Posted on 11/10/2010 11:17:52 AM PST by I Buried My Guns
You know, a crazy thing happened to me yesterday:
I was pulled over for expired registration while driving my wife's car. Knowing the reputation that Texas law enforcement has, I knew to follow my father's advice when interacting with the law: "Go Limp". That is, do not give attitude or even possess a whiff of obstinance; do not give the officer any reason to dislike you (my old man can be pretty wise for a liberal). And anyway, I am too old and my back too achy to take a beatdown, and I was wearing my nice slacks too (Dirty Harry reference).
City: City of West University Place (surrounded entirely by the City of Houston, TX). This area is considered very upscale, and has a very low crime rate compared to other nearby areas, such as mine.
I noticed the officer called his sargeant for backup, and I could hear the sargeant saying "OK, this is what we're gonna do..." as I watched them in my side view mirror. When he asked me to exit the vehicle and keep my hands in plain view, I knew this was more than a simple traffic stop. It turns out, lo and behold, I have a warrant out for my arrest! They informed me and asked what I thought it was for. I said I did not know, and when he asked "traffic or murder?" I said probably traffic, but I did not recall because I thought I was all paid up. I sensed they were deciding whether to take me or set me free, and the end result was in doubt until the very end. Needless to say I was full of "no sir"s and "yes sir"s, and this maybe helped me. I also blamed the lack of current registration, lack of current insurance, and lack of everything else on my wife. The officer seemed to sympathize with me for that, but in my mind sympathy gets you a reduction from "Full Hickory Shampoo" to a mild beating, so I was still scared.
Anyway, I do not know what the warrant is for. I asked him and he said if he investigated it further and he found out, he was required to arrest me. I also asked what the date was and what the dollar amount was, and got the same answer: If he queried further, he would have to arrest me.
I do have an idea of the transgression, though. In Houston, anyone owing money (traffic fines) to the city gets a stern letter from a law office that threatens bad stuff if you do not pay up. In 2005, this law office hounded me even after I paid up for a traffic ticket, so I even faxed them a copy of the cancelled check that the city had cashed with the citation number written in the Memo field. Boo-yah! Case closed!
This was several years ago, but recently I have been getting new letters from this law office demanding more money. They want an amount totally unrelated to the citation. Knowing the heavy handed and less than honest behavior of them previously, I ignored them, as I viewed them as hollow threats and not supported by the facts. Turns out they are scumbags scrounging for income anywhere they can get it. On their letters, they give an incorrect fax number so as to make it more difficult to resolve the issue. So, anyhoo, I must take an entire day off to resolve this at the courthouse, and hope that they go easy on me.
Synopsis: Po po good. Lawyers bad.
PS: Not only was I not arrested, but the officer did not cite me for any other of my infractions, either. Note to self: Blame it all on the wife next time, too!
There is no way that this story could be accurate... We all know that Police are just EEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLL Jack-booted Thugs (TM) waiting to ruthlessly crush any citizen and violate Constitutional rights. [/sarcasm]
Really, you did the right thing, and the Police Officers saw that you are a good guy and acted accordingly. I am fairly certain that things would have been quite different had another segment of society been pulled over *** cough *** libertines *** cough *** who would have responded with “I KNOW MEH RATS.”
Drivng without current insurance in Indiana gets your license revoked.
Good citizen.
>>I Friggin’ LOVE this reference!: “Full Hickory Shampoo” <<
Yep. That one is what pushed it into “professionally written” territory for me.
The part about the shakedown also reminds me of similar stuff that has happened to me. I learned LONG AGO to ignore that stuff after giving them a stern legal warning. Once they establish that you are not “low hanging fruit”, they tend to back off.
I was pulled over in Indiana once. Gawd I hate that state. The circumstances did it for me.
That was my thought too. I said I had the old insurance form, and he took it, said "wow, you're right. this IS old", and ran it it, apparently, because he never referenced it again. We DO have current insurance, but the effort of taking it from the mailbox to the vehicle is (envision man crawling through the desert:) just....too...far...
