Okay, I don’t have the link, but about a year and a half ago, I posted a Pit thread complaining about how my wife received a ticket for a headlight violation and how the cops should go after “real” criminals.
I got pretty much zero sympathy and was told that it was a minor fine; to just suck it up and pay the ticket. Okay, I did, and today while getting an online rate quote through Geico, I was rated up over $300 for a six month premium, over $60 per month because they consider that a violation that negates any discount I might receive.
So, this is just a note to you posters who say that it is minor. It isn’t, and I reiterate my fuck you to the asshole cop who decided that of all of the crimes in South Florida, that he felt the need to harass my wife over a fucking equipment violation. Thanks for the insurance premium increase, dickweed.
And I’m saying a fuck you to Geico as well. I’m sure there are insurance types out there. Does a one-time headlight violation by my wife (no other violations by her, none at all by me) make my household a $60/month greater risk?
You act as if there are all these giant crimes happening just to the left of your wife when she was pulled over/issued the citation. A cop can’t “solve” a crime he doesn’t know about.
And if you call Geico and not just blindly accept the premium their website gives you, you can probably get that lowered when you explain it was a simple headlight citation. It’s possible all they know is that it was a “moving violation” and they assume a speeding ticket.
No, I agree with the OP. The general policy of a cop should be, when he sees someone in front of him who’s violating some minor traffic law, he should–this should be policy now–he should drop whatever he’s doing, find a crack house, and arrest a drug dealer. Or, he should find someone breaking into a house, or raping a child, or whatever, just so long as he does NOT deal with the violation that just happened right in front of him.
I’m afraid the SDMB version of sympathy is going to be “Will you being saying fuck you when your wife kills a bus full of Nuns escorting paraplegic orphans because she couldn’t see them?”
I get that all the time as an urban planner; why are we worrying about little things like building design or neighborhood revitalization when there’s pedophiles and murders on the loose? I call it the “more important things” or “all other problems having been solved …” fallacy. Apparently, government should not multitask, and should concentrate all their efforts on one or two problems only. I hear it all the time from otherwise rational people who otherwise don’t have an ounce of libertarian bent in them; “Why is the city putting up new street signs when they should be going after pedophiles?”, “Why does the county care about us licensing their dogs, when they should be going after pedophiles?”, “Why is the federal government spending all this time and effort on bonuses at AIG, when they should be going after pedophiles?”, and so on.
I’m surprised the OP didn’t bring out the tired “my taxes pay your salary” argument, too.
I was going to empathize a bit regarding the insurance bump (although, as bouv says, you can still try talking to Geico about that), but then i went and read the thread likned by Aesiron.
After reading all your self-righteous whining in that thread, i thought that you deserved not only the $60 ticket, but also the $300 insurance hit. And probably a kick in the balls, just for good measure.
Exactly. Heck, as a long-time GEICO customer, a few years ago I caused a minor fenderbender with another car, and they didn’t raise my insurance premiums at all. (I also didn’t make a claim against my own insurance.)
See, I think that policy should allow police discretion (hint: it does) and when a cop sees a minor traffic violation, or extremely minor violation as in the OP’s case, he should probably look the other way and find some better way to waste time.
While I am in full agreement over the ridiculousness of “don’t the cops have something better they could be doing,” I gotta admit that I was probably naive, but I didn’t realize that having a headlight out was a ticketable offense. I’ve been pulled over for it twice since I got my license, and both times the officers just let me know that I had a headlight out and told me to get it fixed ASAP (which I did). I would have been quite surprised to get a ticket for it. You learn something every day, I guess.
Exactly. See a minor traffic violation happen right in front of you? Let it go. What the fuck is the law anyway? There’s obviously no *reason *for such a law. It’s not enough that it’s already low-enough priority that it’s not the kind of law that can be enforced by third-party report; an actual police officer has to witness the crime. Which means that already 99% of the time such violations go unpunished. So what’s another 1%? It’s a much more efficient use of that cop’s time for him to ignore it, let it pass, and keep hoping for that real crime to pop up.
Around here, a headlight is a “fix it” ticket, meaning if you pay the fine and prove you fixed it, that’s the end of it. It doesn’t have points attached to it, AFAIK.
And blaming the cop, the insurance company and the SDMB because you are too fucking lazy or cheap to replace a headlight is kind of lame… but carry on.
In Michigan the ticket is waved if you get it fixed with in 28 days.
that’ said Gieco is jerking yer gerkin. Shop around, maybe talk to an agent for some of the other companies. There’s no way a $300 increase for a light a bulb ticket is justified.
I don’t know what’s the matter with you people. You’re just like all the other unsympathetic people in the world, going around, telling people not to do stuff that you imagine might get them in trouble. “Don’t stomp on that rattlesnake!” you’ll say, then when a guy ignores your stupid advice and stomps on the rattlesnake anyway, and then gets bit BY A FREAKIN’ RATTLESNAKE, will you give a guy any sympathy? NO, you’ll just tell him, “I TOLD you not to stomp on that rattlesnake!” Never mind that the poor guy might FREAKIN’ DIE, it’s all about you and your blind adherence to a bunch of arbitrary rules.
Next you’ll be asking the people at the amusement parks to tighten the bolts on the roller coasters. :mad: