Posted on 06/01/2016 8:43:05 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Brett Sanders fought the law, and the law won.
Namely, two buckets full of pennies.
More than 22,000 of them.
The Friso, Texas man was incredulous the city police cited him for going nine miles over the speed limit.
And, he was livid a jury decided he deserved the ticket.
So, when the city ordered Sanders to pay $212 in fines, he figured he’d make the payment as inconvenient as possible.
He decided to pay Frisco in pennies.
“I was on my residential street when I got a ticket for going nine miles over the speed limit,” he told CNN. “I thought it was unfair. I did not injure anyone, and I did not endanger anyone.”
So, he got the coins from a bank, painted two buckets with the words “Extortion payment,” headed to the Frisco Municipal Court and dumped the pennies on the counter.
And, this being the age of virality, he made sure to catch it all on video and post it on YouTube.
“Not only am I [ticked] off about this ticket and paying with pennies to clog up the system, but I also want to protest the whole racket,” he said.
The city of Frisco wouldn’t specifically comment on what they thought of the incident.
But, spokeswoman Dana Baird told CNN the pennies were counted using two coin-cashing machines – and took staffers about three hours.
Sanders’ original fine was $79.90 and court costs were $132.10 for a total of $212.00, Baird said.
“There was an overpayment of $7.81,” she said.
Baird said the city can keep the change.
What an idiot. Part of the “look at me” generation.
I think paying in pennies is a legitimate form of protest. Some businesses even say they will not accept pennies for which I would then have dumped them all on the floor and told them “U.S. currency is still valid. Take it or leave it”.
I guess it was the principal.
Yep. Pennies are still valid currency.
make the payment as inconvenient as possible
I had been emptying my change in a box by the door for years. I finally took it to my bank. It took them about 10 minutes to run it through their coin counter (the final amount was over $800 dollars, surprised me to be so much).
So it was not as inconvenient as he thought (I would think his time and effort to fight a $80 ticket would be more inconvenient to himself).
The term LOSER comes to mind for some reason.
Idiots like this are one of the reasons I despised working in customer service. Who is he getting even with? Some poor slob whose trying to make a living that had nothing to do with the what he’s angry about.
He admits he was guilty, but doesn’t accept responsibility. He’s an immature idiot.
Typical Obama voter.
Too bad they can’t charge him for the cost of that jury trial.
You broke the law. You got caught. You fought it in court and lost. Man up and pay your fine like a grown-up and quit whining cause it wasn't "fair".
Nine mph over the limit in a residential area? Original ticket was under $80 but he insisted on a jury trial? He is lucky he “didn’t hurt anyone”. He needs to slow down, IMHO.
He makes a good income from posting videos to youtube apparently and the media is eating it up so he may not be so stupid after all.
Yup.
Now, if he didn't do it, I'm more sympathetic. But this appears to be nothing more than just a routine, run-of-the-mill PITA. Bet that he's a hoot at parties.
And IMO, "9 mph over" says to me that he was likely going faster, but the cop went easy on him. Just a guess though, I've got nothing to substantiate that.
But the traffic court can make a local rule that prohibits payment in change over a certain amount. Such rules are valid, and our local City Court has one.
I’ll bet that court has that rule now.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I used to live in the Collin County area. It is a north Dallas suburb and deeply conservative. The city police in those towns are nothing more than revenue generators. They write speeding tickets 24/7, but haven’t solved a significant crime in years.
In some places that is not legal.
What he did is give the women in the office a few overtime hours. And I am sure they sat there and sipped coffee. Counting coins by machine is a drag.
But, if you are using that many you don’t have to roll them. You sack them and attach the tape.
He really did not discomfort anyone.
Yep. 9 over in a residential area. Someone could’ve backed out of a driveway, a kid could’ve come running out from behind a parked car, dog/cat could’ve run across the street … any number of things that could have changed the entire outcome. There’s no reason to be driving that fast in a residential area.
A thread from a couple days ago if anyone is interested in
reading the 44 comments thereon:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3435037/posts
Right: that typically means “driving 34 in a 25 mph zone”, which would be almost 40% faster than the speed limit.
In Texas, it’s more than likely 39 in a 30.
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