A cop pulled me over today and said I wasn't wearing my seat belt even though it was on when he walked up. He said he could see the shiny buckle hanging which was a flat out lie. I calmly and nicely explained how I was wearing my seat belt and never went anywhere without first buckling my seat belt(which is true). He did not care and wrote me a ticket anyway. I also asked him how he could not see me try and put the seatbelt on if I wasn't wearing it...which is hard to do with a cop right behind you following you(which since my seatbelt was on...I did not do). So, I got a ticket by a cop who lied to my face who was probably more interested in meeting his ticket quota than anything else. I am really pissed off about this. However, I know if I go to court I will just lose because crooked cop will say whatever and the judge will listen. I never have good experiences with cops under any situations and for this reason I don't like cops at all. When they start treating me fairly, then I will reverse my opinion. But, over the years, I've never met a fair cop or one who has been straight with me. So, I will part with my $100 or whatever the f*ck the fine is and move on. I'm sure this won't be the last time, either. To this particular office, I have two words: F#CK YOU ! Surf
I'd take it to court...chances are the cop may not show up and it gets thrown out. Maybe you can bring some family or friends to testify that you always wear your seat belt? os
If you got this ticket in Houston, you should just contest the ticket and hope the cop doesn't show up. The odds are pretty high he won't show up if it's in the city...
No, it's in Fort Worth and I would have to take time off work. There is no justice for me. Hell...over in Dallas...they have cops making fake drug busts on Mexicans using bags of ground up sheetrock. The Mexicans spend months in jail and then get deported. This case is ongoing over there. So, considering that, I feel lucky. But, I don't enjoy being lied to and ticketed for a lie.
Same thing happened to me @ Kuykhendal & 1960. Dude also gave me a ticket for no insurance despite the fact that I showed him the #%@#$ insurance certificate (a second time) as he tried to hand me the ticket!
My dad said that once in Houston a cop almost gave him a ticket for 'running a stop sign' and it turned out that there was no stop sign there. My dad said when he told the cop that there was no stop sign he said the guy was really rude and stuff. I had bad cops.
I had a bad experience with a cop last semester. I was taking the LSAT, and the only way to get to the testing facility involved either walking on some not-quite-dry pavement, or taking a 15 minute detour around the entire campus. I wasn't familiar with that part of town, so I tried to jump over the pavement. I didn't quite make it. Anyway, this cop calls me over, and is like "Do you go to this school?" I say, "No, Boston College... why?" He says "Because I think you wasted your money, you moron. Can't you ****ing read... the sign says wet pavement." I explained... and he was like "oh, that's all the world needs, one more ****ing lawyer... hope you flunk your test." I was pretty pissed, and said something like "guess that guarding a stretch of pavement gives you plenty of time to think up petty insults." At that point, he pushed me hard back on the pavement, and said "get the **** out of here, you little ****. If I see you here again, you'll be in trouble." What a ****. Of course, that's been my first problem with a cop, so I guess I'm lucky. When my dad was at Notre Dame, he used to drive all the way from Seagraves Texas to South Bend, Indiana. One time, driving through oklahoma, he was pulled over one of his lights not working, immediately after leaving a gas station. My dad, confused, pointed to his light and told the cop it worked. The cop, promptly took his side-arm, smashed in the tail light, and said, "you were saying, fairy boy?" I guess he was making allusions to the fact that my dad had long hair and dressed sloppily. Anyway, my dad stayed in that tiny town to fight the ticket, but the judge wouldn't believe him. Eventually, he got thrown in jail for contempt of court. Full of righteous rage, he had his parents hire a high-priced lawyer. In the end, he was out 5,000 dollars and spend about two weeks in a piece of **** redneck county jail.
