The law or how the judical system works

(Earlier post-neighbors dogs)

I asked our D.A. about a citation that I received in a neighboring county.(Probably ten years ago) Here was his advice. Pay the fine. "When I get a citation on my desk, I believe that it was warrantied. If I do not see anything wrong with it, I forward it to the court. The judge believes that I have checked it over and we do not have to prove anything. It is your word against ours. Then he added, " And I need to maintain a relationship with these officers."
There was nothing about right or wrong or even about JUSTICE in his explanation.
So anytime you need to deal with law enforcement, you need to be sure to get THEM to believe you and win your case before it ever goes any further.
SDE

Yep the court system is no longer a justice system when it comes to many things like a ticket for say speeding

That's about the only way it can work, without being outrageously expensive. Lets face it, most tickets are warranted, and most folks know it, and just pay the fine. But you can fight it, or ask for mitigation of the fine if you want. IMHO, most judges do listen to the folks, and often reduce or throw out the ticket, depending on the circumstances.

" get them to believe you" The more your mouth is open the bigger hole you will dig confirming the belief of your guilt. If read your rights keep your mouth shut , completely.

Some time back I got pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at a four way. Was sure I did , wife and kids in car told him I did also. Area is know speed trap in Johnson County Iowa. Took day off work , took daughter and written statement from wife to court . Spent half day at courthouse waiting to go before judge . She told this today was for pleading innocent or guilty only .Trail date would be set later. SO told her I just lost days wages , and would have to again to come back for court ?Yes sir , thats how it works. Lose 600 dollars to fight 225 dollar ticket! Pled guilty ,paid fine. Was hoping to show daughter how systems works, guess I did ,but not how I wanted it to go .

Some years back the Oregon Legislature passed a law that prohibited judges from lowering traffic fines. Now the fine is the fine no matter what even if you are in dire financial straights. No if ands or butts, you will pay the fine. Used to be the judge could show leniency, not anymore. You get an equipment citation, you pay the fine and show that you have repaired the problem. All part of the "State" increasing its revenue at the cost of tax payers.

There is no Justice in America...and respect for the Law is becoming less and less because of it..the Justice system picks and chooses what laws they will enforce and to what extent to enforce them,,or not...

It's all about money otherwise why does the clerk always offer a deal to anyone pleading not guilty and showing up for trial? Try asking for a deal without showing up for trial. If you decide to go through with trial insist on a jury,judges are in on the fleece.

appro, 984 people killed by law enforcemt people so far this year the number that were considered wrong by a court of law ? ZERO !
be aware & very afraid people, , some one with a badge can do just about anything, and a DA, , judge & jury will side with them
if we are not living in a police state, I don't know what one is
read the papers, watch the news keep your heads out of the sand there is some bad stuff going on, and no one is EVER held accountable

Having retired from law enforcement after 32 years such an attitude denies the presumption of innocence upon which our legal system was built. Many DA's use their conviction rate to help in future campaigns. I have seen the court system burgeoned with cases and forced to adopt a plea bargain system. Many times reducing the crime to another that isn't even close to being related to the original charge. I have seen them use the pressure of adding charges to secure the plea deal even when they are innocent. Many defendants thinking more time in jail and so they plead. On the flip side, I have seen defense attorneys use not the truth, but obvious fabrications to create reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury. That is not justice that is trickery and as far as I am concerned unethical and makes the attorney as guilty as the defendant. Attorneys, whether the DA of defense need to be held to a very high standard and the judges they stand before should demand it and be held accountable too. Don't get me started on the crazy things jurors do!

Hi Bob, I would agree that too many people have been killed and sadly there are bad cops who make very poor decisions. Many times a police office has a split second to make a decision, the difference can be life or death. Who put him in that situation? Would you rather have him ignore a crime or try to prevent it? I would ask, why do the alleged victims place themselves in such situations? Why don't they follow lawful instructions? It is not that the police are leaving the station to find someone to shoot. The majority go out to do their job which is to protect the public and prevent crime and return home safely. If people obeyed the laws then what would the death toll be? We are living in a society in which anarchy is on the rise and is being fed by all sorts of groups who have nothing but a desire for power and hate in their own hearts. Some of that is being fed by politicians who does their best to convince people they are on their side, but when they get in office they do nothing. How many people are killed each day buy drunk drivers? And, how many are stopped and taken off the street by a police officer enforcing the law before they kill someone? How many robberies are prevented? How many rapes, murders etc.? I would also ask, what have you done to make your community safer? Have you tried to get to know the officers in your community? And, have you seen what it is to be a police officer? My friend, it is not a safe job and it is getting more dangerous each day. They need our respect and help. One more thing, there is not conspiracy among cops, it is a lie promoted by the left. We need to man up and do what is right! As someone once said, you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem!

There was an article in the paper today stating the number is actually way less than 1000 as some claim.

I just looked up the number of people reported killed by police officers in 2015 and it sits at 359 as of 11/7/15. The number of police officers killed so far in 2015 sits at 107 as of the same date. You can look at that however you want, but since people are starting to hunt down and murder cops....what does it sound like this nation is headed for?

Unlike felony counts, traffic citations are different.

You are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. Doing so is both difficult and expensive as all presumptions are in favor of the often corrupt cops.

Pay it and move on.

Dean

Cops around here have a bad rep. for chasing women [ married or single] and physical assault of citizens. Recently had one sheriff sentenced to pen for he and deputys stomping crap out of a guy in front of witnesses not involved. White or black, you can get hurt for not much, and you can be sure if you argue about crap you will go to jail. Not a new thing, but seems like it has become a political football.