Oh, and regarding the "hickory shampo" reference: I learned that phrase right here on FR, years ago. It's one of those sayings that just kinda "Hits the ear right".
Much thanks. I am a technical writer, meaning that I am technically a writer.
My main focus right now is refurbing my old nasty pond in my back yard, so I guess I am really just a ditch digger.
That was my thought too, until I was told a few years ago, by a TX police officer, that in many places (in TX) the arrest of a person is a source of income for the municipality. When I lived in College Station, TX they arrested college kids for unpaid parking fines, and those ticketed for jaywalking who were late in payment.
Contrast that with CA, where my brother had a $5000 warrant for felony drug/paraphernalia possession, and was told by the citing officer to "take care of it".
He did!
Wow, you really did luck out. Once we renewed the registration for the wrong vehicle, and I was (unknowingly) driving the other with a registration that had just expired. I started through a yellow light that turned red. Pulled over for going through a stoplight, the cop informed me that the registration had expired and that one of the headlights was out. Then I couldn’t find the insurance card quickly enough. (I should’ve called my husband. Turns out, it was in the glove compartment the whole time.) I was lucky they didn’t take the car and arrest me; instead, they let me drive home.
But, when I was standing in traffic court and the judge read aloud the reason I was there, it sounded like I was Public Enemy #1. LOL.
So pay your fines, get insurance, get your car properly inspected and licensed, and quit whining.
Otherwise, you’re behaving like a Mexican, and the rest of us good Texans don’t want you on the road with us.
In Massachusetts we have a catch and release system. If you are an illegal alien, they issue a summons which you ignore and start driving on another phony ID. If you get hauled into court, the judge lets you go OOR, which means you never show up until you are again hauled in, at which time the jugde(tte, most likely) will OOR you again.
If, otoh, you are a taxpayer, they will drag you butt through a knothole and seize your bank accounts, car and house.
“So pay your fines, get insurance, get your car properly inspected and licensed, and quit whining.
Otherwise, you’re behaving like a Mexican, and the rest of us good Texans don’t want you on the road with us.”
Oh, crap! I’m a municipal court prosecutor and now THAT’s gonna be going through my head all next docket! And I’ll send you the bill for the new keyboard...
Colonel, USAFR
You're absolutely right. Hey, amigo, don't you have a hot 14 year old daughter around here somewheres that needs impregnating?
But golly, I think you missed the point. I have no current fines. It's a racket of a 3rd-rate law office that mass mails these threatening missives to thousands of people demanding payment when many times no money is actually owed. To spend a day in court resolving an issue this lame would cost me $376 in lost wages. I get paid hourly, not salary, so if I am not at work, I don't get paid.
Dropping off the dry cleaning during working hours?
I don't get paid.
Taking the cat to the vet this morning for her yearly anal exam?
I don't get paid.
It's all about gettin' paid, yo.
Werd.
I was in the Navy at the time, stationed in Norfolk, VA. I was dating a woman who was also in the Navy. Some of her friends had a little get together at a restaurant in Virginia Beach, which we attended. While there I consumed three screwdrivers (not the tool, the kind with vodka). When we started to leave, one of her friends asked if we could drop her off at the Enlisted Club on base since I lived near the base. So we did. I got on the freeway and set my cruise control for the normal speed of traffic, 65 MPH. Now the limit was 55. I cruised into the base, dropped her off and headed back out. As I passed under the Air Station's runway tunnel I hit “resume.” I shot out of the tunnel right past one of Virginia's finest.
As soon as I saw the blue lights, I signaled, pulled off to the shoulder, turned on the flashers, and shut the car off. As the trooper pulled up behind me I just kept thinking, “Just don't ask me to get out of the car.” The trooper asked me how fast I was going, I was honest, and he said “I know everybody does 65 around here but there was nobody else on the road!” He wrote me a ticket and sent me on my way. A lot cheaper than a DUI.
Hmmm, guys on the FR with warrents, I thought we were the good guys here? /sarc
You were pulled over because you were driving with an expired registration, right? Learn from the mistake. Quit whining.
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