That sucks. I had a similar experience a long time ago: I recieved a ticket for not wearing my seat belt, even though the truck I was driving at the time (a 1980 Scout) only had lap belts, which I was wearing. Fortunately, the judge threw it out. After that I had this idea to start carrying a tape recorder with me just in case. I never did, but I still wonder if it would prove effective in court should I ever have another experience with an argumentative officer. Some tips if you get pulled over that a couple of my cop buddies told me: -Be polite and stay cool. You can only hurt yourself here. -Be upfront and honest if he/she asks you any questions. -If you can't get your insurance etc. with your seatbelt on, wait for the officer to approach the car first. Take defensive driving (if you haven't already). If you have to end up paying for the ticket, ask for a court date anyway. Even if you don't plan on ACTUALLY going to court, you will get the opportunity to first meet with an assistant DA, who will give you other options to taking it to court. They will sometimes offer you deferred adjudication, defensive driving, or if you choose to pay for it, a reduction in the fine amount as much as 50%. Hope this helps, x34
I'm not going to waste my time going to court over a lie trying to prove my innocence to a judge who will not listen....even if there is a slight chance the cop would not show. $100 or whatever is not that much money to worry about. Cops get theirs in the end....via being murdered at the hands of real criminals. I guess that gives them an excuse to act in whatever manner they choose and lie. I called my old man b****ing about it and about busted up my place real good. I kicked the **** out of few items....which I'm surprised their still in one piece. That's just a $100 less going to charity this year. Oh...one year I donated money to the policeman's widow fund. Sorry...but that's not happening ever again. It's unfortunate that my buttons have been pushed so many times to have this attitude. Did I mention that last time I was pulled over I was ticketed for doing 55 mph in a 40 mph zone(another lie). I was actually doing 47 mph. Since I argued the call, the other officer standing next to the one who said I was doing 55 mph tacked on a tailgate offense even though that was a lie as well. Surf
Sorry, but I'd simply refuse to sign the ticket if I did not do what I was being accused of. Haven, if I were you in that case I would have filed a public complaint on the officer for pushing you. As for your father, I'd have taken it to a federal level if necessary. I've had a few run in's with Houston's "Finest". Although I haven't been harassed like some of you, one in particular stands out because I was driving home through Bellaire at 4 in the morning. After I was about a mile outside the Bellaire city limit(behind Mars music in Meyerland) and just a couple blocks from my house, I saw the flashing berries in my rearview and pulled over. The cop comes up and asks me what I'm doing and where I'm going, so I tell him I just left my friends place and was going home to go to bed. Then I asked him what I did wrong and he said, "Nothing. We've had some burglaries in the area recently." I figured that since I was wearing a rag on my head I must have fit been profiled. He goes on to ask if the car I was driving, a beat up '85 Toyota Celica, was mine. I laughed and said, "Yeah, do you want to check it out?" He looked inside and found nothing, then looked in the trunk where there was some junk including a hairdryer which he asked if it was mine. Again I laughed and said, "Yeah. Is there anything else because if not I'd like to GO HOME now!" He shook his head so I hopped in my car and took off with my middle finger sticking out of the sunroof. Maybe I am just crazy and have way too much pride to put up with bull$hit from a pig with a badge. F*ck the police!
Not to mention the Dallas Police Department's continual ignoring of the Constitution in regard to "Failure to ID" arrests. Dallas is one of the few places I know where I person can do jail time for things that are admittedly not against the law (even the city's attornies says so, but the cops keep arresting people and the courts keep convicting them). I once got ticket for driving a car with a Temporary License Tag on it. According to this officer, it was illegal to drive a car with those black-lettered temporary dealer tags that they put in the car for test drives. I had an Oklahoma Deputy almost arrest me for driving at night. It was several years ago when the Texas Driver's Licenses had the list of restriction codes on the back. The deputy saw that I had a "Class C" driver's license (which was the standard license for driving an automobile), looked on the back at the Restriction Code C (which said "daytime driving only" or something like that) and told me I was breaking the law by driving at night. I was finally able to explain to him that he was misreading the license, but it took a good long time. That's not so much being crooked as it was being ignorant of what things on the Texas DL meant. And in my non-driving experience with the Plano Police, I've found that they're worthless. Man upstairs threatens to kill me, police are called. Police come out, man admits to threat. Police do not arrest upstairs neighbor and local DA refuses to file charges. Assault by Threat apparently not a crime in Plano (but I suspect that had I threatened to kill said worthless cop, it suddenly would've become illegal again to threaten to kill someone). Makes me wonder why we have laws at all. It all seems to be up to the discretion of the police. Things that aren't against the law will get you a ticket or arrested sometimes, and things that are against the law are not enforced. All I know is that I would NEVER count on the Plano Police Department or the Plano Municipal Courts to do anything for me or any other citizen of this town. I get the feeling they sit around the station trying to find ways to not work and exclaiming "Why can't people take the law into their own hands" whenever a call comes in that interrupts their busy schedule of NOT enforcing the law. But I'm sure there has to be at least a couple of good Plano Police officers somewhere. I've just yet to see or hear of them.
