Nice fucking way to wake up on a holiday. My mom goes out to get hamburger buns and returns with a parking ticket she had gotten the night before on our neighboorhood street. I go run out for the beer for the afternoon BBQ and I see the same thing on my car. The charge : Parking the wrong direction against the traffic flow. WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT!! I live on a very neighboorhood street where only neighborhood traffic is present. Everyone on my block does this and my mother and I are the only two ticketed… how fucking convienient for the cop! I have lived on this block for 23 years of my life and every fucking blue moon these guys get their panties in a wad and have to find something to fulfill their fucking boredom. Go choke on a damn donut you assholes! I have fucking drug dealers to deal with every fucking night I drive home through certain sections of teh same neighboorhood and you have the balls to ticket my car? Don’t you have anything else better to do? And if you are gonna ticket my sorry piece of shit you damn sight better ticket every violator parked DIRECTLY in front of me? Guess it was too damn overwhelming for your ass. Fingers would have cramped or something? Poor baby. I’ll pay this when fucking hell freezes over and yes indeedy I am gonna go to court for a $20 fine, so I can make you look like a damn fool IF you decide to show up in court. We have had speeding down the connecting major roadway in excess of 60 mph in a 35 mph zone that has hit several children but you worry about the direction I am parked on a side street that dopesnt get any traffic but the same people who parl the same way? Fuck you and your parking ticket pad. When you become a real cop you let me know. Real cops get the shit done that needs to be done, not fucking make my mother upset about money she doesnt have to pay a fine! You made my mother cry you sorry piece of shit and you have one pissed off dyke gonna hunt your ass down for that. NO ONE does that to my mom you asshole, give her tickets when she doesnt even have a job to pay for it and make her cry because of your sorry piece of shit paper in her window. FUCK YOU OFFICER FRIENDLY!
“Parking the wrong way?” I’ve never heard of that before. Unfortunately, if it actually is the law, you will have a tough time fighting it. Good luck, Christina.
A traffic ticket made your mother cry? One has to wonder how she has the mental stamina to even drive through the drug addled child thumping street, let alone park on it.
Take pictures, and you’ll still probably have to pay it, but whether or not other people were parked the same way is irrelevant. Were you parked in a manner that was in violation of the laws? If so, then you’re better off just paying it.
The reason for the law is that you had to be operating left of center (driving on the wrong side of the street) in order to park that way. Same thing when you pull out – you’re on the wrong side of the road.
Or do people just drive on whatever side of the road they feel like in your “very neighborhood” (whatever the hell that means)? What, being on a residential street excuses you for driving and parking like a doofus?
And how does your mom have the money to support a car, but not a parking ticket?
Just because you see others breaking bigger laws doesn’t make it OK for you to break the little ones. Suck it up, pay the ticket, and park correctly next time.
Have to ask:
Did you conduct a survey of the “very” neighborhood and what was the margin of error? How else would you know that you two were the only ones to get ticketed for that offense?
Yeah, parking against traffic can be an offense. Years ago I managed to get a ticket for it.
As for the OP…by your reasoning here, the police have no business enforcing traffic laws if there are any unsolved murders on the books. Good luck in selling thatto the magistrate, or whatever you call them down there.
She better not speed, either, or they’ll give her tickets for that as well.
You know, some parts of Baltimore County (and some areas of the city, I hear) have actual parking-enforcement overzealousness. People getting ticketed for an expired meter while helping someone out of the backdoor of the car–after just pulling in.
On the other hand, you broke the law under the premise of “it’s my neighborhood, and everybody else does it.”
That’s possibly the worst excuse I’ve ever heard. Deal.
[sub]nobody’s heard about this before? I was always told you had to park the right way. Huh.[/sub]
Yup, it’s definitely the Baltimore cops. No one else in the entire world gets ticketed for silly shit like this. Only people in Baltimore, who fall under the jurisdiction of stupid, donut-devouring unfair unjust piggly-wigglies who could give a shit about the crack deal down the street.
I could not possibly roll enough eyes in your direction.
If I break the law, I expect to get caught. I don’t even get my hopes up, even if others are doing it well. If I don’t get caught, I’m happy; otherwise, I bite the bullet. That’s life.
Incidentally, I’ve lived in Baltimore for twenty years and I speed religiously every day, usually to get to work or class on time. I usually go about 80 on 95. I’ve never gotten so much as a speeding ticket. I never pay my meters either; no parking tickets to be seen.
Hardy har har.
You want parking tickets? Come to Ann Arbor, honey.
If you want cops who are generally dicks, go to Virginia Beach. Honestly. I’ve not heard the same about Baltimore cops.
You broke the law. You got caught. You pay the penalty. Get over it.
Lemme see…you’re “one pissed off dyke” and you’re going to hunt down someone’s that’s armed 24/7 with the training to put several semi-jacketed hollowpoint rounds with a high-caliber semiautomatic handgun into circle that best covers your central chest cavity. Not to mention this man or woman has probably got a greater sense of situational awareness (i.e. “always on guard”) than you may even hope to match on a regular basis.
By the way, your life can change very interestingly in your neighborhood when word gets out that you’re “hunting down cops.” When you take one on, you will soon be taking on the whole department or agency.
Good luck on the great hunt. After that I suggest you take up milking cobras or explosive ordnance disposal as a hobby.
