gwendolyngrace | Justice is blind? Not really....

Long version:

Background: A few of you know that I was in Syracuse a couple weeks back and got a parking ticket(!) for parking outside my friends' house. My other friends, Paul, Mary, and Don, were in another car (since they're from PA) and parked right in front of me (I was following them to the house). They did *not* get a ticket. I did.

We whipped out Paul's digital camera and took a boatload of pictures showing that, to a sane individual, there was no violation. Adequate distance from the corner; the hydrant was further up the street from *Paul's* car, let alone mine; no driveway blocked (it's on the other corner, and it was full, hence the need to park on the street), no obstruction to traffic, and most importantly, no signs anywhere saying "Don't park here, assholes."

The ticket was only $20, but you know that there's a surcharge on that, and besides, it would mean smirching my clean record, and blah, blah, it's the principle. Paul put the pictures up on a website for me as a cute little slide show, and I printed out black and white copies, a copy of the webpage with the thumbnails, and a copy of Paul's email with the datestamp. (I did put red circles and arrows on, but didn't put a paragraph on the back of each one, explaining what each one was.)

My court date was last night. So I went bopping back to Syracuse, getting lost in the process in the pitch dark to *find* the place, and getting there just in time to sign in as the last case on the docket. No dinner, btw - I had hoped to find the place first, and then once there I was sorta stuck with no idea how long things would take.

I sat for 2 hours as the judge dealt with everything from an arraignment for a felony charge of forgery (really interesting!) to shoplifting and credit card theft, to run-of-the-mill registration expirations and traffic violations.

Finally, we get to me. The judge called me up, asked my address, read the charges. So, it turns out that there *is* actually an ordinance in the town of Dewitt, that no "on-street" parking is allowed overnight between the months of November and April.

Where are the signs? They are adjacent to those signs delineating the town limits. Right. Like we're supposed to notice that in the dead of night, with snow happening, when I'm just concentrating on keeping my eyes on Paul's taillights and not spinning every single time I stop.

However, it was the last case of the evening, I was the *only* non-lawyer there who was dressed professionally, and mine was the *only* parking ticket of the night. After he took my address and all, he asked, "Were you visiting friends overnight?" and I said, "Yes." I told him their names and said they lived on that corner. Then he said, "Right, well, I'm just going to dismiss this, so... you skate!" (Note: Judge's actual words!)

I said "Thank you very much!" and got the hell out of Dodge. At that point, it was after 9:30, I did I mention, I had not yet had dinner because I got lost trying to *find* the stupid place, and I knew I had to drive home (carefully. So as not to get a speeding ticket).

So it turns out I didn't need the pictures, but even if I had wound up needing them (i.e., if the judge had decided to be a prick), I would have sent them to the DA, not dealt with them there in court, and my *real* case would not have been "there wasn't a sign" (although that's part of it), but instead "Well, *Paul* didn't get a ticket!"

And it would have totalled $75, too. $55 surcharge, those bloodsuckers.

But now it's all good. Though I don't really know what it says about our system that I seemed to "get off" just because I even bothered to make the effort to come out for it. Or maybe it was because we were *done* and everyone wanted to go home.