Race in America - Riots Explode in Chicago

[cradleandshoot]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

[DMac]

I learned from a judge what reckless driving was/is fifty or so years ago. Was coming back from vacation and had been driving for a number of hours and before cruise control was pretty much standard it was somewhat of a normal tendency to creep up in speed the longer you drove. I got pulled over and ticketed, was going about 25 mph over the speed limit. No incident with the officer, was polite and respectful and treated pretty much the same. When I looked at the ticket it said, reckless driving. I thought w-t-f, yeah, I was speeding but I wasn't driving recklessly so I thought it was a good idea to go to court and explain that to the judge. Got there at the time I was supposed to but of course that doesn't mean you're going to stand in front of the judge at that time. Had to sit there for a couple hours and watch person after person stand in front of the judge and feed him their lines of bullschidt. The more I watched the judge the more I liked him, he was a no BS kind of guy but not unfair or unreasonable...not a good idea to give him a line of bullschidt though. Made eye contact with him a couple of times and I'm sure he saw that I was rather enjoying the show and appreciated his style. Then it was my turn. I stood in front of him and said, your honor I have a ticket for reckless driving and I just wanted to let you know that yes, I was speeding but not driving recklessly. He ended that discussion immediately and told me that 25 mph over the speed limit constitutes reckless driving. I just said oh, I didn't know that but I did want to let you know I wasn't cutting in and out traffic and driving like an idiot beyond the speed I was going. He reduced the charges for me and I came out about as good as one could with that ticket. Had a Navy JAG lawyer buddy at the time and I told him what I had done and he said, hell, I couldn't have done any better for you so I guess I did pretty good all in all.

[Peter Brown]

If this week has proven anything, it’s how insanely misguided so many Democrats are, mostly because their liberal media feeds them so many lies in order to outrage them.

There is no epidemic of police killings of unarmed black people. 13 such incidents occurred in 2019. There were 25 such incidents same year of whites. Police departments are not systematically racist, and they are very likely now to not respond too fast to any inner city conflict for fear of being accused of such.

Yet Democrats apparently are outraged about this non-epidemic, ironically helping to chase police away from where they are needed the most.

Look at some posters here who have never once posted about how tragic inner city homicide is with black on black crime. Yet for reasons having to do with the average FLP’ers inability to generate independent thoughts, they post endlessly about racially fraught topics like Chauvin, Freddy Gray, Ferguson, Rolling Stone, Duke, Kyle Rittenhouse, etc.

And when their preferred narratives are busted, it’s as if they don’t even recall how animated they were about whichever event so excited their woke virtue signaling in the first place. Very few people are actually racist; in fact in many ways, real racists are now equally repped by blacks and whites. Indeed, there is an epidemic of sorts of black-on-Asian crime not getting enough attention at all, because of course....

Anyway, long way of saying, try to think outside the box and don’t worry when the mob attacks you for thinking clearly; that scares them.

Carry on.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

[Peter Brown]

I’m sure an FLP poster would have posted this information shortly , but it appears as if Chicago PD’s pullback is having an effect!

In the month of March, the number of shooting victims increased 70% compared to last year (175 vs 298) and the number of murders increased 50% (28 vs 42).

Mind you, this is with the city closed due to Covid and cold!

Oh also: Chicago cops have been shot at 21 times this year compared to nine officers being shot at during the same time period last year.

The Fanlax lib may not care too much about the 42 who died in March (41 were black), but god knows they’ll post 500x when a cop fires his gun trying to save someone!

