Below is a copy of an actual letter I sent to the Westchester County Sheriff's Office. I was ticketed for a very bizaar law and decided to let them know how I felt about it. This letter pulls no punches. I may not be able to drive in Westchester County anymore. Read it and judge for yourselves.
NYS DMV VAT Rules and Regulations:
7.33.1226- Control of Steering Mechanism- No person shall operate a motor vehicle without having at least one hand or, in the case of a physically handicapped person, at least one prosthetic device or aid on the steering mechanism at all times when the motor vehicle is in motion.
My Dearest Sheriff:
I am writing because one of your employees issued me a citation back in May of 2007 for the violation listed above. The person who gave me did this was “Officer” Reich. Officer is in quotation marks because I use that term extremely loosely. Mr. Reich is an Officer of the Law the same way Dr. Seuss is a Doctor, or that creepy Burger King guy is an actual King. I thought he was kidding when he told me he pulled me over for not having both hands on the wheel. I actually chuckled when he followed that up by saying “We’re trying to crack down on that.”
Really? Of all the things you can instruct your officers to crack down on, you choose that? Seems kind of stupid to me. Not much money to be made in “One hand on the wheel” tickets. I would think DWI’s would be the thing you would tell your officers to crack down on, as those fines are much higher. I have asked countless police officers, lawyers, and even a judge about this infraction and they were all amazed I was actually cited for this. I have researched Yonkers Crime Statistics, and found that 319 serious crimes were reported during May 2007; that’s 11 every single day. Breaking it down, there were: 7 rapes, 267 thefts of some variety, and 45 assaults. Why not crack down on these? These crimes have victims; someone driving with no hands doesn’t. I bet that in the time Mr. Reich had me pulled over there was at least one real crime going on that he could have assisted with. The fact that I was issued a ticket, wrongly mind you, for something as ludicrous as this doesn’t say a lot for the bravado of Mr. Reich. I will bet anything he was right out of the Academy, and was just out to ticket someone for some trivial law that is never enforced to impress his co-workers by showing that he actually knew the violation code for this offense. “What is Title 7, Article 33, Section 1226 in the NYS DMV V&T Law handbook?” was probably a question on his final in the Police Academy a few weeks before. Maybe he was trying to impress the Chief by remembering the code number.
I can understand this ticket being issued occasionally. Driving with no hands is very dangerous and can cause accidents. However, for an officer to ticket someone for this, they would need to actually see if the law was actually being broken. I got pulled over by Mr. Reich on the Cross County Parkway during the afternoon Rush Hour. I was in the westbound lane, and Mr. Reich was eastbound before he turned around to pull me over. The east and west bound lanes in this area of the Parkway are separated by a large grassy area. Mr. Reich must have been 200 feet from me when he supposedly saw me violating the law. How in the world could he see that I had no hands on the wheel from that distance? Even on a bare road in a stationary vehicle this would be nearly impossible. This was in the middle of rush hour, and I was driving 55 mph. I was also in the middle lane so other cars were passing me on both sides, which no doubt interfered with his view. If he got a clear view of me, despite all these obstacles, then I was wrong about him and I apologize. If his eyesight is that good then he is definitely in the right profession… because he must have Superpowers! There is no better regular people job for a superhero than a cop! Clark Kent had it all wrong being a mild mannered reporter. That meant that for the 40 hours a week he was working, he couldn’t’ fight crime. Mr. Reich can chase evildoers all day long…or at least stop people from driving with one hand. Then, once off work, Officer Reich can change into his alter ego SUPERTROOPER, and use his X-Ray vision to see people lighting cigarettes while they drive from 5 miles away. Stopping this horrific crime before it happens will keep the roads safe for drunk drivers and car thieves, who I’m sure are eternally grateful.
Mr. Reich pulled me over because he claimed to see me lighting my cigarette with both hands, leaving the wheel unattended. This is a curious claim. I don’t know many people who need both hands to light a cigarette when inside a car. Just because I had one hand on the lighter and the other one was out of view doesn’t mean it wasn’t on the wheel. I hate to break the news to you, but most people don’t keep their hands at 10-2. Oops! Did I let the cat out of the bag? Are you going to crack down on that now? Maybe have checkpoints with officers carrying protractors to measure the angle of a driver’s hands on the steering wheel. That will certainly drum up some revenue for Yonkers, which apparently needs it pretty bad! I’m sure the city will spread the wealth, too. They might increase the Police budget, allowing you to hire other superheroes. I hear Green Lantern and Ghost Rider are looking for work. Ghost Rider will have to be a motorcycle cop, though. You would be the most feared force in the country!
There are much more serious issues pressing Yonkers that deserve the Police’s attention. Even if I was in violation of that rule, I am quite sure there were other drivers breaking more serious laws that Mr. Reich should have pulled over instead. Understand, I am not putting down the police officer profession. Many cops are heroes. They bust their ass day in and day out to keep the public safe. The majority is honest, and tries to do the right thing. They protect the public from criminals and are true public servants, in every sense of the word. I am just putting down those badly trained, pissed off, stick-up-their ass, gym jock cops who are out to save the world by busting innocent people of bogus crimes.
