D@mn school zones

[Pennyfreak]

ok so i got out of school today and pull out of the parking lot start going down the street and then i change lanes to turn onto another street when i see a motorcycle cop right behind me with his lighst on so i turn onto the street and pull into the first parking lot. he pulls up behind me and parks. the following is what was said license?i hand it to himcop: insurance?i hand it to him and he hands it back then walks back to his bike writes a ticket comes up to me hands me ticket and gives me a pen so i sign by the "X"cop: i could have also given you a ticket for not using your blinker(i didn use my blinker by the way. my friend behind me and in front of me saw me use it) and you should not change lanes so abruptly. be in court september 19. i will be sure and tell the judge exactly how irresponsible you were driving.then he walks off.

so when i get to work i call the number on the ticket to find out that it is $240 for going 36mph in a 25mph school zone. needless to say i was pissed. so i have a quick question that was my first ticket so i don't have much experience with cops. are they all complete @$$holes? sorry for such a long post. i just had to vent.

[ninjak84]

1: yes all cops are a$$holes, its a fact of life.

2: fight it! take it to court, and simply ask the cop to provide a statement from the radar gun saying you were speeding. watch him stutter and make an a$$ of himself, and walk out free.

as long as you were kind to him, and are kind in court, you wont have a problem. state to the judge you were not told of your offence, and you had to read the ticket in the car to find out what it was for.

bring your friend in as a witness, get him to verify everything you tell the judge

[YRUSOSLO]

Doggon backyard lawyers :rolleyes tell your parents and get a lawyer. They are well worth the money. A judge will believe a cop over ANYTHING you and your friends say.

[GodDrivesA240sx]

1: yes all cops are a$$holes, its a fact of life.

Not true at all bro, You have no idea how many times I've been let go when I should have gone to jail for many different offenses, and it's not just been the city I live in, it's been all of the surrounding cities and even two different county police from different counties (sheriffs). Unfortunetly I did get arrested once However, there are a good bit of ***hole cops, but as you get older cops get nicer. They just don't like highschool kids mostly

If this is your first offense you could probley get the judge to let it go and you pay nothing, or just court cost (which is the majority of the ticket ) Or yes you could get a lawyer and walk away clean, but empty in the pockets cause of the lawyer Just make sure either way that one or both of your parents are there, they can help you out a whole lot. Judges love to see parents, trust me.

[deesolballs]

This may be radical but you could drive the speed limit in school zones :thinker School zones are traps for a good reason.

[Stoneage_Turbo]

#1 just pay the fine go to traffic school and admit life sucks sometimes , buy a helmet

#2 if it goes to court and you have a lawyer make sure the lawyer knows about the procedures for calibrateing the radar (should be done with a tuneingfork every time the cop sets up to nail another kid driveing thru a school zone) i had my on base cops walk me thru this calibration procedure , its pretty cool .

#3 school zones , fines double (i belive) and juges asses clamp up like pee wee herman in prison , you will get shafted well 90% chance anyway , judges show no remorse for those busted in school zones , bring lubercation .

#4 make freinds with law enforcement ....

[Pennyfreak]

i talked to my manager at work yesterday and she said she would call some of her police friends to see if one of them could get it dropped. she left a message to one of them yesterday and he called back today and asks for my name and said he should be able to get it dropped so i am just hoping and praying that he can pull it off. i am just waiting. i'm going to be pissed if he can't because my manager has gotten my hopes up. oh well i will just wait and see.

[juazam_186]

Pennyfreak,Sorry to hear about what happenned. That is alot of $$$ to have to bone-up but the judges are VERY strict about school zones.It's best to be represented in front of Yer Honor, that way you don't make things worse.Good Luck on getting that other officer to help you out!!

[AZhitman]

Originally posted by ninjak84 "yes all cops are a$$holes, its a fact of life."

I'm not even gonna get started on what a moronic statement that is - God help you if you're ever on the wrong end of a "bad guy" and need PD to bail your youthful *ss out.

Originally posted by ninjak84"simply ask the cop to provide a statement from the radar gun saying you were speeding. watch him stutter and make an a$$ of himself, and walk out free."

Again, I laugh. A radar gun cannot provide a "statement" in court. You should have asked to see it at the scene. You will be the one to appear an *ss. Less than one-tenth of 1% of cops will "stutter and make an *ss of himself" in court, especially in a cut-and-dry case like this one.

Originally posted by PennyFreak:"i talked to my manager at work yesterday and she said she would call some of her police friends to see if one of them could get it dropped. "

Dude, you (and ninjak) need to brush up on the operation of the good old judicial system. NO COP has the authority to interfere with what was a lawfully written ticket. Not only is it a felony to do so, but what's in it for the cop (even if he COULD make a difference)?

