I was cruising and noticed a stop sign too late the other day, I braked hard down to ~15 mph, the intersection was empty and I figured that was good until I saw the cop waiting for someone to do just that. He had me dead to rights.

I pulled over before he even turned on his lights because whatever. Anyway, we do the brief routine, he comes back and says he's giving me a break and only ticketing me for stopping in a crosswalk. The catch is that he's giving me a ticket for a civil violation city municipal ordinance (akin to a parking ticket) which means I pay the city. If he tickets me for running a stop sign I pay the county.

So on one hand the ticket as written doesn't go on traffic/insurance record, and the fine amount ($50) is certainly less than the running a stop sign fine. Also just paying is obviously the easiest for me.

On the other hand it irritates me that cops sit around doing revenue collection for the city/county, and I generally feel a little bit of energy towards thwarting efforts like that, although it usually just manifests in not voting for their tax levies.


I looked up the ordinance and it reads:
There's obviously a defense there as had I stopped in the crosswalk (as alleged by the officer) it would have clearly been justified under the firsttwo exceptions.


So I'm considering -

1) Just pay it, $50 is way less than it should have been and I should be more careful looking out for stop signs and it's by far the easiest path.
2) Hearing by mail. Write out that yes I was in the intersection but it met the exceptions granted under the ordinance.
3) Ignore it, they have no legal teeth behind the fine and the worst they could do was refer to a collection agency.

just pay da man his monies

just pay it. if the cop was really a dick you'd be paying extra to insurance for the moving violation.

Pay it ainec

1 ldo

You got off super light. Just pay it.

my first ticket was running a stop sign.... on a bicycle ($101). you got off easy.

I say fight this to the bitter end, putting large amounts of your own time and money in to a righteous effort to clear your name and thwart your local government's fiendish scheme to fleece it's citizens of theri hard earned money

Why is Pay it in italics btw??

ignore it. if everyone did they wouldn't keep up the rape

Your Honor, I wasn't driving unsafely on purpose, it was just an accidental byproduct of not paying attention to the road.

Hire the best lawyers money can buy and fight this all the way to the United States Supreme Court. You cannot let this stand.

These IMO

pay it

i fought the law and the law won - he ain't lying

it seems rather trivial so if you don't wanna deal with any hassle just pay it, though it does sound like the way the ticket was written up would allow for you to get off even easier.

another I caught a break for doing something wrong but am still thinking about trying to get out of it thread...

Yeah. Seems like the cop was being nice...

saving 50 bucks after getting off extremely easy is definitely worth a lot of time and effort

Is this a relatively small town that you live or spend a lot of time in? If you fight it, I doubt the cop will forget who you are or what car you drive

It isn't only for revenue collection - in theory you are now probably less likely to blow through stop signs and drive a bit more carefully, same reason they run radar to catch speeders. Yeah, the money is good for the town/county/state, but the unpleasantness of being pulled over and having to drop some bucks deters people from what they consider bad behavior.

So obviously just pay the ticket and be glad he didn't get you for the moving violation that you deserved and drive a bit more carefully in the future.

Pay it. You got lucky, dont push it

So we're doing our semi-monthly thread where some douche gets a ticket which he deserves, then rationalizes a few crappy excuses for why he totally doesn't deserve it, asks OOT if he should fight the ticket, then gets told he's an idiot for many different reasons?

Cool, I'm down with that.

have you thought about talking to any civil rights advocacy groups? They might be able to help you with your lawsuit.

i have no problem with speeding, and think that speed traps and speed cameras are complete bull****.

for some reason, i get a slight joyful feeling when i see the intersection camera flash go off, when people blow the just changed red lights. i really hate people who blow lights and stop signs. maybe it's cause i'm a motorcyclist or a bicyclist in a medium-big city, and this seems to be how many of my friends get hit by cars.

this isnt as good as the guy complaining about getting a ticket for speeding in a school zone with the justifications:

1) I didnt see a sign or even a school
2) I also didnt see any kids so there was no danger

this reminds me of how i got pulled over years ago in a speed trap. didn't have my proof of insurance. so in the infinite widsom of the denver court system, instead of mailing it somewhere, or showing it to a clerk somewhere, i had to show up to traffic court, and show them i had insurance.

a number of people were there for speeding in a school zone.

the first lady said, i'm sorry, but i'm used to the school zone signs having flashing lights, and they don't here. the judge lessens the charge, lady happy, so everyone after her who got the same ticket, used the same excuse and the judge lessened all their tickets.

i realize this is standard for them to lessen charges when you show up for traffic tickets, but it still kinda cracked me up.

So you run a stop light and the cop gives you a parking ticket, basically making you pay much less, and the cop is a dick ?