My question, Sky, is… did you learn anything useful while you were in jail? {wink wink nudge nudge}
Esprix
You fiend!
No…they put me in an area that was empty…thank God! If I’d have had some, “samaritan” trying to convert my “orientation” I’d burn the city to the ground.
But on the note of learning…all I learned was that in the future I need to handle things like this in person, demand that I be given proof in writing that I am cleared of any fines, and never ever mail anything of legal consequence again.
Sorry to disappoint Esprix…but hey, if your ever in town, look me up and I’ll buy you a drink…
Strictly Platonic!!!
-SS 
I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but I feel I must add a story about a good friend of mine. The last time I spoke to him about this little matter, all of his lawsuits were still in progress. I imagine that they are settled by now.
My friend went to college at SUNY Oneonta. Oneonta has numerous town/gown problems, particularly because the urban area is slightly depressed, but the university is the single largest employer. So locals see these relatively rich kids parading around upstate NY and can’t do a thing about it, as the school owns the town.
At any rate, the cuisine there is abominable. Many students only eat cereal, three times a day, seven days a week. My friend was in this boat. He and his girlfriend would go down to the kitchen, purchase a dozen minuature boxes of dry cereal, little pints of milk, and take them back to his room to eat. On the way out there is a self-service counter for napkins, plastic utensils, etc. So my friend grabs a handful of paper bowls and makes his way out of the cafeteria…
And is stopped by one of the cafeteria employees.
“Sorry, but you can’t leave with all those bowls.”
“Why not? I’ve paid for my food, and they’re free! I just want to eat my cereal.”
“Sorry, you’ve taken too many bowls. I can’t let you leave until you put them back.”
“But they’re made out of paper!”
After a protracted argument, the employee insisted that my friend give him his name. Always the agent provocateur, he complied.
The employee then called for backup, and they tried to prevent my friend physically from leaving the premises. With the aid of his resourceful girlfriend, they managed to juke around the lunchroom nazis and return to my friend’s room to prepare for a philosophy midterm the next day. They proceed to eat the cereal.
One hour later…
“Open up in there! It’s the police!”
And he opened the door. Two Oneonta cops burst into the room, smacked him around with their nightsticks, handcuffed him to the wall, and maced him until he nearly passed out. They accused him of assaulting cafeteria workers and stealing university property. He spent the night in jail.
The lawsuits he and his parents slapped on the school and the town made their collective heads spin.
MR
Apparently, this is what the citizens of this community want.
Elected officials in that community are funding the police department.
If they’re staying in office, then apparently a majority of people exercizing their vote agree with that policy.
Though this is not exactly the place for arguments, for the record I must say that the above seems incredibly naive. I seriously doubt that part of the platform of elected officials was institutional abuse of university students, especially since the university is what keeps the town on the map. Simple because an elected official allocates resources somewhere does not mean he is representing his constituents.
MR
That sucks, just a few words of advice. Don’t be apathetic! Its true the court case might cost more that its worth (hopefully not with punative dmanges) and it’ll be a major hassle, but that bullshit must stop. There is nothing worse than a person getting screwed and not doing anything about it, its no “restraint” or “understanding”, its not being “realistic” or “pragmatic” its being apathetic. It someone gets screwed by the state, but a company, or buy a small business with bad service, not saying anything makes it worse for everyone. The only way to keep things working as they should wrong doings must be confronted. You bitch about bad service, the service will improve, you sue a company they’ll change their practices, you sue a city and bring a media blitz on they’ll improve their policy. But it takes the courage of a person who is unfortunately affected by the bullshit. There aren’t enough watchdog groups out there to handle all of this stuff, Ralph Nader doesn’t have time for it all. Time to stand up for yourself.
Oh boy, do I know how you feel! I have been there, done that and bought the t-shirt, Sky!
Although I wasn’t arrested at work, I was arrested in front of a man I was seeing, ahem, the morning after in a hotel parking lot (he was visiting from out of town). Talk about embarrassing!
The guy who arrested me was very nice. Even double checked just to make sure he didn’t get any information wrong. He didn’t handcuff me or throw me in the back of the car or anything. But I still couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on because I had no memory of having any outstanding speeding tickets. In fact, I had no memory of ever having even gotten a speeding ticket.
He took me in to the station, and like you, took all my possessions and made me sign all these forms. They put me in a room with 4 white cement walls, a table, a chair, a pair of handcuffs chained to the wall and one of those 1-way mirror things (or is it a 2-way mirror? They could see in but I had a mirror on my side - whatever the hell that is). I was finger printed, hand printed and had my “mug shot” taken.
For the next 5 hours, guys from the precinct were coming in “just to check me out” and laugh and giggle. I had to be detained there because I was “wanted” in The City and had been picked up in The County. The City had to come pick me up and who knows how long that could take! Time draaaaaaaaaaaags and you go stir crazy when you are in a tiny room with no clock or watch and nothing to do but count the tiles on the floor and walls.
