TICKET TERROR

This is why I became a libertarian for life. I am sorry because it’s a bit of a long read. Please bare with me.



Back when I was 19 years old I got a simple traffic ticket. They charged me about $90 more or less. I paid the money, saw it get taken from my account, and thought all was good.

Fast forward 2 years.

I was 20 years old (2 months before my 21st). We had a nice college party at my house, but being the responsible guy I am I decided to stop drinking and go to sleep early so that I could make it to my breakfast shift job. At about 6am I got up and dove to work.

I guess I must have been speeding because I got pulled over. The cop came and took my info then went back to his squad car. I sat in my car for a good 20 minutes. I thought something was wrong because of the huge length of time it took the cop to write my ticket. Before I knew it a second cop car pulled up. That’s when I knew something was wrong.

The officer and his backup then pulled guns on me. They made me get out of the car, put cuffs on me, and put me in the back of the cop car. I had no idea what was going on, but I complied none the less.

When I finally got to the police station they told me why I was being arrested. Apparently it was for “not paying a previous traffic ticket”. The only parking ticket I had ever had in my life was the one from 2 years ago. I knew for a FACT that I had paid it. The officers didn’t care.

When I got to the station I was harassed by the police. They made me blow into the DUI machine and I blew a 0.03. That’s well under the legal limit but because I was 20 years old they started threatening me with a DUI charge to go on top of my “warrant”. The officer in charge of booking me threatened to put me in the “black gangbanger unit”, where they “LOVE whiteboys like you”. Yes, he really did threaten me with rape.

I was nice and I complied with them so they threw me into the “low risk unit”. I spent 4 days in jail. I was a very poor college student and I didn’t have enough money to try and get my roommates to bail me out. Thus I had to stay the full amount of time in jail. It ended up being about 4 days.

I finally went before the judge on my last day. I was dressed in jail house orange jumpsuits and full shackles and handcuffs. I spend 3 hours sitting there before the judge called me.

This is exactly what the judge said verbatim: “hmmmm ok. So it looks like you were arrested because of a warrant for not paying your fine from 2000. Hmmmm. Ok it looks like here you actually did pay that fine in full……. Ok you are free to go!”

Bam I’m free. Sort of. I have to go back to jail and get my personal property back. (they “lost” my $100 jacket and gave me no compensation for it). I took a cab back to my house and then tried to find out where my car was. Turns out I got arrested early on a Friday and got released late on a Monday, thus my car was in the government impound and I had to pay about $500 to get it released back to me.


THANK GOD ITS ALL OVER (or so I thought) Fast forward 5 days



About the same time that I got home from Jail I found a nice envelope addressed for me, telling me to be in court for a DUI offence. “What the hell? I thought my case had been thrown out by the judge?” NOPE guess not. This is a totally new charge.

I had a public defender because I was dirt poor. I called her 3 times but she never returned my phone call. I finally went to court for this “DUI” charge. Even though my public defender never once talked to me, I guess she actually did her job because she went and talked to the judge in private. When they were done the judge said “OK your DUI charge is completely dismissed. We are only going to charge you with a minor traffic offense”


THANK GOD ITS ALL OVER (or so I thought) Fast forward 3 months



When I got arrested the arresting officer had confiscated my driver’s license. I asked for it back when I was released from jail and again when I was before the judge, but they both told me they did not have it and that I had to get it back on my own accord. So I went to the DMV to get another copy (after all you cant do anything in this country without a Government ID).

When I got to the DMV and asked for a second copy of my drivers license they told me “sorry, we cant do that. Your license has been suspended for DUI” …. Uh…. What? No I’m sorry, I have no DUI. I have court documents to prove it!!! I then ran back to the courts and got all the paperwork I could find proving that my DUI charge was thrown out of court. I was found 100% INNOCENT on that charge and I had paperwork to prove it!

Guess what? I didn’t matter.

In CA the DMV and the courts are totally separate. The DMV has a policy to immediately suspend the license of anyone who is ACCUSED of an alcohol related offense. The outcome of the case has no baring on what they do. The accusation is all that matters. “if alcohol related = suspend for 1 year”

So there I am. 20 years old with a rent check and a tuition bill to pay. I used to have 2 jobs to help me pay for college. I had a job at a hotel at 5am in the morning but I lost that job because I didn’t show up for 4 days and they never gave me phone privileges to inform them. My other night job was more understanding and they let me stay.

Ok now I had a big choice to make.

1) Break the law. I will drive my car ILLEGALLY, and go to work every night so that I can make enough money to pay my rent and my college tuition. I will go to school every day and graduate.

2) Obey the law. I quite my job. I fail to pay my tuition and drop out of school. I try to find a job within walking distance (only ting available is min wage). Chances are I give up on school forever and try to make ends meet. No way I can afford to live in my same house. I will have to find a much more low cost home.

This was no choice at all. I drove with no license and no insurance for over a year. Yes I broke the law. Did I have a choice? What would you do?