Book 'em Danno!

Well, Bradyn and I went to court yesterday to defend his speeding/defective muffler/no lap belt charges.  Until yesterday, Bradyn had been giving thought that he may want to be a lawyer or a cop.  I think now he may be reconsidering both.

I was not allowed to represent my minor son in court.so I got to stand with him and put words in his mouth to plead his case.  I felt like putting my hand up his back and doing a Charlie McCarthy ventriloqist thing.

So the prosecutor, a 30 ish woman seriously lacking in personality begins with the routine questions to the police officer.  Did you tune the radar?  Are you an expert? Blah, blah blah....then bradyn gets to ask questions.  Where were you sitting?  Could you see my car coming?  Actually the officer admitted that trees blocked his vision, so wouldn't trees block the radar's vision too?  A question we neglected to ask.  We showed our diagram of the street and shared other solid evidence to support our case.  Then we got on the issue of the muffler "amplifying" the car's sound.  Bradyn stated that the muffler is sold as a muffler and that's what it is.  Miss Jane Hathaway asked Bradyn if the muffler company isn't in business to make money so they'll tell you anything to sell you the muffler.  How many years of school to come up with that brilliant strategy?

We only had one option at that point and that is to drag everyone out into the rain to examine the car's exhaust.  The judge came out and looked under the car and inside the muffler.  (I believe he actually knew what a glass pack muffler was.)  While the judge did his inspection, officer Steve decided he hadn't harrassed us enough so he ran Bradyn's plate through the dispatcher.  Kinda funny...as we stood outside waiting for the judge an old Ford Bronco went by without any type of muffler and we commented to Miss Jane and Officer Steve that that is what a defector muffler sounds like.  Bradyn commented, "Where's a cop when you need one?"  They didn't find any humor in the comment.  Officer Steve commented once back in the courtroom that the muffler did not sound the same as it did on the offending day.  Maybe because it wasn't that loud to begin with officer.  When you're just harrassing kids getting out of school and not really fighting crime, your judgement begins to blur.

Well, we won the muffler dispute but lost the speeding charge.  And I think the court lost the interest of a bright young man that had once wanted to be a steward of the court.  Bradyn and I have come to the conclusion that "Protect and Serve" is no longer the case.  More like "Shakedown and Harrass". 

Court date for me and Officer John Wayne next Friday.  Remember?  No turn signal for a lane change and no license plate lights at midnight?  Why don't people respect "law enforcement" these days?  Maybe because it doesn't fit that definition anymore.