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sabrinamariIt really helped, my dears. Outcomes are not bad, if challenging:
My UTI isn't happy, but I am hanging in there. I feel icky, and I need to watch my medication times closely, because if I delay the medications the pain is quite uncomfortable. The bathroom is my friend, and I don't like to stray too far from it right now.
I had to change my weekend plans, which is disappointing. Michael, Trent and I were going to visit the lovely Rose (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lady_daegonna) and her mother Peggy, both dear friends of mine, and now we have to wait till next weekend. I am eager to see Rose, have some real time with her to talk and listen, and work togethor on Craft matters. I want to be able to take a walk with Peggy and talk to her heart to heart in person, as I've not been able to do in years, and share some photos of a Christmas we spent together over a decade ago.
I want Rose and Peggy to meet Michael and Trent, and vice versa, so the two groups of people I love can know each other. But it will have to wait until next weekend, when I don't have to manage pain and stay within a short distance of a bathroom.
The court situation went both better and harder than I thought. The prosecuter immediately offered me a no-point deal, which cost me plenty---$459. It's so clear here that ticketing is simply a fundraising activity for local municipalities and police departments---they don't even try to hide this. I took the deal, but resolved to fight if this ever happens again. I bought two texts that outline, step-by-step, how to challenge and win in court against a speeding ticket. The books have extremely useful strategies, but these require preparation time that I didn't take. One that I'm implementing immediately is to carry my microcassette recorder in my glove box, so I can tape all future interactions with police, and carry with me the list of questions that I will need to ask officers if and when I am stopped again:
What kind of speed tracking device did you use?
What mode was it in?
May I walk back and see the unit? (get model #, serial # and anything else of use)
What is your name and badge number?
What is the cruiser #?
In which municipality will this come to court?
I'll write up and laminate these questions and the steps I need to follow and carry them in my glove box with the microcassette, blank tapes, and a xerox of my receipt---the $459 cost of my non-action. Just so I remember. I will carry both reference texts in the drawer beneath the passenger seat, so I can pull them out fast and refer to them immediately if and when I need them.
With severe state budgetary cuts, traffic tickets are one of the few flexible funding sources left for strapped local governments. The police will be increasingly pressured to generate income for struggling municipalities and their own underfunded law enforcement departments (departments get a cut of every ticket written), so they will probably increase their predatory efforts. It's a logical response to budgetary stress, if an unethical one.
But I need to be prepared, and to remember that over half of the people ticketed just pay, another 25% or so take the prosecuter's deal, and this encourages police to just write those tickets, since most of the time, they will feel no personal consequences from doing so. But prosecuters HATE speeding cases and police HATE to be called into court and questioned by citizens. This will work in my favor, if I choose to fight in the future, as long as I do my prep work. I have the guidance I need in order to do so, and I now understand that I will simply have to protect myself, because it is in no one else's interest to do it for me.
I resent the need to do this and it makes me angry. But it is necessary in this fiscal climate. That's just the way it is.
My UTI isn't happy, but I am hanging in there. I feel icky, and I need to watch my medication times closely, because if I delay the medications the pain is quite uncomfortable. The bathroom is my friend, and I don't like to stray too far from it right now.
I had to change my weekend plans, which is disappointing. Michael, Trent and I were going to visit the lovely Rose (
lady_daegonna) and her mother Peggy, both dear friends of mine, and now we have to wait till next weekend. I am eager to see Rose, have some real time with her to talk and listen, and work togethor on Craft matters. I want to be able to take a walk with Peggy and talk to her heart to heart in person, as I've not been able to do in years, and share some photos of a Christmas we spent together over a decade ago.I want Rose and Peggy to meet Michael and Trent, and vice versa, so the two groups of people I love can know each other. But it will have to wait until next weekend, when I don't have to manage pain and stay within a short distance of a bathroom.
The court situation went both better and harder than I thought. The prosecuter immediately offered me a no-point deal, which cost me plenty---$459. It's so clear here that ticketing is simply a fundraising activity for local municipalities and police departments---they don't even try to hide this. I took the deal, but resolved to fight if this ever happens again. I bought two texts that outline, step-by-step, how to challenge and win in court against a speeding ticket. The books have extremely useful strategies, but these require preparation time that I didn't take. One that I'm implementing immediately is to carry my microcassette recorder in my glove box, so I can tape all future interactions with police, and carry with me the list of questions that I will need to ask officers if and when I am stopped again:
What kind of speed tracking device did you use?
What mode was it in?
May I walk back and see the unit? (get model #, serial # and anything else of use)
What is your name and badge number?
What is the cruiser #?
In which municipality will this come to court?
I'll write up and laminate these questions and the steps I need to follow and carry them in my glove box with the microcassette, blank tapes, and a xerox of my receipt---the $459 cost of my non-action. Just so I remember. I will carry both reference texts in the drawer beneath the passenger seat, so I can pull them out fast and refer to them immediately if and when I need them.
With severe state budgetary cuts, traffic tickets are one of the few flexible funding sources left for strapped local governments. The police will be increasingly pressured to generate income for struggling municipalities and their own underfunded law enforcement departments (departments get a cut of every ticket written), so they will probably increase their predatory efforts. It's a logical response to budgetary stress, if an unethical one.
But I need to be prepared, and to remember that over half of the people ticketed just pay, another 25% or so take the prosecuter's deal, and this encourages police to just write those tickets, since most of the time, they will feel no personal consequences from doing so. But prosecuters HATE speeding cases and police HATE to be called into court and questioned by citizens. This will work in my favor, if I choose to fight in the future, as long as I do my prep work. I have the guidance I need in order to do so, and I now understand that I will simply have to protect myself, because it is in no one else's interest to do it for me.
I resent the need to do this and it makes me angry. But it is necessary in this fiscal climate. That's just the way it is.
