Cleveland Heights cops SUCK! I usually try to refrain from using that word, because I know it's in poor taste...but in this case, there is really no other word description available (lots of hand motioning comes to mind, but I'm keeping that to myself).
Last night, after teaching all day, I was leaving to go to our weekly group run, and got around the corner from my stupid house, and got pulled over by a cop. Apparently there's a stop sign...but it's freaking twisted the wrong way, and I had no idea it was for my side of the road. So, I had just taught all day for NOTHING. I didn't even make as much as the stupid ticket yesterday. And, I insist that I'm innocent. I would go to court, but it's kind of a futile situation since you have to pay court fees anyhow, and besides that...I'm out of town the date they assigned me. So, I guess I have to pay the damn thing.
Now, I'm pissed. But last night, I was in hysterics. It's not the ticket. It's not the $100. It's that the $100 affects me so much. I don't want to be in the place where $100 makes or breaks me anymore. I'm freaking sick of it. I don't care about money; I don't care about things. But. I want to be able to live comfortably, and sign up for local races without twinges of guilt for the $5, $15, or whatever the stupid entry fee is. I want to be able to function without this constant feeling that I'm teetering at the edge of a very high bridge.
So, after the Cop-Nazi gave me the ticket, I sat there and cried. For a good half hour. Then, I peeled myself off the steering wheel and made my way to the gym...where I proceeded to run 6.4 very easy miles on the treadmill. No, it's not hill repeats with a bunch of hard-core athletes, but it was just what I needed. Then, I managed to get myself to dinner with my freezing friends, and had a good time.
So all in all, crisis solved. I think maybe it could have been just what I needed somehow. I'd been doing better since Saturday, but I could still feel some sort of blackness bubbling underneath the surface. Now, I feel totally cleansed. I needed a good cry, so...I guess...I thank the Nazi-Cop for giving me a reason to...well, boil over. Sometimes it's necessary.
8 comments:
Sorry about the ticket Su. Glad you are feeling better about it though. Perhaps some rich benefactor will just start sending you anonymous funds to take care of those sorts of things? You can always dream right?
i got a parking ticket this summer for $35. i put money in the machine, and it didn't work. i ran into to pick up my drycleaning, and when i got out 2 minutes later a cop was writing a ticket. i told him the meter was broken, and this was corroborated by bystanders there, who told him i had put in money. (i had fiddled with it for a minute or so, so they remembered that.) it made no difference.
i later got out of it, but at the time i was so pissed! i think it's because i felt i was innocent and that the money was being "stolen" from me. i had gotten a $65 parking ticket a week before, because i forgot to run out during dinner to refeed the meter. i wasn't happy then, but i wasn't *steaming mad* like i was at this cop.
what i'm saying is that you probably feel like that because you feel it wasn't your fault. i sympathize. (or is empathize?)
it might be worth it to send in a letter to see if you can reschedule the court date. a picture of the twisted sign might be able to get you off the ticket.
what always bugs me is that you just want to say to the cop 'don't you have ANYTHING better to do'... isn't there a drunk driver somewhere running over pedestrians on sidewalks, so crack dealer selling to school children, ... but you don't, you just take your ticket, and it ruins your day.
you bounced back well.
hey dude
i know this can't possibly make you feel better because in my case i am guilty as charged, but i just paid a $300 bill at cleveland heights municipal court to avoid a court summons. tickets from march and april of last year. and not including the new tickets i have since my stolen car was returned to me! yesterday i got check from a student for $250. so...
booh to rules, laws, and nazis!
dude. suckiness all over the place. thats bogus.
but, sometimes somehting like that, ,completely outta your control... sometimes its just the catalyst you need to "boil over"...
happens to the best of us. must say though, you handled it well!
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS set it up for a court date.
ALWAYS.
Call and reschedule your appearance date. Ask for a "formal hearing" (or Ohio's version, where the City Attorney or the Prosecutor is there, not just the cop.)
Get a zero-point ticket. Save money on insurance.
Cop doesn't show, go home free.
Ack! I hated CH cops, too! I used to fill other peoples parking meters when I saw the "parking patrol" giving out parking tickets in and around coventry, especially the old medic parking lot. HeeHee.
You fought the law and the law won....(sorry that just came to mind).
You're preaching to the choir on this one...I have real issues with cops busting "hard" criminals like this. So dumb and such a waste of their and your time.
Hope you're feeling better, and I agree, when something like this happens to me, I always seem to have great workout after it.
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