[Farfromgeneva]

I learned from a judge what reckless driving was/is fifty or so years ago. Was coming back from vacation and had been driving for a number of hours and before cruise control was pretty much standard it was somewhat of a normal tendency to creep up in speed the longer you drove. I got pulled over and ticketed, was going about 25 mph over the speed limit. No incident with the officer, was polite and respectful and treated pretty much the same. When I looked at the ticket it said, reckless driving. I thought w-t-f, yeah, I was speeding but I wasn't driving recklessly so I thought it was a good idea to go to court and explain that to the judge. Got there at the time I was supposed to but of course that doesn't mean you're going to stand in front of the judge at that time. Had to sit there for a couple hours and watch person after person stand in front of the judge and feed him their lines of bullschidt. The more I watched the judge the more I liked him, he was a no BS kind of guy but not unfair or unreasonable...not a good idea to give him a line of bullschidt though. Made eye contact with him a couple of times and I'm sure he saw that I was rather enjoying the show and appreciated his style. Then it was my turn. I stood in front of him and said, your honor I have a ticket for reckless driving and I just wanted to let you know that yes, I was speeding but not driving recklessly. He ended that discussion immediately and told me that 25 mph over the speed limit constitutes reckless driving. I just said oh, I didn't know that but I did want to let you know I wasn't cutting in and out traffic and driving like an idiot beyond the speed I was going. He reduced the charges for me and I came out about as good as one could with that ticket. Had a Navy JAG lawyer buddy at the time and I told him what I had done and he said, hell, I couldn't have done any better for you so I guess I did pretty good all in all.

I thought reckless driving was the charge you plead to while driving drunk until like the late 1990s when Nicki Taylor got into an accident and all of the sudden MAAD had way too much power and a DUI gets you close to the death penalty now? (Because no one would advocate for drunk driving but now, only after a supermodel got hurt of course, did MAAD have all this influence as it’s all about the children you know and it’s an easy score to make laws stricter)

[Farfromgeneva]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I hate the cameras and somehow got tagged in manhattan for one 2-3yrs ago supposedly through a school zone in the morning shooting up from basically MSG Port Authority area to get to a breakfast meeting in white plains. Thought I read they were stuck down in Cali on constitutional grounds 5-6yrs ago though? Isn’t the whole point that you have to have a human eye witness in conjunction with a camera? Why not just have cameras everywhere and in every home.

[Brooklyn]

Contrary to the delusionalism of certain right wingers, it is the Fo卐 network that desperately wanted violence in the Twin Cities:



Eric Boehlert: The week Fox News craved street violence in Minneapolis
https://pressrun.media/p/the-week-fox-n ... t-violence

An overwhelming majority of Americans support the guilty verdict that was reached in the Minneapolis trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd one year ago, by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes while the Black man begged for his life. At Fox News though, the trial outcome was met with hysterical condemnations — it was an "attack on civilization," Tucker Carlson warned. It was "mob justice," announced Candace Owens.

The trial’s conclusion did not spark civil unrest. Instead, solemn scenes of candlelight tributes played out across the city. Robbed of the chance to demonize the Black Lives Matter movement — robbed of the chance of scaring viewers into thinking community activists would soon be banging down their doors and ransacking their Main Streets — Fox News reacted to the verdict with frustration and rage.

The aggravation sprang from the fact that the network desperately wanted to air scenes of mayhem from Minneapolis following a 'not guilty' verdict, and to spend the week denouncing Democrats and President Joe Biden for lawlessness on the left.

It's a chilling reminder that Fox News isn't merely a "conservative" media outlet that provides a GOP perspective on the news. It's a dangerous propaganda machine whose goal is to undermine American democracy. It's driven by a blood lust for conflict and feeds off civil unrest if it can cast progressives as villains.



That is the undisputed TRUTH.

[Peter Brown]

Contrary to the delusionalism of certain right wingers, it is the Fo卐 network that desperately wanted violence in the Twin Cities:



Eric Boehlert: The week Fox News craved street violence in Minneapolis
https://pressrun.media/p/the-week-fox-n ... t-violence

An overwhelming majority of Americans support the guilty verdict that was reached in the Minneapolis trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd one year ago, by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes while the Black man begged for his life. At Fox News though, the trial outcome was met with hysterical condemnations — it was an "attack on civilization," Tucker Carlson warned. It was "mob justice," announced Candace Owens.

