[tahiti]

"What happended to just contesting the ticket in muni court? Or do they just do it differently in Berkely?"

I live in Des Peres, Mo.

About a year and half ago, I also was given a ticket for "unlawful use of my horn" because I was tapping on my horn in order to entice a motorist in front of me to use the acceleration ramp to merge into traffic instead of coming to a complete stop and waiting until there was no other vehicle to be seen before accelerating from a dead stop to merge into traffic.

I did contest the ticket in municipal court and the judge dismissed it.

Then about a half a year ago, union supermarket workers were on strike and picketing in front of a local supermarket, Schnuck's.

Supporters of the union's picketing would drive by and blare their horns in support of the union.

I went to the Des Peres police station and spoke to the chief of police and asked him to send a patrol car out to the supermarket site and begin citing all of the vehicles blaring their horns "unlawfully" in support of the pickets.

The chief refused.

Talk about "equal protection under the law."

[Horatio Gates]

It would seem your horn honking incident was done in the interest of smooth orderly traffic flow and seems reasonable to me. I think going to the chief personally was a waste of time. Most, not all, of them are micro managing politicians and in your case probably didn't want to offend the picketers "free speech" sensitivities. OTH I'm guilty of beeping on the horn when driving by support the troops rallies in my own car and my city work vehicle.