Must say I agree with Dean. In traffic court; GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT!!! If you are unfortunate enough to be a "professional driver"; No plea bargains; no reduced charges; no defensive driving courses to offset the ticket; unless you can beat it outright, it stands as written. Now; with the "BASIC' system; if we are written a warning; we cannot fight it but we still are penalized just the same (just not fined). And companys wonder why there is a "driver shortage".

Hire a lawyer judges will reward you for paying into their system and it helps to make a contribution to the Sheriff's election campaign,that way you can probably get him to
get his deputy to drop the ticket.Works for me.Justice ain't free(LOL)

You are exactly correct. I had an attorney tell me that once decades ago when I got a DUI that I did deserve. My attorney told me straight up that the judge wants to see you pay into the brotherhood. If you try to represent yourself in a case like that, you're toast. The judge is going to smoke you. Then there were different levels of "justice" so to speak. If you don't want to have it count against you, but you won't walk away scott free, it will cost x-amount by the time you factor in costs and fines and lawyer fees. Or,if pay x-amount, a win would be arranged. In my case back in the day, in all I paid $7,500 in total costs and fees, my license was suspended for three months where I couldn't drive at all for the first month, ONLY to and from work for the following two months, fully unrestricted afterwards, on probation for one year afterwards, on my record for 7 years afterwards. At the time, had I paid $10,000, I would have walked away on a technicality or something. Again, I got the DUI and deserved it. I was at home, off the road, had no business getting in my truck at 2:00 AM to drive my buddy home to his wife. Had I made him stay put, all would have been ok. My fault.

Thing is though, while I was outside of the courtroom waiting to go in, my attorney and the DA were wheeling and dealing right in front of me. "I'll give you this guy, if you give me that guy...". "Well, you were supposed to give me that guy and didn't, but you gave me that guy when I wanted the other guy...", "Yeah, I know, but if you give me this guy, I'll give you that guy and that guy instead...", "OK but you still owe me...". I was sitting right there looking up at those two guys hoping that for the $7,500 that I'd paid that I wasn't going to get whacked, and for the most part, I didn't. I got spanked, not real hard though.

Mark

Back in 1998 or '99 I was trying to deliver a load in New Orleans with my tractor trailer. I finally found my exit off the bypass, except there was a line of cars on the right that had lined up 1/2 mile before the sign. I stopped to figure out what to do now and a driver in the right lane motioned me into line so I could get off. Thanks!! Part way through the off ramp I found a couple of cop cars who stopped me and gave me a ticket for "forcing my way into the line of traffic". They gave me a $75.00 ticket and told me if I sent a separate check for $50.00 it wouldn't show up on my record. I told them that I would never be back in their F city again! I was happy when that nest of snakes got flooded out in 2005! Law, Justice, no such thing, but if you want to believe that is up to you. I spent too many years driving around the country being robbed by cops and their judges to trust anyone with a badge.

Strange that you posted this....
Look here...

Tickets are just another form of taxation. Its not about safety, not when there is so much money involved. Portion of it in Iowa goes to the public school system......you ain't against education are you son? That will be $150....oh yeah plus costs.

There have been bad cops all along. They got away with their misbehavior because there was no evidence or corroboration. Their fellow cops would not turn against them many times because they were just as guilty of bad behavior. The only reason they are getting caught and punished is because everybody seems to have some sort of video recording capability. They cannot tell if they are being recorded, so they get caught.

I just recently read about a sheriff's deputy that got sentenced to 8 years in jail for his part in beating up a visitor to the jail. As far as I am concerned, he should have gotten more. Two of his buddies had already been convicted and sentenced for the same beating. People in the public trust and in a position of power should be held to a high standard. Abusing power should be a very serious offense.

Now, you guys that are or were in law enforcement will come up and dispute every anti-cop statement in this thread. Sorry to say, but I have met a lot more bad ones than good ones in my lifetime. That includes 20 years of commercial driving over the road. If I tried to type in all of the bad things that I have seen over the years involving police, I would probably fill up YT's server. Let it suffice to say that there is just as much bad as good out there.

Almost every person I know who has gotten tickets were in the wrong. When you drive 60 in a 55 you are breaking the law. In fact if you are driving 56 in a 55 you are breaking the law. A stop sign means a complete stop, not a bump and go. What's so hard about that? And most cops have cams in their cars so if you decide to lawyer up and fight it there is video evidence that can either prove you violated the law or can exonerate you.

As far as cops go there are good and bad ones. The worst I've seen were MP's. There you have an 18 year old kid with a gun, a badge and authority and delusions of grandeur who just aren't mature enough to handle it. I actually heard a MP who was cradling a shotgun with no eminent threat tell a group of soldiers "go ahead, make my day". I beat 2 tickets I got on post, one a stop sign violation and the other speeding. The stop sign one I had multiple witnesses that I did in fact stop and the there was a 5 ton wrecker in between me and the MP at the stop sign. The MP in question couldn't prove to the military judge that they could see through the wrecker. The other was for 31 in a 30 and when I showed up to enter a plea the judge didn't even bother and just tossed it.

As far as cops not turning each other in? They have to rely on each other for backup. Their very lives may depend on that backup. The very nature of that means that for minor to in some cases they are going to ignore some things. Not saying it's right but that's the way it is.

Rick