The trial’s conclusion did not spark civil unrest. Instead, solemn scenes of candlelight tributes played out across the city. Robbed of the chance to demonize the Black Lives Matter movement — robbed of the chance of scaring viewers into thinking community activists would soon be banging down their doors and ransacking their Main Streets — Fox News reacted to the verdict with frustration and rage.

The aggravation sprang from the fact that the network desperately wanted to air scenes of mayhem from Minneapolis following a 'not guilty' verdict, and to spend the week denouncing Democrats and President Joe Biden for lawlessness on the left.

It's a chilling reminder that Fox News isn't merely a "conservative" media outlet that provides a GOP perspective on the news. It's a dangerous propaganda machine whose goal is to undermine American democracy. It's driven by a blood lust for conflict and feeds off civil unrest if it can cast progressives as villains.

That is the undisputed TRUTH.

Wow congrats the lunatic center of the DNC didn’t burn down the city! Of course a different jury decision....

Meanwhile Minneapolis’s crime rate skyrockets.

https://www.axios.com/twin-cities-minne ... ba6c9.html

No cop in their right mind will do anything in Minneapolis other than collect the dead bodies after the shooting. Why risk it all for straight-up thugs? Let Brooklyn sort out the mess!

[lagerhead]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

[SCLaxAttack]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

Looking from the glass half full perspective, at least camera based tickets don't impact your car insurance. At least they didn't when I got mine courtesy of a DC camera.

The first county north of the NC/VA border heading north on 95 is a real beauty. Speed limit is 70, but VA law says anything over 80 is reckless driving. Go 10 mph over the speed limit, and bingo. Then the real fun starts. Every attorney in that county - every. single. one. - must go to the county court web site to get that day's speeding violation records. Within days you start receiving dozens of letters telling you that not only did you speed but that reckless driving in VA is a felony punishable with jail time, so you better hire them as an attorney to represent you. The scam is you pay an attorney the equivalent of the maximum fine and the county reduces your ticket to 0 points, non-functional equipment. VA attorneys must have a fantastic lobby!

[Typical Lax Dad]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

Looking from the glass half full perspective, at least camera based tickets don't impact your car insurance. At least they didn't when I got mine courtesy of a DC camera.

The first county north of the NC/VA border heading north on 95 is a real beauty. Speed limit is 70, but VA law says anything over 80 is reckless driving. Go 10 mph over the speed limit, and bingo. Then the real fun starts. Every attorney in that county - every. single. one. - must go to the county court web site to get that day's speeding violation records. Within days you start receiving dozens of letters telling you that not only did you speed but that reckless driving in VA is a felony punishable with jail time, so you better hire them as an attorney to represent you. The scam is you pay an attorney the equivalent of the maximum fine and the county reduces your ticket to 0 points, non-functional equipment. VA attorneys must have a fantastic lobby!

[Brooklyn]

Petey.


Violent crime, which includes homicide and assault, was up 21% in Minneapolis in 2020, while property crimes climbed 10%

Thank you tRUMP!

[cradleandshoot]

I learned from a judge what reckless driving was/is fifty or so years ago. Was coming back from vacation and had been driving for a number of hours and before cruise control was pretty much standard it was somewhat of a normal tendency to creep up in speed the longer you drove. I got pulled over and ticketed, was going about 25 mph over the speed limit. No incident with the officer, was polite and respectful and treated pretty much the same. When I looked at the ticket it said, reckless driving. I thought w-t-f, yeah, I was speeding but I wasn't driving recklessly so I thought it was a good idea to go to court and explain that to the judge. Got there at the time I was supposed to but of course that doesn't mean you're going to stand in front of the judge at that time. Had to sit there for a couple hours and watch person after person stand in front of the judge and feed him their lines of bullschidt. The more I watched the judge the more I liked him, he was a no BS kind of guy but not unfair or unreasonable...not a good idea to give him a line of bullschidt though. Made eye contact with him a couple of times and I'm sure he saw that I was rather enjoying the show and appreciated his style. Then it was my turn. I stood in front of him and said, your honor I have a ticket for reckless driving and I just wanted to let you know that yes, I was speeding but not driving recklessly. He ended that discussion immediately and told me that 25 mph over the speed limit constitutes reckless driving. I just said oh, I didn't know that but I did want to let you know I wasn't cutting in and out traffic and driving like an idiot beyond the speed I was going. He reduced the charges for me and I came out about as good as one could with that ticket. Had a Navy JAG lawyer buddy at the time and I told him what I had done and he said, hell, I couldn't have done any better for you so I guess I did pretty good all in all.

