I got a moving violation for answering a cell phone while at a red light. The cop didn’t press down on the carbon paper, so my copy is blank. Should I fight the ticket on that basis? Naw. I’ll just go online and pay it. It’s too near the 2 week deadline to risk exceeding it. What’s this? The Traffic Dept website says ticket number doesn’t exist? Or… the paper ticket ‘may not have been keyed into the system yet’. Well, will they get-around to doing that BEFORE the deadline? No. The website offers me to send me an email notifying when the ticket appears online. (It also offers to tell me if the ticket has not been keyed within 60 days.) I give my email address. The website then says an email WILL NOT be sent. The website lists 4 unpaid ran-a-red-light bicycle moving violations issued in a single traffic-stop, one shltty day, a decade-and-a-half ago. The website refuses to send-out the notification email unless I either pay those tickets or officially state that I am refusing to respond to them. Do you know how much a “fourth offense” for running a red light is? It’s HUGE. (The assumption is you aren’t on a bicycle. And that the cop didn’t fabricate the entire incident.) Then there’s all the fine increases for not paying right-away. I was told unpaid tickets are dismissed after 12 years. I stayed out of trouble… and waited. No auto-dismissal. Now I’m officially a ‘scofflaw’ in the NY traffic court system. Since I can’t pay online, I have to answer the cellfone ticket in person. So maybe I’ll fight it after all. But to do so, I’ll have to go-in, issue a plea of not-guilty– then come back for the later court date. Passive-aggressive punishment via time-waste. Plus, as a ‘scofflaw’ I’ll have to post a frikken bond to guarantee that I won’t run away to Cuba before the court date.
I write this using my laptop, outside the public library. Not open yet. Did you know a man was arrested for ‘theft of service’ & his computer seized by police; for parking outside an Alaska public library after-hours, using their wifi?
I paid for ‘tethering’ to get online by connecting my laptop to my cellfone. But don’t get me started on Verizon’s sneaky bandwidth-limit and billing-date shell games.
I’d get an iPad, but the damn thing doesn’t have standard ports: Apple will make you buy proprietary cables if you want to connect your camera, fone, printer, etc. And iPad doesn’t support Flash, so the internet won’t actually work. And no outside software is allowed.
I heart big brother.
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