In Trouble with the Law
Howard has had his legal problems, and mine are minor in comparison, but in October, when he gets years in prison for grabbing at Elizabeth Patterson, I can tell in advance I am going to be feeling a lot of Howard sympathy.
I spent the day today in Defensive Driving School which was being led by a retired traffic policeman, who was very informative about the life of a traffic policeman during the course of his presentation. He had everyone in the class say out loud what they had been pulled over for, and how they felt about it, and how much they had been charged to attend the Defensive Driving School. I was more than a little surprised when he informed me that the policeman had made an incorrect judgment call about my being pulled over for running a red light, and I should have pleaded not guilty. It was a good exercise in learning that things in one state, which are illegal, are not illegal in another state.
When I lived in Texas, if your car entered an intersection and the light turned red before you exited the intersection, then you were guilty of running a red light. Apparently this is not the case in Arizona, where if you enter on yellow, you can exit on red and not be guilty. But it is a judgment call on the part of the police officer as to whether or not this happened. The choice is then to argue the case, or pay the fine, or if you have no other tickets in the last 2 years, you can attend Defensive Driving School for a significantly reduced fee, which in my case was going from $250 to $125 and you get no points against your license.
What I learned during the course of the day was that traffic policemen in Arizona work on 10-hour shifts and during the course of that 10 hours issue “hundreds” of tickets. Considering it took the police officer almost 15 minutes to write up my paperwork, I doubt the veracity of the “hundreds” claim by the course instructor. Nevertheless a little simple math of say 25 tickets in a day (a more reasonable 2.5 tickets an hour) at $250 a pop tells me that the average traffic policeperson has the potential to produce $6250 of revenue a day for the police department.
As I listened to the people in the class describe their infractions, there were some that were extreme, like driving 100 mph in a 75 mph zone, or running into another vehicle. However, the majority of them were persons who did things like turning a corner and going into the wrong lane, speeding violations of less than 10 mph over the speed limit, or allowing their car to go briefly off the road. These were things that could be attributed to driver error or carelessness. Most drivers experience these moments when they drive. Therefore, as long as people drive, there is an unlimited source of things that can be fined. By placing high fines to enforce correct driving, the traffic police essentially have a guaranteed means by which they can support themselves and possibly the rest of the police department who perform acts from which the police receive no revenue, like investigating crimes. All they have to do is go out and wait for it to happen and it will. Someone will make a mistake and often enough for the police to issue “hundreds” of tickets.
It is like the University of Arizona men’s basketball program which can charge enormous prices for the seats to see their games (because the team is very good every year), so that their revenues can support every athletic program at the University, particularly the ones no one wants to pay money to see. Unlike those unseen athletic programs, there is a definite downside to using the traffic police this way. That is: Fear of the police. When I see a policeperson on the road, my first thought is not “There goes the police, protector of right and wrong, how proud I am of them.” My first thought is “Oh my God. Quick, check the speedometer to make sure I am not speeding and I haven’t left my turn signal on by accident.” I am about as far from a desperate criminal as I can think without going into the ministry, and yet the sight of a police car puts me at fearful caution. There is some inherently wrong with that. Honest people, who try every day to obey the law, should not fear the police. I want the police I can be proud of. I don’t want the police I think are watching my every move waiting for me to make a driving mistake.
I spent the day today in Defensive Driving School which was being led by a retired traffic policeman, who was very informative about the life of a traffic policeman during the course of his presentation. He had everyone in the class say out loud what they had been pulled over for, and how they felt about it, and how much they had been charged to attend the Defensive Driving School. I was more than a little surprised when he informed me that the policeman had made an incorrect judgment call about my being pulled over for running a red light, and I should have pleaded not guilty. It was a good exercise in learning that things in one state, which are illegal, are not illegal in another state.
When I lived in Texas, if your car entered an intersection and the light turned red before you exited the intersection, then you were guilty of running a red light. Apparently this is not the case in Arizona, where if you enter on yellow, you can exit on red and not be guilty. But it is a judgment call on the part of the police officer as to whether or not this happened. The choice is then to argue the case, or pay the fine, or if you have no other tickets in the last 2 years, you can attend Defensive Driving School for a significantly reduced fee, which in my case was going from $250 to $125 and you get no points against your license.
What I learned during the course of the day was that traffic policemen in Arizona work on 10-hour shifts and during the course of that 10 hours issue “hundreds” of tickets. Considering it took the police officer almost 15 minutes to write up my paperwork, I doubt the veracity of the “hundreds” claim by the course instructor. Nevertheless a little simple math of say 25 tickets in a day (a more reasonable 2.5 tickets an hour) at $250 a pop tells me that the average traffic policeperson has the potential to produce $6250 of revenue a day for the police department.
As I listened to the people in the class describe their infractions, there were some that were extreme, like driving 100 mph in a 75 mph zone, or running into another vehicle. However, the majority of them were persons who did things like turning a corner and going into the wrong lane, speeding violations of less than 10 mph over the speed limit, or allowing their car to go briefly off the road. These were things that could be attributed to driver error or carelessness. Most drivers experience these moments when they drive. Therefore, as long as people drive, there is an unlimited source of things that can be fined. By placing high fines to enforce correct driving, the traffic police essentially have a guaranteed means by which they can support themselves and possibly the rest of the police department who perform acts from which the police receive no revenue, like investigating crimes. All they have to do is go out and wait for it to happen and it will. Someone will make a mistake and often enough for the police to issue “hundreds” of tickets.
It is like the University of Arizona men’s basketball program which can charge enormous prices for the seats to see their games (because the team is very good every year), so that their revenues can support every athletic program at the University, particularly the ones no one wants to pay money to see. Unlike those unseen athletic programs, there is a definite downside to using the traffic police this way. That is: Fear of the police. When I see a policeperson on the road, my first thought is not “There goes the police, protector of right and wrong, how proud I am of them.” My first thought is “Oh my God. Quick, check the speedometer to make sure I am not speeding and I haven’t left my turn signal on by accident.” I am about as far from a desperate criminal as I can think without going into the ministry, and yet the sight of a police car puts me at fearful caution. There is some inherently wrong with that. Honest people, who try every day to obey the law, should not fear the police. I want the police I can be proud of. I don’t want the police I think are watching my every move waiting for me to make a driving mistake.
posted by howard at 3:06 AM
5 Comments:
But you know what drives (so to speak) me crazy on a daily basis, as I do my half-hour walk to and from work? NOBODY (practically) obeys the pedestrian right-of-way laws. It is way more important to shave a few seconds off of their commute by CUTTING ME OFF to make their precious turn into MY path where I AM CROSSING WITH A GREEN LIGHT. Even though the law clearly dictates that they yield. And I can only think they do this because they know they won't get a ticket. When I visited Los Angeles years ago, visiting a friend, I was astounded to discover that when a pedestrian steps off a curb to cross the street, drivers actually wait and let them cross. My friend told me that this was because in California, drivers actually get tickets for not doing so. I wish New York State would follow suit. Heck, I've even had COPS cut me off, so if they're doing it, you can be pretty sure the cutter-offers are safe, and I'm just scrod. Well, if ARB stops suddenly and mysteriously someday, it might be that some someone in a big friggin', super-important HURRY killed me as I was crossing the street. (Hey, it happens all the time, sadly enough.)
Sorry for the rant. And sorry you had to spend the day in traffic school. We missed you!
BTW, I might have to serve jury duty in October. :-0
There is something about driving that makes people crazy and much about the Defensive Drive School was about keeping your emotions in control while you drive and allowing enough time to get places so you do not have to speed. There is an effect on people, when they think they are in an area where they will or will not get caught. I know it makes me drive with my eyes glued to the speedometer sometimes around here, which I do not think is very safe. But I have been pulled over and given a warning for going 5 mph over the speed limit before, so I have been taught that is what is required to get along.
As to the positive effect of ticketing, I am not so certain. As the instructor told us yesterday, the 3 of 4 cities in the nation with the most traffic fatalities in intersections due to running red lights were Phoenix, Mesa, and Tucson, Arizona. You may be safer crossing the streets in New York State than here.
Jury duty in October would provide an interesting perspective on the Howard story, even though it isn't in Canada. I don't know how you feel about jury duty, but when I lived in Texas and I got jury duty, it meant I was a registered voter, and I actually enjoyed doing it, even though there were large stretches of boredom.
I think the driving-induced craziness must have something to do with humans not being meant to move so quickly, encased in heavy metallic machinery. ;)
I've never done jury duty, and I'm actually curious about it. If I'm chosen for a trial, I do hope it will be fairly quick. The deal is that I'd be committed for one week or one trial. I guess the "one week" part would be if I'm not chosen for a trial?
I don't suppose I'd have the giant coincidence to be chosen for a going-after trial.
qnjones,
Thanks for the great New Yorker story.
aprilp_katje,
qnjones can probably tell you more about jury duty than I can.
However, I was called for jury duty 3 times in Dallas and 1 time in Tucson. In Dallas, they call in all the jurors on Mondays or Thursdays, and you sit in a big room and wait for you name to be called for the trials. If your name is not called, eventually they will say, "Thanks for doing your duty. You can leave." This happened to me the first time. The second time I was called for jury and they lined up 12 persons and 12 people behind them as their alternates, and then 3 extra people. Then the lawyers told us a little about the case and started asking questions about how we felt about different things. There was a very pretty girl sitting behind me as an alternate and I notice both the lawyers were single men. So, when the 12 persons called to serve were the first 11, except for me, I wasn't surprised. The 3rd time I was called into jury duty, I was selected to be on the jury. It was a civil trial, expected to only last one day and it did.
In Arizona, they have a different system. They send you a message saying your jury duty is selected for a particular day, and then the day before that day after 5 pm., you are supposed to call or check the internet to see if you actually have jury duty. If you don't, then then you are rescheduled for another day, and the process repeats until eventually you are told tomorrow is your day. This is a royal pain for getting time off from employers, only to tell them, "Oops. I really need this other day off." On the day I finally went to jury duty, it turned out to be a trial for a particularly gruisome murder case, and was really afraid I would be selected, because we were warned those kinds of trials typically last 6 weeks. Fortunately for me, the 2 men who were being tried, decided they wanted to be tried separately, so the whole thing was postponed and we were dismissed.
I did enjoy my time as a juror. It was a fascinating look at our justice system.
::briefly considers moving to Iowa City::
I love that story! :)
I'm not sure whether NYS is overall worse than other states, as I had the same trouble in PA. But it is distressingly common to find news stories about pedestrians being struck down by drivers. One from this past spring involved a local musician who was crossing the street to perform at a bar. She was "lucky" in that she "only" had a broken leg. Far too many of these stories end up with dead pedestrians.
For jury duty, I'm supposed to call a phone number to find out if I'm needed--during the weekend before the Monday I'd start serving. So I guess it's similar to AZ. :)
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