I got too many tickets. Most are speeding tickets. Being an entitled, old white guy it usually ends up a reduced fine where the court gets the money, and I get no points.
This is no joke money if you ever sit in one of these kangaroo courts and do the math. This is a business. Big money generating business.
Most people, myself included, are happy to get some kind of “parking ticket”. Parking too close to a fire hydrant was the crime of the day in the East Fishkill court last week.
Some guys get $50 tickets, some gets $75, some get $100… Me? I topped the charts at $225. That was one Hell of a bad parking job. My bad.
$225 is better than a million points, and I deserved it. I was 30 mph over 55.
A speed limit of 55 mph is stupid, I fall asleep at 55, but that’s not the point.
The point of this post is this kid. This tall, thin, soft spoken black kid. Most of the people, as they stood in front of the judge thanked him, I swear to God a couple even bowed. That made me want to yack.
I seem to end up in court four or five times a year for some crime against humanity, The state, county, town, city or village vs. William Lobb – they really don’t like me.
About halfway through watching this money making ordeal, the above-mentioned kid stands before the judge. He does not want to accept the offer of the court.
He was insistent. He wanted a trial. The judge was amused. The others who remained, happily waiting to accept their fines grew annoyed at this kid.
I was somewhere between awestruck and impressed as hell.
The kid spoke of the time he was pulled over. He said he felt intimidated by the officer. He simply wanted his moment in court, to speak his mind in front of a judge.
I’m not blaming the cop, not at all. For all I know the cop did his job properly and the kid was an arrogant little asshole, that is not the point.
The point is – this kid felt the need to have his moment and he stood up for what he believed was his right as an American – and everyone laughed – everyone but the kid and me.
The big black guy I’d been talking to for the past two hours – we’d become BFFs standing in the line to the prosecutor for over an hour – he laughed.
The Hispanic lady next to me laughed.
The Hasidic guy laughed.
The people behind me laughed.
The court cops laughed.
The judge, with an arrogant smile, said, “you realize I’m giving you a break. You pay this fine, you get no points, you do this you could lose your license!”
The kid replied, “your honor, I was afraid for my life. Given the violence, shootings, deaths that these confrontations are causing in this country, I want to speak to this officer in court.”
The judge looked annoyed, he’d not get his easy $200 tonight. He’d need to do some work.
I said to my new friend from the line, “if you find this funny, Philando Castile must have had you on the floor laughing.”
I lost my new friend with that comment.
This is how far we’ve fallen.
That court room should have stood up and supported that kid. That kid has some grasp of what this country and the laws of the country used to be, what we used to stand for, what it was designed to be.
You don’t laugh at someone standing up for himself. You don’t bitch he’s taking up “your time” because your tummy is grumbly.
I walked out of that court. I told the judge I didn’t have the $225, I did, but I was too pissed off to pay the fine. They can chase me for it.
I walked out with a deep understanding of how – exactly – we got into the sewer we find ourselves in. In a room of 200-300 people, one kid had the balls to stand up for himself.
He didn’t do the smart thing. He did the right thing. There is a difference.
Our rights as Americans are not being taken away, we are giving them away because it is too much work. There is stuff on TV we need to get to. Good, healthy, nourishing meals at McDonald’s to go eat.
This kid will probably lose his license. The system will probably break his balls. He may lose his job. He didn’t care. He put it on the line for his right. For his day in court.
That should never happen. Punishment for manning up and standing up, but that’s the way it is now.
This kid will lose a lot. He will keep his self-respect and his sense of what it is to be an American. That’s a lot more than I can say for everyone else in that room, last week.
I looked back as I exited the court, looking at the judge in his black robe, surrounded by American flags, the pictures on the wall of Washington and inspirational quotes about liberty.
I realized all that crap is a myth. What’s left of being an American is inside us, a very small minority of us.
Everyone else just wants to go home and watch TV.
It pisses me off, I don’t have a liberal agenda, I have an American agenda. We are so busy being divided and taking sides we don’t see what we are losing.
