My favorite police department

Okay, I won't name the department. But how is this for your tax dollars at work? Our car was parked in front of the elementary school a few weeks ago. We end up with a parking ticket. Why? The registration tab was missing. (For those of you not in California, on our license plate, we get a sticker for the month of registration and then a colored sticker for the year. So, 2007 was yellow, 2006 was orange, etc.... This way the cops can see if your car is registered by the color of the sticker.)

Now, why is this a problem? Our car had a blue sticker on it. Someone cut it off. How do I know? A - the car was registered and 2) the blue sticker is still on, or at least the outline where it was cut off. Apparently, people who don't register their car steal these things. So, instead of looking at the blue on the license plate or say, checking on his computer, the cop ticketed me. Apparently, that recession is really effecting us in California.

I appealed it in writing. I lost. Ridiculous. The CSO, not even a real cop, wrote an explanation completeing ignoring my evidence - namely, the picture! I sent them an 8 1/2 x 11 picture showing the blue sticker!!! So, I demanded an in person hearing. Its my right dang it.

Today, the PD called me. They wanted to know if I really, really wanted a hearing. Like, suddenly they were going to talk me out of it. I guess they thought the lawyer in me would be scared of a hearing. Like I don't do that every day of my life. I live for court. Its a rush. But, you know, maybe I was going to be scared of the PD telling me that they were upholding the ticket of their own cop. Seriously, my odds of not paying this are worse than Barry Bond's odds of ever getting normal size testicles. Those shrunken things are going to come back to regular size as quickly as the police decide their own ticket isn't valid.

But I told her I was going to fight it. She told me that the CSO gave me a very detailed explanation. Sure, it was detailed and ignored the evidence. I guess the OJ jury gave a detailed explanation as well - but ignored the evidence as well. I mean, this is a bit like believing something Bud Selig has to say about baseball - you never know if it is right or wrong but it will clearly ignore the problem.

So, I am going to have my hearing. Of course, they owe me $50 back because the CSO who was so detailed told me the wrong amount to send in with my request for a hearing. Really, how detailed can you be if you couldn't get the fine amount correct?

And I don't trust them to rip up my check so I told them to mail it back to me.