Arrested for Writing Profanity on a Speeding Ticket

[Ben]

Later ruled as a First Amendment infringement by a Federal Judge. While the guy may have gone a little over the top on his wording, it's not unlike what most of us feel when we get a ticket or fine or whatever. I write stuff like "this is a bunch of horseshit" in the memo lines of my tax checks to the state and feds. One would think the particular agencies involved would have a little thicker skin considering what they do.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/16/judge-rules-man-arrest-for-writing-profanity-on-speeding-ticket-was/?intcmp=hpbt4

[TechMan]

I find it ironic that the town this happened in is named Liberty. 

[MechAg94]

Sounds like they need to retrain the local judge also.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Loved to see this though: 

Seibel added the trial would include a damages phase for a prosecutor who is not protected by immunity because his actions were unreasonable.

[230RN]

Ben spouted this venom:

I write stuff like "this is a bunch of horseshit" in the memo lines of my tax checks to the state and feds.

Hey, you're lucky they didn't take that to mean that your actual returns were a bunch of horseshit.  

I understand the guy's frustration.  They've got the system set up (at least in Denver) so that it's cheaper and easier to just plead guilty than to go through the hassle of setting up court dates and whatnot with a not guilty plea, at least on relatively minor offenses.  Like (with me), not properly displaying a front license plate.

In addition, apparently, they set it up so that a bunch of ticketees from a long period, maybe two weeks, all have to appear in court on the same day.  This means at the arraignment, you have to wait while the Assistant D.A. grinds through a large number of people's pleas and setting up future court dates before they get to you --maybe half a day or more.

But at the outset, after you see 100 people in the courtroom ahead of you, they say you can change your plea to guilty at any time --see the Court Clerk --and cough up the fine.  So I did ($75, one point on the license*), figuring I'd have to take another day off from work otherwise.

There was a line in front of me to "see the Court Clerk" who had also decided to change their plea after watching the rigamarole unfolding.

It's a money machine, I tell you, and no wonder the guy got into expletive deleted mode.  Another word for it is "racket."

So your "this is a bunch of horseshit," even though it was in respect to taxes, is understandable.

Terry

* I checked later, and the stinkin' one-point violation didn't even appear on my DL record at the DMV.

[KD5NRH]

I write stuff like "this is a bunch of horseshit" in the memo lines of my tax checks to the state and feds.

I tend to just stick with "extortion" for taxes, tickets, license fees...pretty much any payment to a government agency other than the water bill.

[Perd Hapley]

I like to write on the memo line the kind of things for which the check will be used. Next year, I'll probably write something like "baby vivisection."

[grampster]

The "justice" system has been renamed The "revenue" system.

[230RN]

^ Yeah, I figured it was worth pointing out in detail how they rigged it so it isn't worth pleading not guilty. (Unless it's a big deal like a DUI or something.)

Just a warning to other folks who might want to plead not guilty and take a day off, then more days off just to fight a <$100 ticket.


They can pull your short hairs pretty easy.