When I went in front of the judge the cop who gave me the ticket had me pulling out of a parking lot from a bar that was several miles from where I was stopped and at around 1am in the morning. When I spoke up and tried to inform the judge that the officer had the wrong case I was dressed down and beaten down and threatened with contempt of court. That is when I finally understood how the justice system worked down south. I plead guilty to a charge I knew nothing about and still don't to this day. The lesson learned was when you go to court in Fayetteville NC keep your mouth shut and bend over and take the punishment. Guilty or innocent was completely irrelevant to the whole process.

[cradleandshoot]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

Looking from the glass half full perspective, at least camera based tickets don't impact your car insurance. At least they didn't when I got mine courtesy of a DC camera.

The first county north of the NC/VA border heading north on 95 is a real beauty. Speed limit is 70, but VA law says anything over 80 is reckless driving. Go 10 mph over the speed limit, and bingo. Then the real fun starts. Every attorney in that county - every. single. one. - must go to the county court web site to get that day's speeding violation records. Within days you start receiving dozens of letters telling you that not only did you speed but that reckless driving in VA is a felony punishable with jail time, so you better hire them as an attorney to represent you. The scam is you pay an attorney the equivalent of the maximum fine and the county reduces your ticket to 0 points, non-functional equipment. VA attorneys must have a fantastic lobby!

They chitcanned the redlight cameras in rochester NY. The problem was the vast majority of violators were poor people who lived in the city who could not afford the tickets. If the city of rochester could have found a way around this problem, the cameras would still be up and running today.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/st ... /94730002/

[Farfromgeneva]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

Pretty sure Montgomery co passed a law (George Will was pissing about it, correctly IMO, that increased responsibility inside your own home to neighbors. I can’t recall if it was smoking in your home if neighbors can smell it or super enhanced noise statues but that county is as parochial as any in the country.

[Farfromgeneva]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

Looking from the glass half full perspective, at least camera based tickets don't impact your car insurance. At least they didn't when I got mine courtesy of a DC camera.

The first county north of the NC/VA border heading north on 95 is a real beauty. Speed limit is 70, but VA law says anything over 80 is reckless driving. Go 10 mph over the speed limit, and bingo. Then the real fun starts. Every attorney in that county - every. single. one. - must go to the county court web site to get that day's speeding violation records. Within days you start receiving dozens of letters telling you that not only did you speed but that reckless driving in VA is a felony punishable with jail time, so you better hire them as an attorney to represent you. The scam is you pay an attorney the equivalent of the maximum fine and the county reduces your ticket to 0 points, non-functional equipment. VA attorneys must have a fantastic lobby!

N.C. is the same way. Coming from Raleigh to Charlotte through the rural straight line path rather than west to Geeensboro and south to CLT (can’t recall hwy maybe 64,had a meeting in Troy along the way). Drops from 55-35 and I get hit around 47 trying to decelerate at town with no warning and three days later I had a ton of mail solicitations at my home in Atlanta. Pretty sure it was Albemarle but may have been Salisbury. Southern VA and N.C. are pretty similar overall.

[Farfromgeneva]

Meant for Bill. All the NJ people I know had them through the 90s

NJ is a lawyer...he would never knowingly violate traffic laws. His profession holds themselves to a higher standard. If your running late for your dentist appointment well then all bets are off the table and posted speed limits are only a suggestion.