You're lucky he didn't arrest you for that. My father was arrested in Amarillo once for something similar. He got pulled over on the way to the hospital for a surgery one morning (my father is a physician). Since it was going to take a few minutes, my father called the hospital and in the course of the conversation with a nurse, he said, "I'll be there as soon as this dumb@ss cop writes me a ticket." At that point, the officer told my father to get out of the car. He was handcuffed and taken to the station (once there, he was allowed to call the hospital so they could find another anesthesiologist and perform the surgery that this officer was holding up. The officer had full knowledge that my father was on the way to a surgery, but he persisted anyway.) It was several hours later before my father was allowed to leave (the jailer thought the charge was stupid, though, so he didn't put him in the cell, but he also just couldn't let him go, either), and it took getting his attorney to make some noise. I'm not sure what charge he was booked under, but the case was never filed by the DA as far as I know.
That doesn't do any good. In fact, I didn't have to sign the ticket at all. It says (NOT VOID IF UNSIGNED) on the ticket.
Set a court date, and then change it. A police officer has one day a month that they are to appear in court. Make it a different day then the originally scheduled one, say you can't EVER make it on Tuesday, what about Wed...or something. The cop will NOT show up for the new date, I promise. DaDakota
You know, I really hate this. I want to like cops. I really do. They fill an important role in society and many of them are genuine heroes. But the history of policemen is pretty bad... have you guys ever read about the corruption that existed in places like NYC at the turn of the century? Terrible. The cops were little better than sanctioned thugs. And then you hear about stuff like this. And it makes you want to scream... especially when most of them are probably pretty decent.
Sorry guys, but never EVER talk back to a cop. Once he's pulled you over, he's basically got you by the nuts, and can do whatever he wants. Talking back will just piss him off, especially if he's been having a bad day. Once when I was 16 I got pulled over for rolling a stop while turning onto HWY 6. I pretended to cry and started trembling and shaking, and the cop was like "damn, son." He let me off with a warning. APD is much more laid back than HPD. Austin policemen are usually in their early-mid 20's, and know that they have better things to worry about than minor traffic violations, et al. (Except for the ones that camp out on I-35 north of 183.) Moral of the story: the cop's holding all the cards. Don't talk back.
Maybe so...but I have an excuse....I was wronged and it was said in a heated moment. You may interpret it to be a dumbass remark but I interpret it me being an *******. My apologies regardless. The more I think about it....the more I know he lied to my face. It's almost impossible to mistake when a seat belt is not on versus on. He told me he could see the silver buckle hanging which is impossible. And, when he pulled me over, he peered in my car window and didn't have an actual clue. He was looking in to make a point that I somehow slipped it on when he wasn't looking(whenever that was because he was right behind me the whole time). He was right behind me for a minute or two in line at a stoplight and he should have been able to easily ascertain that my seatbelt was on as it is SO easy to see tension in a seatbelt and tell if the buckle is hanging high or not. As far as talking back, I wouldn't say that is what I was doing. When he came to my window and peered in, he didn't say anything at first and I didn't say anything. I was just sitting there thinking maybe he was going to say my taillight was out or something. Then, he proceeded to lie to me about seeing the silver buckle hanging there. Even then...we were having a polite conversation. When he came back with the ticket, then I started talking back some smack. I know your supposed to sit there and say absolutely nothing except "hello" and take it but when he's lying to your face...how can anyone sit there and not say anything? In the end, you know your going to have to pay the ticket anyway. This is not a one time incident, either. I still feel like I was targetted and I'm not sure why. I think there was an agenda there. Surf
Says who? There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with a cop. This is a free country dammit! It is when we are stripped of our rights to speak up and disagree with a figure of authority that we live in a police state. Despite my own past personal actions, you can disagree and constructively argue your own case with a police officer, just make sure you aren't crossing any lines such as making it personal(although the cop may have made it personal just by pulling YOU over).
