What did you do today?

[C.J.]

Today I took my brother with me to get mail. He went in to pay a speeding ticket he got (he hadn't fully slowed down by the time he passed the speed limit sign & the cops had a quota).

They have photo radar and red light cameras here. Funny thing is they always have two different signs up ahead of the cameras telling you that there’s a camera ahead. Even the photo radar vans, they have two different signs they put out telling you there’s a damn photo radar van ahead. The speeding camera boxes move around to different locations but the signs move with them as well. So, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see the signs and won’t get a ticket. Easy peasy.

Then we have the DOT workers that like to put up funny messages on the overhead reader boards. One day one of them said ‘Speeding tickets available ahead’. I slowed down because if I were to have gotten a ticket up ahead, how stupid would I have felt especially since I just read on a reader board that they were giving out tickets ahead. It would be my luck that the cop would grind that fact in as well.

 

[zannej]

Around here the police vehicles have the livery on them so pale that you can't see they are police vehicles and they hide behind bushes. No red light cameras. No warning signs. They have ticket quotas and you know when it is quota time because they will pull people over for no valid reason and lie about how fast they were going.
My brother was tired driving home from work after working night shift and there was no warning about the speed limit going down from 65 to 50. When he saw the 50 sign he slowed down but was still going over 50 when he passed the sign. The cop started following him immediately after he passed the sign and the speed he claimed he was going would have been the speed he was going before he passed the sign.

Got a mutual friend who got ticketed like that but he had a dashcam that recorded his speed and showed he was going speed limit before he passed the sign. They also claimed he didn't have insurance (he had a digital insurance card on his phone & they claimed it wasn't valid). Said he didn't have registration but he showed them the registration & they didn't look at it. His mother called the DA's office and DMV to ask if the digital card was considered valid & the said yes. She then went to the DA's office with the dashcam footage, the digital card, a recording of the office telling her the digital was valid, and the registration paperwork. Got all of the charges dropped. Only way to get it handled because they won't let you bring video footage or cellphones in to the courthouse even if its for your defense. Only option otherwise is to pay the ticket or plea it down to a lower fine. Judge has 100% conviction rate bc he gets paid extra for convictions.

 

[C.J.]

In NC they have a racket going on but I’m halfway ok with it, mostly because I don’t get tickets anymore (knock on wood). It’s the van, doesn’t go fast enough to get a ticket

Anyway, if you get a simple ticket you hire a lawyer for a couple hundred and they get the ticket reduced to some sort of non moving violation. You’ll pay for the lawyer and you’ll pay for the ticket but it doesn’t hit your insurance.

 

[JPfloor]

they won't let you bring video footage or cellphones in to the courthouse even if its for your defense.

Unless you friend lives in Hazzard county and his last name is Duke they would have to. Might have to plead not guilty and schedule a trial. Your friend had a lot more evidence than most. His mom did the right thing. So did the DA. Most people, even if they’re innocent, can’t prove it or don’t want to be bothered and just pay the fine…

Judge has 100% conviction rate bc he gets paid extra for convictions.

Judge gets a cut? I can’t think of a more crooked set up than that… Right to a fair trial and all.

 

[zannej]

JPfloor, I've been to this courthouse. The judge is as crooked as they come. All the public defenders do is negotiate plea deals and refuse to launch a defense because they know the judge will convict. Not only does the judge convict everyone, but now even minor traffic violations get you 3 months probation if you don't take a plea or pay the fine ahead of time. There was a woman in there when I was there with my brother over some BS and the judge would not listen to her at all. I recognized the woman because I saw what happened on the news the day she got her ticket. She was accused of trying to cross the tracks while the train was coming. The judge said she must have ignored the barrier thingies and just blazed through. She tried to tell him that wasn't what happened and that there were no barriers. Judge cut her off. What happened was she was trying to cross the tracks when there was no sign of a train. The road was crappy and there was a pot hole in just the wrong spot. Her tire got stuck in the pot hole (it wedged her tire between it and the tracks) and she was over the tracks. She was trying to get the vehicle unstuck and people were yelling at her to get out of her vehicle and run. Got hit by the train but she survived. All her attorney did was negotiate down a plea deal. Did I mention that if you get probation they charge $50 a month for it? Minimum that judge gives is 3 months. One guy he sentenced to jail for 7 days for speeding. I wholeheartedly agree that it is a crooked setup. Here you are presumed guilty and have to try to prove your innocence but it doesn't matter at that courthouse bc they only want to get $$ from fines & court fees. But then, this state ranks as having the absolute worst "justice" system in the entire country. Highest incarceration rate per capita, public schools are run like prisons, & they don't give a damn about people's rights.