Years ago my son’s soccer team had a tournament down in Maryland...maybe Germantown? Multi-Day tournament with multiple games each day. Team hotel maybe 20 minutes from fields...a week after the tournament, soccer coach mentioned he got six speeding tickets in the mail. Speed cameras got him. I got one a couple of years later.

I had the same experience as the coach. D Lax tourney had to drive through a nice neighborhood with schools, townhouses and huge park only traffic circle I’ve seen in Maryland, Gaithersburg(?). Guess it was 25 MPH I got 5 tickets mailed to me in NJ two a half hour apart because I had to get coffee after dropping her off at the field.

Yep!!

Looking from the glass half full perspective, at least camera based tickets don't impact your car insurance. At least they didn't when I got mine courtesy of a DC camera.

The first county north of the NC/VA border heading north on 95 is a real beauty. Speed limit is 70, but VA law says anything over 80 is reckless driving. Go 10 mph over the speed limit, and bingo. Then the real fun starts. Every attorney in that county - every. single. one. - must go to the county court web site to get that day's speeding violation records. Within days you start receiving dozens of letters telling you that not only did you speed but that reckless driving in VA is a felony punishable with jail time, so you better hire them as an attorney to represent you. The scam is you pay an attorney the equivalent of the maximum fine and the county reduces your ticket to 0 points, non-functional equipment. VA attorneys must have a fantastic lobby!

DUI is a felony in AZ. Have a friend who got one while working for DB. He’s lucky he had built a resume before it happened because he would’ve struggled more post crisis in getting another gig (ultimately post crisis went from Wells to Benefit Street Partners and settled in as a CMBS originator w Morgan Stanley today). Not sure about Corp america like a Home Depot or Danaher but in this world even a driving felony with no damage or injuries would be a non starter for even a kid w 3yrs at goldman coming out of HBS w a fresh MBA if only because of the optics.

[Farfromgeneva]

I learned from a judge what reckless driving was/is fifty or so years ago. Was coming back from vacation and had been driving for a number of hours and before cruise control was pretty much standard it was somewhat of a normal tendency to creep up in speed the longer you drove. I got pulled over and ticketed, was going about 25 mph over the speed limit. No incident with the officer, was polite and respectful and treated pretty much the same. When I looked at the ticket it said, reckless driving. I thought w-t-f, yeah, I was speeding but I wasn't driving recklessly so I thought it was a good idea to go to court and explain that to the judge. Got there at the time I was supposed to but of course that doesn't mean you're going to stand in front of the judge at that time. Had to sit there for a couple hours and watch person after person stand in front of the judge and feed him their lines of bullschidt. The more I watched the judge the more I liked him, he was a no BS kind of guy but not unfair or unreasonable...not a good idea to give him a line of bullschidt though. Made eye contact with him a couple of times and I'm sure he saw that I was rather enjoying the show and appreciated his style. Then it was my turn. I stood in front of him and said, your honor I have a ticket for reckless driving and I just wanted to let you know that yes, I was speeding but not driving recklessly. He ended that discussion immediately and told me that 25 mph over the speed limit constitutes reckless driving. I just said oh, I didn't know that but I did want to let you know I wasn't cutting in and out traffic and driving like an idiot beyond the speed I was going. He reduced the charges for me and I came out about as good as one could with that ticket. Had a Navy JAG lawyer buddy at the time and I told him what I had done and he said, hell, I couldn't have done any better for you so I guess I did pretty good all in all.

When I went in front of the judge the cop who gave me the ticket had me pulling out of a parking lot from a bar that was several miles from where I was stopped and at around 1am in the morning. When I spoke up and tried to inform the judge that the officer had the wrong case I was dressed down and beaten down and threatened with contempt of court. That is when I finally understood how the justice system worked down south. I plead guilty to a charge I knew nothing about and still don't to this day. The lesson learned was when you go to court in Fayetteville NC keep your mouth shut and bend over and take the punishment. Guilty or innocent was completely irrelevant to the whole process.

Our system hasn’t been about justice for decades. It’s about getting Ws and avoiding Ls.