Catman: Help Desparately Needed!

[IrishGuy]

But for you, Josh, you were just being dumb.  Wrap it like a present.  Why don't people listen to these bits of wisdom!?  It's a birthday present, and you were going to a birthday party.  Someone from school, or sleepaway camp--or it's a wedding.

I drive with booze in the car every fucking day.  If you think I am going to wrap it like a present every time...  It ain't a problem where I'm from, I just learned it is in the lovely state of New Hampshire.  We got a little lazy by not having a jacket over it, oh well, wake up call I guess.  Next time it will be in a duffel.

Depending on what happens in court - I wouldn't even take the slightest chance of getting caught anywhere with beer in your car. That's just my opinion however.

[850CSi]

Oh, I'm bringin' my skis and if court doesn't take too long I'm headed to Sunnapee afterwards! :D  Hope they get some snow...

The thing I am missing most besides playing football is Skiing.

ever ski either west or east?  Can't imagine there's much in the middle of the country...

There are some decent slopes up in Wisconsin.

[J86]

Well, court was a success!

Got the charge filed, meaning I got out of there with no fine (KEY!) and so long as I don't get arrested within a year it will all go away like it never happened.

Interesting experience, to say the least.  First of all, the 6 hour drive out SUCKED, soon as I corssed into Vermont from NY it started snowing like crazy, real high wind, and horrendous roads.  Good thing I was borrowing my buddy's 200x Toyota Tacoma.  After I put it into 4WD it was unstoppable, but when I had it in 2WD it was nothing short of terrifying, even the slightest motion on the gas left the tail waaaay out to the side.  That was fun and entertaining when I was on the highway and had plenty of space, but on narrow, steep, winding mountain roads it kinda sucked.  Also borrowed a Passport Escort 8500, THAT is a fine piece of equipment!  Saved my ass multiple times coming back.  I discovered it does Laser detection, as well as X, K, Ka band, and god knows what else.  Was in court at 830, they called a bunch of people before me, but was out by 930.  'Cause Mt. Sunapee was only 10 minutes down the road, I drove down there and was on the slopes by 10!

An aside about sitting in court listening to why other people were there for arraignment.  Our system sucks.  The lesson that was imparted was if you have money and are a more upper-class member of society you can get away with pretty much anything, while less well off and educated people get screwed time and time again.  For example, I was there for my minor in possession charge.  My buddy's dad had hired him a lawyer, who had spoken to the cop and had struck the aforementioned deal.  I have no idea what was paid to the lawyer (I didn't hire one, I just listened in on what he said and copied it) but I know they certainly don't work for free.  There was a lady who was called ahead of me who was there for driving with a suspended lisence, she had been busted for it twice in four days.  The only comment she could make was "Your Honor, I know it's illegal, but if I don't get to work I can't feed my kids."  The judge, who was extremely no nonsense, also had compassion if it was clear that you weren't 1. an asshole or 2. a 'real' troublemaker, tried to lessen her fine, but due to mandatory minimum sentencing laws she was still stuck with over $700 to pay.  There is absolutely no way she had that much money to pay her fine, and she STILL doesn't have the money to pay the lisencing fee which landed her in this jam to beign with.  I hear lots of harping about how people need to take personal responsibility for their actions, but when our system is set up from the beginning where the majority of poor people are stuck in substandard schools, drop out because of worthless instructors and a lack of educated parents to push them, and are then forced to work long hours for shit pay just to put food on the table, I don't see HOW she can be blamed.  God that makes me pissed.  Meanwhile, I waltz in wearing a nice shirt and a Brooks Brothers tie, the judge asks where I go to college, then proceeds to give us the lightest sentence permissible.  Now, I am sure as hell glad that I got out of that jam, but at the same time it sucks that I (well, technically my friend's father), bought our brand of justice while the woman who could not afford an attorney was stuck in an even deeper hole.  This is not a politicized or partisan rant, so don't even bother.  It's just my observation.    

[Raza]

Yeah, remember to not get arrested again for a year.

[J86]

Yeah, remember to not get arrested again for a year.

that can be exceedingly difficult come summertime!

[Catman]

Just as I told you it would turn out.  Hiring a lawyer really wasn't necessary in this case.  It was a waste of money, as you found out.

Don't get caught up in one day of observations.  Most of the people with sorry stories are frequent flyers.  

[J86]

Just as I told you it would turn out.  Hiring a lawyer really wasn't necessary in this case.  It was a waste of money, as you found out.

Thanks again for the advice!

[dazzleman]

Well, court was a success!

Got the charge filed, meaning I got out of there with no fine (KEY!) and so long as I don't get arrested within a year it will all go away like it never happened.