So today I got up and put a new 25lb bag of cat food in the storage bin so I could give the kitties breakfast. Unloaded mail from the truck that we forgot to bring in last night. Checked and one of my orders says it arrived at the post office but it wasn't among the packages they gave us so they must have misplaced it somewhere. I'm going to doublecheck to make sure its not in the truck, but the day they said it was picked up was not a day I went to the post office. They have been known to give my packages to the wrong person by mistake. I hope that isn't the case.

I decided I wanted to keep and re-use my taping knife that I used for the floor leveling mix. It had a bunch of the stuff still stuck to it but I realized I have chisels and wanted to see if I could scrape it off. It took awhile but it worked. Got it all cleaned up. Then I cleaned up some of the wood debris out of my bathtub. My back started going out so I had to stop. I'll have to come back with a broom and get the larger chunks and then vacuum the debris up.

I couldn't find some things in Walmart that they said were in stock when I looked online but I couldn't locate them in store, so I did curbside pickup order so they can find it for me. LOL. I've done that a few times now where I do curbside if I simply can't find stuff. Also for things that are in locked cases so I don't spend 20min trying to find an employee who can unlock the case.

I plan to do more cleaning when my back is cooperating.

 

[Floorist]

Last ticket I got was a scam. Pulled me over and said I had a turn signal out. Had to take my seat belt off to get my license out. Got a seat belt ticket. We don't have a primary seat belt law. Checked my turn signals before I moved the car, they all worked. He wrote 9 tickets in about an hour. And when my brother was a cop here, he said they had a quota. He said he also had a list of "certain people" he was not to stop. I heard on my scanner one night where the supt. of schools was stopped for drunk driving. Instead of arresting him, they called a family member to come get him.

 

[havasu]

I refuse to believe all the nonsense above. What is the incentive for a quota on citations? A free toaster after 50 tickets?

 

[Floorist]

I refuse to believe all the nonsense above. What is the incentive for a quota on citations? A free toaster after 50 tickets?

My brother was a city cop here for about 25 years. He said they had a ticket quota. He should know. Don't write enough tickets, you don't get a promotion, no promotion, no raises.

 

[havasu]

Big difference. Work ethics and work performance is way different than a quota. Any police department that tries a mandatory quota system and is caught, would be sued for $ millions of dollars. If you layed 1 yard of carpet a day, how long do you think you'd have the job?
As said, job performance, yes, quota, nope.

 

[havasu]

In simpler terms, as a traffic officer, I would maybe write 1 ticket a day. Instead, I might arrest 2 DUI's, 1 grand theft auto suspect, and a few Hypes for being under ihe influence of meth or heroin. I stayed busy, but you bet you butt, if I wrote you a ticket, you damn well deserved it.

 

[JPfloor]

By me there’s no shortage of bad drivers who are in desperate need of some authority. If there is such a thing as a quota I’d like them to raise it… Plenty of maniac law breakers endangering mine and my family’s life. I can’t see the need to bother the law abiding citizens?

Even though I regularly do 65 in a 55 zone on the highway I haven’t been pulled over in over 30 years… I did get a ticket mailed to me from a red light camera… They got me by about 2 seconds…Now I brake sooner.

 

[havasu]

In California, you can go 9mph over the speed limit and never get pulled over. Get caught doing 10 over, you're gunna get stopped but your attitude will determine a cite or not. Get stopped going 15 over, guaranteed cite. A pretty simple concept actually. Traffic tickets cost the cities money. The state gets all the money.

 

[JPfloor]

In California, you can go 9mph over the speed limit and never get pulled over.

