A Different Perspective

I just spent a good chunk of my morning in traffic court. I’ve always plead guilty and hoped for a reduced fine when faced with a traffic ticket. But this time, I didn’t do it. Really.

I was ticketed for not stopping at a red light while turning right. The particular intersection has the line before the stop light pretty deep from the intersection, so I stopped at the line like you are supposed to. Then I looked, and I saw that I had time to go. I accelerated (quickly, but not too fast, no screeching tires or anything).

The next thing I know about a quarter mile down, I’m being pulled over by a motorcycle cop. He was cocky, like a lot of cops are (here in Los Angeles, any way). He asked me why I did it even though there were a group of cops talking in the Denny’s parking lot. I told him, I didn’t, and he must’ve looked up while I was accelerating through the turn. He actually admitted to me that going through the light caught his eye, so he wasn’t looking at me the whole time. But he was convinced I had never stopped, so he wrote me the ticket.

Today, I went to court to plead not guilty. I find out that in order to plead not guilty, I have to pay the full amount of the fine which gets refunded to me if I’m found not guilty. But here’s what pisses me off: You get six months to pay a reduced fine if you plead guilty, but in order to have your day in court you have to post an amount about THREE TIMES what he would actually fine you if you plead guilty. It’s coercion to plead guilty.

Out of principle, I’m going to have my day in court. I’ll pay their little extortion money, and even if I lose it, I’m not going to say I’m guilty for something I did not do.

Update: I am seriously considering paying their extortion. Having four hundred dollars tied up when I could pay it off for $150 seems really tempting. I have issues, though, with having to lie in court. I guess I could plead “no contest” and then it wouldn’t be lying. In good conscience, I can’t say I’m guilty. I’m not.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 11:16 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.