Interesting experience, to say the least.  First of all, the 6 hour drive out SUCKED, soon as I corssed into Vermont from NY it started snowing like crazy, real high wind, and horrendous roads.  Good thing I was borrowing my buddy's 200x Toyota Tacoma.  After I put it into 4WD it was unstoppable, but when I had it in 2WD it was nothing short of terrifying, even the slightest motion on the gas left the tail waaaay out to the side.  That was fun and entertaining when I was on the highway and had plenty of space, but on narrow, steep, winding mountain roads it kinda sucked.  Also borrowed a Passport Escort 8500, THAT is a fine piece of equipment!  Saved my ass multiple times coming back.  I discovered it does Laser detection, as well as X, K, Ka band, and god knows what else.  Was in court at 830, they called a bunch of people before me, but was out by 930.  'Cause Mt. Sunapee was only 10 minutes down the road, I drove down there and was on the slopes by 10!

An aside about sitting in court listening to why other people were there for arraignment.  Our system sucks.  The lesson that was imparted was if you have money and are a more upper-class member of society you can get away with pretty much anything, while less well off and educated people get screwed time and time again.  For example, I was there for my minor in possession charge.  My buddy's dad had hired him a lawyer, who had spoken to the cop and had struck the aforementioned deal.  I have no idea what was paid to the lawyer (I didn't hire one, I just listened in on what he said and copied it) but I know they certainly don't work for free.  There was a lady who was called ahead of me who was there for driving with a suspended lisence, she had been busted for it twice in four days.  The only comment she could make was "Your Honor, I know it's illegal, but if I don't get to work I can't feed my kids."  The judge, who was extremely no nonsense, also had compassion if it was clear that you weren't 1. an asshole or 2. a 'real' troublemaker, tried to lessen her fine, but due to mandatory minimum sentencing laws she was still stuck with over $700 to pay.  There is absolutely no way she had that much money to pay her fine, and she STILL doesn't have the money to pay the lisencing fee which landed her in this jam to beign with.  I hear lots of harping about how people need to take personal responsibility for their actions, but when our system is set up from the beginning where the majority of poor people are stuck in substandard schools, drop out because of worthless instructors and a lack of educated parents to push them, and are then forced to work long hours for shit pay just to put food on the table, I don't see HOW she can be blamed.  God that makes me pissed.  Meanwhile, I waltz in wearing a nice shirt and a Brooks Brothers tie, the judge asks where I go to college, then proceeds to give us the lightest sentence permissible.  Now, I am sure as hell glad that I got out of that jam, but at the same time it sucks that I (well, technically my friend's father), bought our brand of justice while the woman who could not afford an attorney was stuck in an even deeper hole.  This is not a politicized or partisan rant, so don't even bother.  It's just my observation.

Dude, you should listen to Catman.

First off, you don't know why that woman's license was suspended.  It could be for something serious.  The whole "I need to drive to support my kids" argument avoids the whole issue of why she got into trouble in the first place.  I find that people like that are often very slow to accept responsibility for their actions, and love to blame other people for the results of their actions.  The bottom line -- unless there was an extraordinary miscarriage of justice, that woman has herself to blame for being in court, and for her livelihood being in jeopardy.

I've also noticed a very strong correlation between failure/refusal to accept responsibility for your own actions, and lack of economic success.  That goes a long way toward explaining why the people in those types of situations often lack financial resources.

Your 'offense' was nothing, and obviously the judge knew it.  For all you know, she could have been driving drunk or something.  I've learned to be very, very sceptical of hard luck stories.  There's usually a whole lot they're not telling you.

Having said that, you're right that it's much easier to manipulate the system if you have money.  But that doesn't mean necessarily that people without money are getting screwed.  It only means that it's easier to escape the rightful consequences of your actions if you have money.  Still bad, but not as bad as you described.

[J86]

It was suspended initially because she was driving with expired tags: money to register the vehicle or pay heat bills?  I think that the less financially fortunate quite often get the shaft in our system.  They are set up from the beginning, many times, for failure, with substandard schools that don't give the education necessary to make a run for the top in today's world.  I have a difficult time focusing 100% blame on the individual when there are such obvious inequities in opportunity presented to the various classes.


Judging off the comments I've read at C/D and here, I know I'm a more liberal member of the boards.  I honestly don't want to debate those ideologies here: I'm a public policy major, I get to do that all the time during class.  It's more fun to talk aobut drugs, sex, rock an' roll (and cars!) than it is to debate the merits of our judicial system and personal responsibility vs. responsibility of the state issues!  

I still say: New Hampshire- Live Free or Die my ass!!! :D

Oh, I'll discuss all the above over a beer! :P