And I was absolutely terrified, let me tell you. I kept having visions of the movie And Justice For All, and the part of the story where the guy gets pulled over and arrested because he has the same name as a guy who’s wanted for murder. His attorneys keep fucking up and he ends up going nutso in jail and stealing a handgun from one of the guards (as I recall). They surround his cell with SWAT guys and when he moved to give Al Pacino’s character the gun, they mistook his movement and shot him to death.
Eventually I was able to recall that I had gotten a speeding ticket a year and a half prior to this, and that a friend who’s an attorney and specializes in traffic law cases said to send him the ticket and he’d take care of it. He called the day after he got it and said he’d had it reduced to a non-moving violation, paid the $23.00 fine and to forget about it. Wouldn’t even let me reimburse him for the fine. So forget about it I did. Apparently a big mistake, because now I’ve been arrested for it!!
The City cops finally come and get me. One of them started to handcuff me and the other laughed and said he didn’t think I appeared dangerous and suggested they could do without them. An hour later I’m downtown in the city jail where I can now phone my grandmother to come bail me out - IF I can get in front of a judge, which isn’t likely considering it’s a Sunday!! Well, lucky me. For whatever reason, by the time my grandmother arrived they’d decided to simply release me on my own recognizance. SHEESH! After all that!
You can bet I chewed my attorney friend a new asshole for that one. And you can bet he was on the horn first thing Monday morning getting every bit of this expunged from my records. He even suggested that I file a malpractice claim against him because he was clearly in the wrong (they’d found the check still attached to my file, having never been sent in). Said he would tell his insurance company to settle with me for whatever I wanted. I could’a been rich! LOL. But I didn’t do it. I just walked away with a bad memory and an interesting story to tell my grandchildren some day.
I hope it makes you feel better to know you’re not alone, and others of us have been through similar traumas such as yours. Good luck and I hope you fight these bastards 'til the end and win!
Hey SS, I’m not sure if you know this or not, but in Texas it is illegal for a Police Dept. to collect more than a certain percentage of income from speeding tickets.
The way they get around this is by stopping someone for speeding, then fining them for every thing else possible: no insurance, expired inspection or registration, and so on. However, with 75 officers in a town of 1000, the chances may be pretty high that they are giving a few too many tickets for speeding violations.
Maybe there’s a way you can get the bastards audited and see exactly what percentage of their income is derived from speeding tickets. I bet it will exceed the legal limit.
Good luck, and I hope you put it to the bastards.
Man, SS, that really sucks. But (and I’ve got a BIG BUT)
I think the veep where you work seems like a wise man. What should you do about it? Stay the f away from there if you can avoid it. Tell your friends. Write a letter to the editor, if you must, and then – GET OVER IT!
I’m gonna clue you into a big secret, pal, there are people in the world who are assholes. And some of the assholes even enjoy authority as government officials. And some governments have bullshit laws. Let me repeat, that really really sucks. Will caps or another really let you realize that I mean it?
But get a life for crying out loud. What were you harmed? Yeah, it was embarassing and scary as all hell, but it didn’t affect your job. Can you identify a single friend, relative, acquaintance, co-worker you have that thinks the less of you for it? Why do you believe folk you will meet in the future will be different?
And investigate the significance of that “record” you now have. Is it treated differently than a traffic offense or minor code violation? If not, it is unlikely to affect you adversely in the future. Do you have a job that requires bonding, licensing, etc. such as this will ever come up? Any provision for getting it expunged in the future?
In short, for a hundred bucks you got a story you’ll be able to tell for the rest of your life. Some people might consider that a bargain.
It is possible that the community is doing something illegal that you might be able to hang on them. But it is also possible that they are doing everything strictly by the books, no matter how crappy it seems to you or me. It is also possible that, should you become a major thorn in their side, certain folk in the town might look for ways to make your life unpleasant. Is it worth it to you? Why?
If you must accept this as your mission, well, why don’t you take it up right after you handle that pesky world peace thing, hunger, and the possibility your friggin governor is gonna become president. Put it in perspective, bud. Shit happens. Deal with it and move on. Oh yeah - keep that registration paid up, okay?
Just proves Johnny Winter was right, “There’s so much shit in Texas, you’re bound to step in some.”
Do you realize this post is almost 14 years old?
New year zombies are the worst.
You know the answer to this question.
OP does sound like that short story where the guy gets executed for not returning a library book on time…
Considering the username, I suspect it was an unsuccessful spam post attempt.
A decade ago they did, now it’s all rainbows and lollipops.
You should know that in the 13 years since this thread was last posted to, the OP went from bad to worse, tearing off mattress tags, cutting in line at McDonald’s and eventually morphing into a serial killer.
We all saw it coming.
Not surprising considering the rates of recidivism.
Yes. I’m going to send this thread to spam jail and throw away the key. Remember kids: SPAM DOESN’T PAY.