After 3 years waiting, I finally got a court date. First off, waiting that long for a court date isn’t even legal. The charges should have been dropped due to the failure of the system to provide me with a speedy trial. I moved out of Yonkers years ago. I live 5 hours away in Syracuse now. The Court told me they could not drop a charge over the phone, even one that was issued three years ago. They also denied my request for an adjournment, saying that Mr. Reich had been notified and was going to be at Court. This fact is why I decided to make the long trip, and waste a whole day driving when I should be looking for jobs. I haven’t worked since May 2009. So, besides being extremely inconvenient, I honestly couldn’t afford either option: the ticket itself or the day trip down to Yonkers to attend the Court date.
To my shock, Mr. Reich was not in that day, which obviously infuriated me. Waking up before the roosters crow off 2 hours sleep, and driving 10 hours round trip for a Court appearance is not something I enjoy doing. I couldn’t talk to the Public Defender either, because there was none. This is another important piece of information that no one clued me in on. The Constitution guarantees everyone the right to Counsel, even if they can’t afford one. I was denied this. If they told me on the phone that Mr. Reich was not going to be there, or that the Yonkers Court does not have a Public Defender, I would have reluctantly found an Attorney to represent me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.
The only person who talked to me about my ticket was another “Officer” from WCS by the name of Armstrong. He was also seemingly right out of the Academy. He offered me some reduced charge that didn’t have any points, but still included a fine. I initially turned him down, saying I wanted the charges dropped. I told him my story, but he said that the court does not drop charges. Really? Not even when the officer is wrong…or doesn’t bother to show up? Surely Stretch Armstrong was mistaken. He said I could plead guilty to the lesser charge that he offered, or I could request a trial. Those were my only options. He said nothing about an adjournment since Reich wasn’t there. To convince me to take his offer, he stated that if I turned his “deal” down and requested a trial, the judge would almost certainly deny that request and charge me with the initial ticket because the Judge would believe him over me. Wow! That’s acting pretty cocky considering this guy wasn’t even there when I got the ticket. He wasn’t Reich’s partner that day. One Parkway isn’t big enough to hold the combined coolness of those two. I highly doubt he was even on the force in 2007, being that he looked 12 years old. For all I know he could have really been 12, and he was just at the Court dressed up because his dad was a cop and it was take your son to work day. I find it hard to believe that anyone, much less a Judge, would believe him over me under these circumstances. I understand the Judicial Branch needs to support Law Enforcement and give them the benefit of the doubt, but that only applies to the officer who wrote the ticket. Since SUPERTROOPER didn’t even have the courtesy to show up, Court support should not apply. This Stretch guy was a paranoid little man. He actually asked me if I had a voice recorder and was taping him. In hindsight, I should have, so I would have proof of his incompetence.
In the end, I took the plea bargain because I did not know I didn’t have to. Since SUPERTROOPER was not there, the ticket should have been set to a later date, or been dropped. No one informed me of this. It is not my responsibility to know my legal rights. It’s the responsibility of the Court and the Police to not take advantage of the fact that I do not possess a law degree, just to squeeze a few extra dollars out of a guy who already spent almost $100 just to get down to Court to defend himself. I was told that tickets were not dropped anymore, yet 3 of the first 4 people to go before the judge had their tickets dropped. This ass clown Armstrong fed me lie after lie. He either didn’t know the policies of his own Court, or he just lied to me because he didn’t want me embarrassing him before the judge by turning down his plea bargain. In either case, he should be ashamed of himself. I was conned into pleading guilty to a charge I did not commit. I had to get in my car and drive the 5 hours home with a stale taste in my mouth. As tired as I was, anger kept me awake. There is no way I am paying this ticket. I am in the process of getting a lawyer to rescind my guilty plea. While I’m at it, I may have my attorney sue the WCS Office for negligence, incompetence, and just being all-around dicks.
People like these two ass clowns make the public think that the Westchester County Sheriffs are a bunch of idiots. It makes me think that WCS is a Department filled with glorified Mall Security Guards who write tickets for anything to anybody to get back at all the people who gave them wedgies when they were a kid. They get a little bit of power and they think they are God. This is sad on so many levels. Cops are supposed to be welcomed by the people they serve. You’re not supposed to annoy them and piss them off. If so, you are about as useful as strip club bathroom attendants. Actually, I take that back, at least bathroom attendants have gum and breath mints.
Please start training your officers correctly. Train them on how to stop real crimes, as that is why they are needed. In return, I promise to tell everyone I know to leave one hand on the wheel at all times. If I meet a physically handicapped person who is missing a limb, I will inform them that their prosthetic device needs to be touching the steering mechanism when their vehicle is in motion. Even if I’m lost at sea, and find myself aboard a pirate ship, I will be sure to tell the Captain that his hook must be latched onto the helm when he is drinking rum with the other hand. I think I made my point.
Thank you,
Rob
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment