Driving too slow - $50

[joe_a_buaiz]

Last Friday, I got a ticket for driving 45 in a 50 zone and was fined $50. Does this seem over-zealous to you?

---Joe

[DemonaL]

sure it was 45?, don't think a cop would stop you for 5 mph under or over... unless he really is a complete bitch..

[Mustangman25]

Unless you were holding up traffic, then yeah, it seems like a little too much.

[Igovert500]

Wow...does that kinda ticket even come with points? If you weren't holding up traffic, and the ticket actually says 45 in a 50, I'd fight it. 50 is the LIMIT, 5 under could easily be understandable for many reasons, weather, amount of light, potholes, whatever.

[joe_a_buaiz]

I was only going 45 because I don't like to go much faster. I wasn't holding up traffic. There was no physical reason (weather, pot-holes, etc.) that I was going less than 80, really. Around here (Grainger County, Tenn.) it doesn't take much to get a ticket. The local police are very over-zealous (in fact, the other day I heard our fat lazy stupid worthless Police Chief bragging to the other fat lazy stupid worthless police, that he was able to buy three brand new cruisers, fully equipped, with what they raked in on traffic tickets alone this year. The Bean Station town police think they have jurisdiction in the entire county, plus Hamblen, Hawkins, and Hancock Counties, and there's not much that anyone can do about it, that I know of. I did go to court over it, but unfortunately it was Grainger County Court, and I was 20 minutes late, so I found myself being arrested for failure to appear in court, IN COURT! Overnight in County Jail, plus another $50 fine.

I wouldn't recommend spending your vacation in Grainger County. (Hell, I wouldn't recommend it if we had no police at all.)

---Joe

[Igovert500]

wow, sorry to hear about that. Yeah in court you definantly want to get there an hour early.

[DemonaL]

yeah never appear at court on-time, always 1hr early...just like an airport...

[joe_a_buaiz]

I would have been there on time, but... I HIT A ROADBLOCK!!! I knew I was in a hurry, so I turned around to take another route, and two cops in a cruiser chased me down, and I had to wait for about 30 minutes for their dog to sniff around my car. I almost got arrested then and there, but they couldn't find anything to use on me.

On a little lighter note, I do remember a hilarious scene involving one of the local police. He was off duty, and he had just pulled out of his driveway to go to the store or something. He turned right as he pulled out, so he wasn't too worried about the truck with a trailer coming at him. He figured, 'I'll just stay in my lane, and I'll be okay.' As soon as he pulled out, the trailer came loose from the truck, and was all of a sudden coming at him in his lane about 30 MPH. It was an empty flatbed trailer, but was very heavy duty, and when it hit his car, the chassis was actually pushed out from under it. His car, now without wheels, skidded into the woods and hit a tree. He was off duty, but for some reason he had his police radio with him. He used it to call for help. He was okay, aside from a few scratches he picked up trying to crawl out of the weeds. At this point I should describe the usual physical appearance of Bean Station's Finest. He's about 6'3", with a slumped back, lumpy, lopsided head, and he's wall-eyed. He had only been a member of the Bean Station Police Department for about a week. When the ambulance got there (about 45 minutes later) the medic was sure that he had broken his skull and back, even though he said he was fine, and was walking around. "No, no, lay on that stretcher and don't move," the medic kept saying, all the while feeling around our cop's head to find the fractures. Then our cop said, "Wait a minute; let me get my gun out of the car." Once they got him to the jail, the dispatcher recognised him, and explained everything to the Grainger County Police who arrested him. He's supposed to have a gun because he's a cop, and he looks like that when he's okay. The medic told me this story, and I laughed for two weeks about it.

---Joe

[YukiHime]

Are you sure that 50 is not the MINIMUM limit?
Because I got pulled over once because I was under the minimum due to a bad health condition. The cop was nice enough just to warn me.

[fredjacksonsan]

Welcome back Yuki, long time no see; and I agree -- if it was a MINIMUM speed on the highway, they you were ticketed correctly. However if it was the speed LIMIT and you were under the limit, definitely take it to court! And if you lose in the little podunk court, appeal. Appeal again if necessary until you get a fair judge.

On the flip side, it seems like you've had several run ins with the police in your area. Are they keeping their eye on you for some reason?

[Igovert500]

2 month old thread...let it die.

[joe_a_buaiz]

Bean Station was incorporated in 1996. That was when we got our police department. For some reason, we ended up with the most overzealous morons in the county. Bean Station, the last time I checked, had a population of around 300, with 32 policemen, counting all the deputies, and auxilliary deputies. That is about 1 officer for every 10 citizens. Yet our policemen wear black swat uniforms, and carry machine guns in their trunks. It seems I live in a backwards, dying little pathetic town, filled with crooked low-level politicians. I don't think they have their eye on me, in particular (I'm proud to say that I have never committed a crime in my life), but you can find them parked at every street corner in town, and they will not hesitate to give you a ticket for having a loose license plate, low tire, fuzzy dice, a sticker in the back window, a front blinker that doesn't work, an unsigned registration renewal form, loose trim, a door that isn't closed all the way, loud exhaust, or even being broken down on the side of the road. (Getting a ticket for being broken down is not a good feeling, and I don't think that that is what 'protect and serve' means) Maybe they are watching me, because I have been ticketed for all of those. I don't like the logic behind the whole thing, either: "You have a rotten old car. Give me money!" Maybe if I didn't get a ticket for every thing that goes wrong with my car, I could afford the parts to fix it. But for now, I have a 1980 Oldsmobile Omega with a transmission that won't shift out of first, and an orange 1993 Geo Box of Parts that I'd like to set fire to.

[longlivetheZ]

Fight it. You'll win. That's bull if you are telling the whole truth about what happened.

Nice car, Igovert500.

[joe_a_buaiz]

Oh, I'm telling you the whole truth, and I'll tell you something else, to help illustrate my point:

The Bean Station City (?) Police Chief, used to be a deputy in Hancock County (they have police there, and last year, they installed a second traffic light. Wow.). On his first day as a duputy, he gave 27 tickets, and got the hell beat out of him (People in Hancock County aren't afraid to do that.). He needed about a hundred stitches in his eye-brow, and his noze was badly broken. The moment he was released from the hospital, he went out and started giving out more tickets. Guess what happened. He got the crap beat out of him. This all happened within one week of his being deputised. One week with a badge, and he had the hell and the crap beaten out of him.

This is the man who picked out all of the Bean Station deputies. These are the deputies who give me tickets for having bad tires, loose trim, leaky exhaust, and breaking down on the side of the road (they called it illegal parking). This is the police department who gives tickets in Sneedville, Morristown, Rutledge, Blaine, Thorn Hill, Mooresburg, Jefferson City, Tazewell and even Eidson, even though their jurisdiction is restricted to the Bean Station City Limits, which is hardly large enough for the post office.

Our police chief is the kind of man who tries to get his name in the newspaper every week (we don't have enough news for a daily paper). He is a man who no-one will admit they're related to. He is a man who will hide under his cruiser at the slightest sign of danger. He is a man who will pull someone over and search their car for being from another state. He is a man who once emptied his pistol into the back of a fleeing car and now refuses to admit to it (they never did find that car, but I heard the whole thing on my police radio). He is a man who brags about being able to buy new cruisers with money from traffic tickits.

This is our police department, and that is the whole truth.

Spend your next vacation in Bean Station, Tennessee. I dare you.

---Joe

[longlivetheZ]

My God. Sounds like a real great tourist destination. NOT!