The Department of Transportation has relieved me of my license for thirty days. I always hated the DOT, I know how deviant these guys can be and the reason I know this is because I am a former government employee. I used to sit behind a desk, point to a triple-carbon form and say sign right here, you can trust me and the saps believed me, every time. By saps I mean welfare clients who were committing fraud with their state benefits. I never walked to my car after work without an escort, a large muscular male social worker if I could find one. I was not real popular in the downscale neighborhoods. I saw a lot of corruption and deceit and manipulation in those state and county offices. And I'm talking about management. When I was up for a promotion they asked me, would you agree to an action your supervisor requested even though you found it morally corrupt and I said yes. I would never do that but I wanted the job because all the other applicants would answer yes and mean it.
They say I broke a law with my car, I passed a stopped school bus. I don't remember the incident. I was adamant about pleading not guilty and I told that to the cops at my front door and the nice court lady and later to the assistant county attorney. And that last guy told me if I insisted on my innocence I would be accountable for subpoena costs, time spent for those police officers and the Rambo bus driver, all the extra paperwork and court officials' time. I decided to plead guilty, seemed less costly. But then I got a letter informing me of the suspension and a $600 fine. I appealed and won. And then the department overhauled the decision so I talked to an attorney who was nice enough not to charge me and I appealed again, won, another overhaul and now I am sitting in the county attorney's office and he said the department made a mistake, they don't understand the law, you should not lose your license. Here's what you gotta do, hire an attorney and file an administrative appeal and at that point I stopped listening. I was getting sucked further into the black hole and I'm already $600 poorer and this has been going on since last August. Enough, they win, where's my checkbook, I'm outta here.
They say I broke a law with my car, I passed a stopped school bus. I don't remember the incident. I was adamant about pleading not guilty and I told that to the cops at my front door and the nice court lady and later to the assistant county attorney. And that last guy told me if I insisted on my innocence I would be accountable for subpoena costs, time spent for those police officers and the Rambo bus driver, all the extra paperwork and court officials' time. I decided to plead guilty, seemed less costly. But then I got a letter informing me of the suspension and a $600 fine. I appealed and won. And then the department overhauled the decision so I talked to an attorney who was nice enough not to charge me and I appealed again, won, another overhaul and now I am sitting in the county attorney's office and he said the department made a mistake, they don't understand the law, you should not lose your license. Here's what you gotta do, hire an attorney and file an administrative appeal and at that point I stopped listening. I was getting sucked further into the black hole and I'm already $600 poorer and this has been going on since last August. Enough, they win, where's my checkbook, I'm outta here.
1 comment:
You have to stop when a schoolbus stops? Hell, the whole not particularly well organsised Adelaide rush hour traffic system would freeze into an ugly snarl if that were the law here! Around the schools themselves there are different rules and that's ok cos they're all in back streets anyway and no one can go faster than 25km/hr anyway because the place is clogged up with mothers in 4 wheel drives dropping their precious cargo off when they live three streets away. Anyway, I share your pain and resignation. Sometimes trying to 'stick it to the man' simply reminds you that 50% of us were designed to bend over and 'take it'.
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