I think he did. You’re being an asshole. An asshole drunk on some kind of righteous indignation over a fucking fix it ticket
She gets the taillight fixed. Poof, the ticket goes away. Big fucking deal.
So … should anyone be getting tickets for a tail-light out? I tend to think that they should not, for such a minor issue.
But that’s not an issue with the cop, necessarily.
You were making ridiculously false assertions about me, without the least shred of evidence. Should I have let them pass?
If anyone ever deserves a ticket for that offense, then yes I do. I certainly see no mitigating circumstances. We really don’t have enough information, including, as **buttonjockey **points out, what kind of ticket it was and what her response to being pulled over was.
Is it your argument that no one ever should be ticketed for a busted tail light? If so, I have no response. I didn’t think that was the point of the OP.
This too. Most of what I hear about her is second-hand, but it sounds like she’s stuck in a cycle of Start a job → don’t get sick/personal days till you’ve worked for several months → Kid gets sick/She gets sick/Some other shit happens → Have to miss work to deal with it → Lose job → Repeat. If this is indeed what’s happening, then taking half a day off to go to traffic court is also going to lead to → Lose job, which leads to → Poorer → Continue to drive crappy car.
Don’t worry too much about Oakminster. He’s much like the cop. Technically correct, but actually an asshole.
Unlike the officer, he can safely be ignored.
Contrapuntal, Looking back on the thread otternell, Oakminster, A Monkey With a Gun seem to be the most vocal in the reflexive support of all that is law and order, though you do seem to be leaning that way when you say things like “It sounds like you are arguing that the most lenient response is always the best. Cops have discretion, but it’s theirs, not yours.What if it were Ramadan? Hannnukah? Should only warnings be issued then as well?” Also, when you take a swipe at me for mocking law and order types (when I had not singeled you out) it lends one to think that you may be more sympathetic to that position. So I suppose that it is possible that the assumptions that I am making about your position are, in fact, wrong and do not reflect your true position but to say that they are without evidence is not really true.
As to the “offense” itself I would have to say that my position is that at very most the cop should have pulled her over to give her a heads up and that it is absurd to actually get a ticket for that. Unlike Mr. Safety upthread, real people are not going to back up to a white wall every time they drive too check to see if they can see the glow of both tail lights. That is just stupid. Also the State has already mandated (at least everywhere that I have ever lived) annual safety inspections of cars so it is reasonable to assume that a taillight issue would be caught at that time. So yeah, the situation as presented by the OP is stupid and should not have happened and anyone who is supporting it is worthy of my contempt.
Oh also, Hamlet, suck it.
No but we sure as hell think its over-reacting to call a cop a psychopath and get all hot and bothered about it 2 yrs after the event, when it was just a freaking ticket. Its not a big deal, the cop wasn’t a psychopath. He surely wasn’t the most generous and kind officer out there, but as was said by someone else: it is his discretion, not yours. Quit acting like this is some sort of civil liberties issue when its just a fucking ticket.
Got a microscope?
Fair enough, although the swipe was in response to what seemed to me to be an over the top personal attack in lieu of an actual argument. It’s possible to think that Poster A is wrong without necessarily thinking Poster B, who A opposes, is right. In theory, anyway.
Then I would say that your beef is with the legislature and not the cop.
What bothers me about the situation as presented in the OP is the assumption that driving an unreliable car in wintry conditions with small children aboard *On Christmas Eve. OMG. * somehow mitigates having a busted tail light, whose sole purpose is as a safety feature. If that makes me worthy of your contempt, then so be it.
I check the glow of my taillights, my reverse lights, and my brake lights every night when I back into my garage.
I do this via a TOP SECRET TECHNIQUE that I will now share with you:
I use my rear-view mirror.
I check my headlights every night by glancing at the interior side of my garage door as it’s closing.
I do also, not every day, but weekly, check my turn signals in the same manner.
[ol]
[li]The cop was no psychopath.[/li][li]The time of year does not matter.[/li][li]Although one can catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar, the fact is that many, perhaps most people do not give a rat’s ass about warnings and consider just getting a warning as a sign that they “won” the encounter with the cop.[/li][li]The ticket, and the money that it most likely cost the driver, may cause her to be more attentive to the safety condition of her car – and that’s a win for her, her kids, and the driving society at large.[/li][/ol]
What a bunch of fucking pedants!
No, the cop didn’t do anything “wrong.” Yes, he was just doing his job, but can you not being doing anything “wrong” and still be an asshole? Is the meter maid who circles the block, waiting for the very second a meter expires before issuing a ticket an asshole or not? What if the person shows up to the car while the meter maid is writing the ticket, yet the ticket is still issued? Being an ass or not? Is the answer “not” because the maid did his job properly?
Enough with that bullshit. We’re human beings, not robots. What is this “Must Strictly Comply With Every Rule At All Times Or Suffer The Consequences!” bullshit? Can’t we just be nice to people on Christmas? If someone commits some minor infraction (dim tail light for instance) and is pulled over, is the cop an asshole for giving the person a ticket when the DL reveals it’s the person’s birthday? Of course not, right? Because he’s “doing his job.”
Rules are rules are rules are rules!
Pedant assholes some people are.
Sure. Where’s your evidence that he was an asshole? Can someone be a mother of two on Christmas Eve and still be an asshole?
How often, in your experience, has this actually happened?
The answer is that the driver was parked illegally, and the maid is accountable for all her tickets. What would you have her do, pay it herself?
How about you find one poster in this thread who has advocated that?
How about Ramadan? Hannukah? Easter? Why not just have a moratorium on safety features during all holidays? I’m sure the rainbows and unicorns will watch out for us.
Is driving during a snowfall with a brakelight out really a nice thing to do?
What? Folks should get a pass on their birthday now?
Idiot mouthbreathers some people are.
Yes, enough with the bullshit. I keep seeing the damn “must strictly comply” strawman pop up, but that is not what we are saying. What we are saying is that the fucking cop isn’t, as the OP put it, “going to hell”.
A traffic ticket is just a fucking traffic ticket. The people who can’t understand that have completely lost perspective.
Listen you fucks, Brittany died, 25000 children died, and a cat may or may not have died, yet here you are mouthing off about a bloody ticket. Lets get some perspective here you bunch of left wing bastards.
Oh, the cat’s dead by now. Really dead. Dead dead.
God damn it people, the cop didn’t kill the cat. How many times do I have to fucking say this?
I beg to differ in this instance.
You get a warning for speeding or not coming to a full stop or some other driving behaviour, it may or may not affect how you drive in the future.
You get a “fix it and prove it” ticket for something like brake/turn lights, you HAVE to fix it or pay a fine (or a bigger fine). There is an incentive to fix it, and once its fixed, the problem is solved, at least for awhile. Of course these kind of tickets/warnings/nonmoving violations vary state by state.
But did he help it any? Did he fuck! To protect and to serve, my ass.
Maybe not directly. But if he hadn’t stopped the OP’s cousin she would have seen the cat and rescued it. As it was, she got there too late. It had already been struck and killed by a speeding bus. The kids were traumatized for years.