...and the Law Won. Natch.
I went to court, the officer lied, brought in "witnesses" who did not even testify about me in particular, they testified about the "problem of people passing busses in Decatur".
I'm $490 poorer.
Decatur City cops suck ass. There was no bus there, she changed her story, period. She was out to give a ticket, just like she told me at the outset. She has been sanctioned by the City of Decatur to hand out tickets, it's one of her specific jobs, I found out. (The cop has to list off the stuff that s/he does specifically.)
Oh, well, gotta make EXAMPLES out of the rich white folk who are tryin' to run down the po' black chilluns in the screet every day in Downtown Decatur, right?
Whatever.
Even though I figured I'd lose, it's still a bummer. But here's a tip for anyone who's never been to traffic court: if you think you're gonna lose, just pay the ticket before your date or use no lo contendre. If you wait and go to traffic court, it costs you $70 more. If you use no lo, then you can't use it again for some period of years, so be careful with it. I shoulda used it.
Here's another tip: do NOT drive in Downtown Decatur between 2:30pm and 3:30pm M-F. Apparently Officer Strawn's raison d'etre is to hand out $420 tickets. And they have 2 black women who are engaged by the city to come to every traffic ticket handed out as "witnesses" to the rampant passing of busses in Decatur. It's a racket and it works.
Now I just have to find a way to shake it off and continue on. I had that money earmarked for some stuff that just won't happen now. Hopefully another job will fall in my lap for $500 so I can offset this. At least I had the money and I didn't have to dip into our household funds. It still totally sucks.
Posted by Misangela at January 9, 2006 11:16 AM