Stoney - As far as calibration, it does NOT have to be done EVERY TIME the gun is used. Different radar gun manufacturers have different calibration intervals. Getting this information in preparation for court is called "discovery". However, the rules of discovery do not always apply to traffic citations. It depends on your state statutes. Get a copy from your local law library and READ THEM!!! Other than that, great advice.

Do yourself a favor. See if you can go to traffic school - AND DON'T speed ANYWHERE NEAR a school zone!!! Next, do some searching on the 'net for how to beat a speeding ticket, there are several good sites written by attorneys and ex-cops. (One I like is called nopoints.com or something like that.) I promise you will have to DO YOUR HOMEWORK on this!!! It's too late, unfortunately, this time as the whole process for beating a citation begins when you first see red and blue lights. But next time (and I hope you're not that unfortunate) you'll be prepared.

Peace - and be careful out there.

[Mayhem_J30]

if he was being an a** he would have wrote you the 2nd ticket. deal with it and don't speed in dangerous areas. :thinker

[ninjak84]

AZhitman : funny you seem to know everything. well maybe you would like to hear a story. 2 months ago my friend in a 2002 mustang got a ticket. he asked to see the gun at the time, but the officer said he couldnt. well, come court time, tyler told his story and once again asked the officer to produce a print out from the day of the incident. guess what? there isnt one. turns out tyler doesnt have to pay his ticket. and yes, the cop stuttered.

if someone asks to see the gun at the time, and is denied, its case closed. maybe AZhitman needs to brush up on the law?

[GodDrivesA240sx]

AZhitman : funny you seem to know everything. well maybe you would like to hear a story. 2 months ago my friend in a 2002 mustang got a ticket. he asked to see the gun at the time, but the officer said he couldnt. well, come court time, tyler told his story and once again asked the officer to produce a print out from the day of the incident. guess what? there isnt one. turns out tyler doesnt have to pay his ticket. and yes, the cop stuttered.

if someone asks to see the gun at the time, and is denied, its case closed. maybe AZhitman needs to brush up on the law?

:dohUh, dude, that's what he said the guy should have done. He stated that "a radar gun cannot produce a statement in court" court being the keyword. He then proceded to say that he should have asked to look at the gun at the scene, scene being the keyword there.

Your friend did the right thing, unfortunetly Pennyfreak did not ask to see the gun at the scene

:doh

[boMex]

When I was in High School this girl that I knew was crossing the street when some dumb @$$ piece of s*** came tearing out of the school parking lot and down the street. He hit her at about 70 km/h and threw her 40-50ft down the road. She shattered her pelvis, 7 ribs, both legs, an arm, her skull and a whole shopping list of other bones that I can't even remember. The thing I remember most about the crash was the guy standing beside his truck waiting for the police to question him and saying "...Now on top of ****ing up the front of my truck that b**** is gonna cost me points on my license...I might even lose my license... Fuk!" Pennyfreak- You screwed up and got busted. Sounds like the cop was doing his job and you ate it. I really don't care if you pay or fight the ticket but in future try hard to be less of a dumb twit. s'all :sleep

[Jubs180]

amen to that!

I have all of one ticket to my name, and it happens to be speeding. i KNOW I was speeding.. I didn't try to fight it. I just swallowed my pride, didn't even attempt to let the ego get me in trouble and just paid the ticket, and went to the driving school.was I angry at the moment, and think the trooper was a prick? yes. was the state trooper wrong for pulling me over? no.

these people who brag about how many tickets they have do not impress me at all.in another thread there was some kid bragging about how much his insurance costs and how many tickets he has. wow.....so cool!

not saying this is your case penny.. just take the responsibility and learn from it.

Don't try to think of the ways to get out of it.. just pay the ticket , take the class and move on.

for the others who think that cops are just evil and are only there to piss you off... please remove head from a.ss and wake up.sure, some abuse their powers, but for the most part they are doing their job and doing it for a reason.so a.ssholes like the moron that BoMex was talking about do not populate the streets and kill or ruin some innocent persons life.

my two pennies-Dan

[ninjak84]

i agree with alot of what has been said.

except i think fighting tickets is a fine thing to do. why not get a lesser charge if you can?the second i got my ticket, i was figuring ways to get out of it. and lo and behold, i might have found one! why would i go and pay something when there might be a way to .... not pay?

the officer spelled my name wrong, and traffic court says the ticket is voided. if i never would have asked, i would have had to pay. i'll be ripe f*cked if im going to hand over $150 when i dont have to.

[ninjak84]

too many of you are forgetting what YOU do when you get a ticket.you come on here and tell people about it, asking how to deal with it.so dont all be ****heads at once with a newbie to tickets, ok?

