Traffic Court . . . or are we having fun yet?

Things you probably would not do if you did not have a teenage son--spend an afternoon in traffic court. Surprisingly, it was not completely horrible (just mildly so). My 17 year old son received a ticket for failing to signal on a turn and for speeding--45 mph in a 45 mph zone (?!). Normally I fall firmly on the side of supporting the authority figure in these situations, but in this case I'm going to have to side with my son. The reason is two-fold. First, he was pulled over in front of his friend's house and the friend's mother was appalled at the rudeness of the police officer. Her take on him was that he was definitely abusing his power and authority. Secondly, this same police officer has ticketed almost every teenage driver in our suburban neighborhood while turning a blind eye to the transgressions (rolling stops, etc.) of us "soccer moms." This assessment comes from the moms, not the teenagers.

So today we went to court so my son could enter a not guilty plea. The experience, as I said, was not horrible. Thanks for this goes to the absolutely charming judge. Her age (she looked about 12) might have been the reason for her sunny personality in the face of what could be a truly soul-numbing job. Whatever the reason, she was respectful and pleasant and truly seemed to care about helping people get their tickets/warrants/license suspensions/fare evasions taken care of. It was amazing to see a bureaucrat who cared, and it was pretty striking how much that caring colored the atmosphere of the courtroom and made what started out to be a real drag, not. So my soon will be returning to court to confront Officer Friendly and explain that if he really was making a hard right at 45mph he would have been on two wheels and consequently charged with reckless driving, not speeding.

Of course, because I had to spend two hours  of my time in court with him, J1 graciously grudgingly agreed to pack up all the ornaments on the tree to repay me for my lost time. Yeah! I hate that job.   

Comments

[Mrs. G.]

Well as traffic court stories go, that's a pretty good one. Score one for the beaurocrats!

[Jenn]

Mrs. G, you are my first comment ever! I'm so excited I would be jumping up and down, but the computer would fall off my lap. I love your blog--you're actually my inspiration to start one. This is really fun!