Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Is there a 3rd Option?

Last November I was issued not 1 but 2 traffic violation notices for a New York State Inspection sticker that had expired. I knew it was expired and I knew that I should have taken care of it the previous week end. Ok, so I was angry at myself. I was also (a little) angry at the polices ... I got home at about 6pm on Friday night to find violation ticket #1 (grumble, grumble). I pick it off the car and take it inside. The next morning, I go out to the car to go get something, coffee, shopping - can't remember and ...

yep - you guessed it ... violation #2 issued at 1:30am not 8 hours after I removed the first one.

Both of the violations were for 'Violation #10' ... whatever that is. Luckily they had provided a nice, short description:

            Inspect Expire > 60 Days

Errr - what? My inspection sticker expired in October. It was early November ... let me check on my fingers ... two weeks expired. Err ... 14 days. Greater than 60 days? Crazy. I check 'not guilty' and head to court.

Fast forward to Feb this year ... waiting in court to have my two violations ruled on ... police who issued ticket #1 calls my name and says that he can void one if I pay the other. I point out that the violation says 'greater than 60 days' and my inspection was only expired about 14 days. 'No no' he says, 'that is a less than sign'.

Ok, I was hoping that they wouldn't say that ... but I wasn't surprised. I pull out my printed page from the wiki showing the difference between a greater than sign (>) and a less than sign (<). His response ... 'No - that is a less than sign. This is a greater than sign' - and he draws less than sign. He goes on: 'I'm not going to argue with you - you can see the judge if you want to'.

At that point, I decide to call it quits - I was always happy (not the right word, but you know what I mean) to pay one violation.

Now - here is the issue ... there are only 2 reasons why the police thought that a '>' sign was a less than sign ... either:

A) He is poorly educated - which says alot for the education system in the US and the police hiring practices in general
B) The town is looking for any sort of revenue it can and is asking the police to boost its revenue

To be honest, I cannot decide which it is. The contestants on 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader' argue for A while stories like Adrian Schoolcraft's argue for B.