You Get What You Pay For...

I had a total "REALLY!?" moment a few days ago as I was leaving court.

I had almost made it out the door when a woman walked up and said "Excuse me Officer, can I axe you a question?"

Sure, have at it.

This woman proceeded to tell me all about how she got this ticket a long time ago, went to court for it and was found guilty, and then was paying it off a little at a time.

Then she lost her job.

After she lost her job she started getting G.A. (General Assistance - read "Free Money") and couldn't afford to make the payments on her ticket anymore, so the court added another $300 for failure to pay the fine. Only problem is she missed FIVE payments. Now the FTP assessment was $1500.

I told her she should have come to the court and put herself on calendar to talk to the commissioner and explain her situation and try to modify the payment plan so she was only paying twenty bucks or so a month.

She said she had a "$400 car note", had to pay "$150 for insurance" and her rent was "almost $800" so she couldn't afford to make a $20 a month payment.

I thought "Maybe you should dump the $400 a month car payment, and thereby get rid of the $150 insurance payment so you can pay the fines for your non-driving ass." You shouldn't be driving with a suspended license anyway, and your license is CERTAINLY suspended with that much money outstanding for that long.

I said I THOUGHT all that. I had to put on a happy face and make her believe I was sympathetic to her plight.

I mean, really? You get on GA so you can use my tax dollars to drive a car with a $400 payment, but you can't afford to make a $20 payment to the court? And then you bitch when the court adds to your bill since you couldn't be troubled to keep up with paying your fine for the violation you committed, probably while driving the aforementioned $400 a month ride?

Bullshit...