 14 days to take care of the other tickets (expired licence, tabs). cops can’t give you tickets for those same things until the 14 days have passed. or so i was told today.

about five minutes after i pulled out of my driveway this evening i get pulled over. gave the cop my schpiel and he was not having it. he’s telling me my licence is suspended, i cannot be driving and he’s obligated by law to impound my car and take me in. somehow, i convinced him that i was assured that my licnence, though expired, was no longer suspended and that the former was less an offence than the latter. well, he let me go, but not w/out giving me tickets for what he could: suspended licence, expired tabs. now the suspended licence is a misdimenor, a mandatory court date, and a possible 90 fucking days in the clink. oh not to mention another “Driver Responsibility Fee” of a total of $1450.00 minus ticket costs. i asked him if any of the tickets were wavable to which he replied: sure, but there’s no way they’ll do it seeing as how you keep getting tickets for the same thing. “Looks like you just don’t get the program here”, he says. AAAAARRRRRRGH. fucking DICK.

pile this on top of my A/C and furnace both breaking down this last week (fun in 100+ degree weather), all needing replacement, and i’m having just a big, fat jolly fucking bit of fucking summer fucking fun. there is no emoticon that can properly convey my current mental state.

#2

Dude.

(that’s all I got, man … “it’s all downhill from here”, i think, is taken)

#3

Thats some bullshit. Nothing else to say really. They fuck up with the hidden fees, then you get caught for something you dont even know about. Then after they clear you, you still get shit from some dickhead cop. Teh Ghey.

#4

normally cops are exeedingly leanient with me. i’m always straight with them and they seem to appreciate it and let me go unscathed. that’s been my strategy so far, and it has worked like magic. i’m probably just getting some karmic paybacks here. i don’t usually bitch about things very much either, but this is just amazing to me. i feel like some kind of a criminal freak menace. i’ve never not been able to drive. i resent the hell out of having that priveledge being taken away from me. goddamn.

#5

That sucks man.

#6

I know what you’re going through CJ. I went through a time period where trying to get my driving priveleges squared away became a full time job. Once you fuck up, the state takes full advantage. Then it seems once they have you in your grasp, it’s damn near impossible to break free. Every time you turn around its an application fee, a driver assessment, a re-instatement fee, and so on, and so on.

The best thing to do is to bite the bullet and take care of it right away. Hope it doesnt take any further toll on you.

#7

oh my god. man, that is horrible. so much money down the drain. maybe you can give them your story in court and they’ll drop or lower the second set of fines.

well, keep your head above water. its going to be a pain in the ass but it will end. good luck.

#8

The problem with the court system in this country, especially on the municipal levels, is that the it all depends on the size of the ego of the guy in the robe, or what pet municipal fundraisier the town requires additional revenue for. So giving one of these aholes a story may even instigate him to rule even more harshly. Generally, they just want you to accept the monetary fine and not to bother them with your excuses.

And THAT’s how you spell justice.

#9

that’s true. but for more than 2,000 dollars in fines it may be worth getting a lawyer and arguing the case. or at least sitting down with a lawyer and seeing whether you have any ground to stand on.

#10

thanks for the ego-support guys, i truly appreciate it.

i’m just gonna try and take care of it all, and get it all behind me as quickly as possible. it truly is a pain in the ass, but it’s just how life showed up. i can’t undo it, so i’m not gonna put a bunch of energy into looking at myself as a victim of the system or something like that. it just happened. that’s all. i don’t think i have much of a case anyway. even if my licence wasn’t technically suspended, there’s no way around the fact that it’s expired. by only a few days, true, but expired none the less.

i was on my way to the bar to watch a band anyway. who knows? that cop could’ve saved me from worse troubles later on…

#11

Well look on the up side of things… going thru all this will help you become “The Great Renewer!”

I used to let things slide but then it all becomes one big expensive pain in the ass… as you can attest for. Being on top of things helps keep our peace of mind. We make mistakes and suffer for it… its just part of the process of maturity. If you keep up your end of the deal you’ll never have to worry about cops.

#12

^ZOD rules.

oh i know. i’m kicking myself for my serious procrastination habit. it’s my worst flaw. hopefully.

#13

slow down you crazy hippy

#14

Ride a bike

#15

ask a lawyer buddy what he can do. trust me, they can always do something.

#16

I love the Zod stuff. And how about that Non guy? Do we even need to discuss Ursa? I know all their names man, it’s no big deal, relax; don’t shove.

In my house right now, we’re concentrating on finishing things. Not leaving things out, and not leaving tasks part-way thru completion.

That’s a helpful focus point, and helps you to clear the ol’e agenda.

#17

You mean Boyd Rice?

This thread is getting me high. Some very nourishing thought burgers, indeed. I don’t know if I have much to offer.

I wouldn’t see myself as the guy who is screwed by the system, either. Those are the guys the system wants to screw the most.

You’re in bereaucratic hell. You’ve navigated around very successfully, though. The fact that the first cop was totally cool, and the second asshole cop didn’t go into “extreme punishment” mode with you is a testament to bewildering power of the red tape and the liberating possibilities of laziness in beraucratic structure. God bless America!

You probably can’t get out of the original fines. Get as much documentation as you can that you were cool before the most recent ticket. Go to the court dates.

Fone is right about the Judge thing. If you enter the situation as the guy who honestly thought he took care of his original problem (the ticket that caused the unknown fee), and followed the orders of the Policeman to get his registration set, and you can empathize with the Judge as a fellow human who is also trapped in bereaucratic Hell (it’s his JOB to deal with this shit every day of his life!), that sounds like your best bet. Hopefully the cop that ticketed you won’t even show up and the Judge will drop the newest shit. If he empathizes with your Hell, he’ll probably want to set you free before even hearing all of the boring, confusing information.

This is the chance to become the “Great Renewer”. You’ve learned you’re lesson. You don’t need another ticket for no reason. It’s questionable that you even deserve this bullshit to begin with, but you’ve accepted your fate. The powers that be should respect that. You don’t deserve this new ticket.

#18

Wait! …charlie… do you… do you… god I can hardly say it… ::takes a deep breath:: ::slowly exhales:: Do you… no longer enjoy mustachio?

#19

no one enjoys the mustachio more than me.
but i didn’t want the mustachio to become a nostolgia act, a charicature of itself.

#20

^Yes, as it should be. Those who don’t enjoy the mustachio never had the mustachio.