I Smell Bacon

Or: The Pig Fell In The Mud

When last we interacted with the thin blue line, a city bus driver had, with no proof or witness or investigation, gotten our family charged with a $185 dollar fine which the police lowered to $85 for cooperating.

So:My dad calls back, asks the pig at the desk to go through it all once more. Turns out, the bus driver incorrectly recorded the streetnames. Whether he saw correctly or not, he definitely did NOT see it at those coordinates (one intersection over). So dad asks if the bus driver could've shut his lights off before the illegal manuever (my mom freezes around buses and red lights) and forgotten about it (having so many better things to concentrate on OTHER than writing down a license plate, make and model of a car, etc.). He then adds that to be informed about only the fine a week later means its the word of a citizen against a city official. The cops gives a variation of the didn't-work-for-the-SS routine of "We're only following orders." Says they can't have a squad car follow every bus and that bus drivers can, legally, accuse you of anything without proof and have you fined without an investigation. Not in so many words for that last part though.

My dad says we want to contest it. The cop says that given the bus driver screwed up the location, and the city just does NOT have the resources to go to court over an $85 traffic violation, they'll just drop the whole thing.

No fine.

Never underestimate the stupidity, incompetence, or maliciousness of anyone working in city government. Yes, they didn't fine us. No, it wasn't because they saw the error of their ways and have decided to become born-again good public servants. It was because they didn't have a dang thing and knew it.