BoMeX: sorry to hear about your friend, but did Pennyfreak hit her? didnt think so, dont take it out on him

[GodDrivesA240sx]

too many of you are forgetting what YOU do when you get a ticket.you come on here and tell people about it, asking how to deal with it.so dont all be ****heads at once with a newbie to tickets, ok?

BoMeX: sorry to hear about your friend, but did Pennyfreak hit her? didnt think so, dont take it out on him

I have yet to receive a ticket from a police officer in my 5-6 yrs of driving. That doesn't mean I don't speed, I'm just wise about it. Having a radar detecor helps a lot as well...but you can't totally depend on it.

I hope that makes sense:beertoo much

[Pennyfreak]

ok not that it matters or that you will actually believe me but it's not like i was speeding on purpose. it was the second day of school and i had forgotten to slow down for school zones because it is normally 40mph on that street. i am not trying to defend what i did because i know i shouldn't have been speeding but the only thing i really messed up on was not paying attention to signs to notice the school zones were in effect. but anyway just so you know the ticket was dropped so i don't have to worry about it. and i won't be speeding anywhere remotely near a school zone. i am so paranoid now it's pathetic.

[Pennyfreak]

oh and i know all cops aren't ***holes i was just mad whenever i posted this topic. i actually have a couple cops that i consider friends. they are just out there doing there job and people don't like them because they hate it that they got caught. there are some bad cops out there but for the most part they are pretty just.

[GodDrivesA240sx]

i agree with alot of what has been said.

except i think fighting tickets is a fine thing to do. why not get a lesser charge if you can?the second i got my ticket, i was figuring ways to get out of it. and lo and behold, i might have found one! why would i go and pay something when there might be a way to .... not pay?

the officer spelled my name wrong, and traffic court says the ticket is voided. if i never would have asked, i would have had to pay. i'll be ripe f*cked if im going to hand over $150 when i dont have to.

Ah, but technically you do have to hand over 150 dollars because YOU broke the law. That is why there is a law for it. Police officers do not just give out random tickets they make up and then hope you don't fight it and pay it, you were in the wrong and you should have to pay for it. Getting off on some gay technicality <sp> is no better than a schister lawyer getting a rapist off on the fact that his name was spelled wrong on the arrest warrent.

Once again if you don't like what I said you do not have to pay attention to itbecause:beer

[MaineExport]

I have all of one ticket to my name, and it happens to be speeding. i KNOW I was speeding.. I didn't try to fight it. I just swallowed my pride, didn't even attempt to let the ego get me in trouble and just paid the ticket, and went to the driving school.was I angry at the moment, and think the trooper was a prick? yes. was the state trooper wrong for pulling me over? no.

just take the responsibility and learn from it.

Don't try to think of the ways to get out of it.. just pay the ticket , take the class and move on.

my two pennies-Dan

Ok, why not fight a speeding ticket. I've contested three times, and won three times. Was I guilty... most likely.. did I lie in court... NO DAMN WAY! The system is there for a reason, and anyone who doesn't take advantage of every opportunity to fight for their rights is either ignorant or lazy! Cops and judges are not always on the same side, any GOOD judge is there as an impartial observer, ans their job is to hear the FACTS, and make sure your rights have not been violated by the state. Cops make mistakes and there is NOTHING wrong with exploiting those mistakes to your own benefit. I can still sleep at night knowing that I won, even if I was guilty. Why should I just roll over and take it in the a$$ when the officer, who's time would be better spent focused on more useful endevours, made a mistake that allows me to have the case dismissed. Take it if you want.. I'll keep fighting them if I have an opening to do so!

[AZhitman]

Ninjak - Your "one friend" story is right on target, but it's a rare instance, and could have gone either way. It's not an absolute win.

As far as "brushing up", I ought to advise you that one of my functions as an officer of the state judiciary is to draft the Arizona Codes of Judicial Administration as well as the Arizona Revised Statutes (also known as "the law").

Trust me - my stuff is tight.

And by the way, I'm more than happy to help ANYONE (especially all my NICO brethren) try to fight a ticket - it's the beauty of our judicial system.

But don't be out there spouting half-truths and irrelevant information. It makes us all look bad. Education is POWER.

[AZhitman]

p.s. PennyFreak - I accidentally skipped over your last two posts (sorry).

Glad you've recovered from your traumatic experience, and remember - a little bit of paranoia while driving is a good thing. Everyone's out to hit you, especially if you drive a nice car... Hope it's your last citation for a good long time...

I'm consistently impressed with the comments on this topic - Perhaps I underestimated the 'youth' out there (I'm sure you're all a bit younger than I).

Maineimport - WELL SAID!!!

[Pennyfreak]

thanks for everyone's input. i am just glad that it's over and i have an extra $240 in my pocket.