Oh… I heard it was 10….Hence the 65 in a 55… lol

 

[Floorist]

In California, you can go 9mph over the speed limit and never get pulled over. Get caught doing 10 over, you're gunna get stopped but your attitude will determine a cite or not. Get stopped going 15 over, guaranteed cite. A pretty simple concept actually. Traffic tickets cost the cities money. The state gets all the money.

Got one here years back for doing 56 in a 55, MHP. $80. I paid it because it would have cost me at least $300. to take a day off for court. I was booked 6 weeks ahead, no way to reschedule.

 

[highup]

Oh… I heard it was 10….Hence the 65 in a 55… lol

In California, 55 is the speed limit in the parking lane.

 

[JPfloor]

Got one here years back for doing 56 in a 55, MHP. $80. I paid it because it would have cost me at least $300. to take a day off for court. I was booked 6 weeks ahead, no way to reschedule.

Wow…That’s one mean cop! Musta been an awful slow day for crime.

Our police wouldn’t do that…But we do have toll booths all over the city on bridges and tunnels and on the state thruway that just charges everyone who drives…Every day…

 

[havasu]

What many don't understand is what is truly said at the time of the citation. I would catch folks going 80 in a 65 MPH zone, but they were kind people. I too would write them at 66 in a 65, but my notes explain the true speed, so if they went to court, I can tell the judge that I was just giving a break, trying to save the citizen some hard earned money, since you pay a fee per MPH over the speed limit. I'm sure once they got the ticket, they would show everyone my speeding ticket, call me an a a-hole, idiot, etc, even though I saved them lots of money and they know in their heart that they were in fact speeding enough to get a ticket.

By the way, NHTSA, and the car manufacturers have determined that all speedometers must be calibrated to within 2 MPH, excluding custom tire modifications. If your car is stock, and a cop writes a true 2 MPH violation, the judge must throw it out.

 

[Floorist]

What many don't understand is what is truly say at the time of the citation. I would catch folks going 80 in a 65 MPH zone, but they were kind people. I too would write them at 66 in a 65, but my notes explain the true speed, so if they went to court, I can tell the judge that I was just giving a break, trying to save the citizen some hard earned money, since you pay a fee per MPH over the speed limit. I'm sure once they got the ticket, they would show everyone my speeding ticket, call me an a a-hole, idiot, etc, even though I saved them lots of money and they know in their heart that they were in fact speeding enough to get a ticket.

By the way, NHTSA, and the car manufacturers have determined that all speedometers must be calibrated to within 2 MPH, excluding custom tire modifications. If your car is stock, and a cop writes a true 2 MPH violation, the judge must throw it out.

I knew I could have beat it, but like I said, I was booked for 6 weeks. It was a young cop, probably just out of the academy.

 

[DarisMulkin]

The last ticket I got was just before the Kentucky border in Indiana. I had been in a construction zone and believe me I do not speed in them especially out of state. When I exited the zone there was a sign that said end work zone. So I kicked t back up to my usal 70 and a little bit. Bam here is a officer in the mediam and he is jumping into his car. Told the wife somebody is going to get a ticket. Somebody was me. It ended up it had dumped from 55 in the zone to 55 where exiting it. Never saw any signs. So he wrote me up and we got a half dozen things from lawyers to represent my case. Like Rusty I figured pay the fine and good to go. Insurance went through the roof over $2000. We went to change insurance companies and was told they could do nothing because of a "RECKLESS" driving ticket. I said it was a speeding ticket not reckless driving. It ended up I was 1 mile over the limit for a speeding ticket.. We were on our way to Nashville for a convention. I called and warned friends who were coming down the following day about the trap. Sure enough that cop was sitting in the same spot. Oh, and he was not nice about telling me the limit was 55 for the next 7 miles to the Kentucky line.
Another one that irks me is when they say there is a toll booth ahead and there isn't and you get a ticket in the mail along with a picture of your car showing you behind the wheel and license number for x amount of dollars because you didn't pay the toll. Oh and the state people even admitted there was no booth there. My wife argued that big time but still lost.

 

[JPfloor]

Man it sounds like you guys need a lawyer…

We have about 1/2 a million more than we need here in New York. .. I’ll try and send a few hundred thousand of um out your way! LOL