Yeah and these same twits get to double park anywhere they damn well please so they can sit and eat their lucnh and conviently walk out to their vehicle? They get to violate the rules themselves at their own discretion… conviently put on their sirens at ever stop sign and traffic light. No… this is idiotic and yeah I know i got caught… I also knw that for the 20 years I have lvied here that once every blue moon some overzealous cop gets their panties in a wad and does their job. And yes… there were 3 vehicles parked in front of myself the same direction I was and NONE received tickets. When these pricks decide to follow the same rules I do then maybe I will shut up about it. I will wind up paying the ticket anyways and I realize that… after I have had my share of the courts ear. As for my my mom’s mental state… she does have problems… she is dern near agoraphobic in my untrained opinion and this does not help matters. She avoids streets with kids at play too, just to be careful. And FTR record every speeding ticket I have every gotten I have beat in court and I was guilty as all hell.
So, you are illiterate and irresponsible. Great. :rolleyes:
If your car looks convenient to ticket and it’s parked in the wrong direction, there isn’t much you can do, I fear. Even though there were other cars parked incorrectly in front of you, I’m not sure that rationale will hold up in court. More likely they’ll be upset at you for taking the court’s time.
I’d have to say, pay the $20 and if you feel it’s wrong for them to act as they have, write a letter to the editor of the paper or to the courts or something about it.
Should I throw in a few bad words because this is The Pit?
Nope just convienently irresponsible and illiterate. The one ticket I beat was doing 45 in a supposed 25 becasue it is a school zone. I beat that one by telling the judge exactly what the speed limit sign stated. 25 mph WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT. It was 10:30 in the mornign on a school day, and i sated to him that childrean are in school at that time of day. Officer tells him that during school hours is what it means and I told them both that you all knwo what assuming does becasue the sign does not say that. I got off with court fees. I tend to agree about a letter to the editor… but I like the odds of court better anyway… 10 to 1 the cop doesnt show and I get the case dismissed. Worst case scenario I go even loonier than I am now and get thrown in jail for contempt of court for telling everyone off. It’s the principle of the idiocy of it all… Yeah I broke an assinine law and yeah I should suck up and pay and be a good little citizen. And maybe I wouldnt have such a problem with that if Officer Friendly did his/her job across the board. This city complains there are not enough cops on the street busting drug gangs and stuff, and this one is soo bored he gets out to put a ticket or two on a few cars. Whatever.
Look, I don’t think you want to live in a place that strives for 100% enforcement of every traffic and vehicle law. Do you? Do you really? You want them to have cameras everywhere and send you a ticket every time you do a Texas Rolling Stop at a deserted intersection? You want them to have cops everywhere who will pull you over any time they see you going 3 miles over the speed limit? You want them to slap a ticket on every car in the city that parks in any illegal spot for any length of time? That’s what you seem to be calling for, but I’d bet my left tit you wouldn’t be happy under that sort of system.
We all break traffic laws. Most of the time we get away with it. Occasionally we get nabbed. Selective enforcement is a perfect marriage of limited police resources and limited citizen tolerance for being pulled over and paying fines. If you’re going to be mad about the other people who didn’t get nabbed, you should also be mad about all the times you got away with violations.
At the same time, you think they should be busting crack dealers instead of ticketing your car. This is illogical.
Cops can’t enforce every law. So they do what they can, overlook a lot of small stuff, and occasionally come slap a ticket on cars like yours so people don’t have total disregard for parking rules, and pull over a few speeders so we all remember to slow the heck down. I doubt this represents “boredom” on their part.
The police, alas, are not responsible for your mother’s mental health woes, although you certainly have my sympathy on that regard.
As for cops double-parking, who the fuck cares? They’ve got to cover the city and they generally do it in their cars. They can’t spend their time driving around the block looking for a parking spot in the middle of the city whenever they need to check on something. Not if they want to do their job right. Or even half right. You want them to wind 5 stories up the parking garage looking for a space before they tell a prostitute to move along, or guide a homeless person to shelter? Hell, rural mailmen break all kinds of traffic laws like that, but how the heck else can they do their jobs? Cops have the same problem. Ease up.
Thanks for the sympathy with regard to my mom, much appreciated. If I wasnt clear the first time I said about cops double parking, it was not a call it was their lunch break, I happened to walk into the subshop they were in for lunch and noticed their vehicles in front of the place. On the lighter side of things, I must admit I found my horoscope very interestin this morning… part of it read “watch the traffic flow” I laughed for the better part of a 5 minutes, too ironic. 
Uh, I hate to muddle up a rant with anything like logic, but it seems to me obvious that a ticketing officer would ticket the cars that are there when he comes by and not those that are not. So if the three cars in front of you don’t have tickets, maybe they just weren’t parked there at o’dark-thirty or whenever the cop came by? Or is he expected to squat on your street so as to ensure every arriving car parking incorrectly gets a ticket?
In my city, parking the wrong way gets you a fine of a C note plus a little, making it an offense that most do only once. I know this because I came back to my car after doing this exact thing just as the officer was ticketing it, and she told me how much it was after she agreed not to issue the citation because I was new to town and truly didn’t know. I was so thrilled not to get one, I kissed her on the lips. (No, not really.)
I love cops. Love love love 'em. Loved working with 'em, loved dating the one I dated. (Sigh.) Love the fact that they do important work for crappy pay, in the face of indifference if not hostility over piddling shit like this.
Even though I just recently got a personal serving of “I’m a cop, and since I’ve stopped you, I’m going to be an asshole just because I can,” I still love most cops. (Except you, Officer Ceres, and, yes, I remember your name. You schmuck.)
The problem with all police is their discretionary enforcement of the law. People always defend the cops because they are “only doing their job”. Policeman have the right to pick and choose which laws to uphold and when to uphold them. They let off pretty girls, they would never give a ticket to their friend or another officers wife. You think cops dont keep the drugs and fireworks and whatever else they confiscate from people. They are inherently hypocritical so I suppose I’m not surprised when I hear stories like this.
…just imagine if you were black or Hispanic. God knows what those folks have to put up with in the way of discretionary enforcement.