At the Civil Court
I had the misfortune of being at the Civil Court today. This is the one located on 346 Broadway south of Canal.
The reason I had to be there is because some stupid blind idiotic NYPD cop could not read the inspection sticker on my motorcycle, and deemed it expired.
So armed with photographic evidence, I march into the building; in a not so pleaant state of mind. As soon as I enter, there is a security barrier with metal detectors and xray machines. Frankly, it would be some dumbass terrorist who would want to bomb even dumber government employees in that building.
Everytime I encounter government officials, be they at the court or the DMV, I always get the feeling that the one big prerequisite for getting a job there is that your IQ cannot be over 25. Or some such low figure. Seriously.
The people there are all dour and angry. Ask them a question and you get a rude reply. They literally make you feel that you are committing a crime by invading in the work-space-time. Damn, and here I thought that a big part of the taxes that I paid was for their salary!
So I get into the courtroom at the scheduled time of 9 AM. And wait, and wait, and wait, and wait a whole frigging 40 minutes before “His Highnes The Mighty Judge Presiding Over All Mankind of NYC” appears. A full 45 minutes before time. And dare someone blame it on daylight savings time change.
As soon as he enters, we are all asked to stand in obeyance. This is ridiculous. Is this some old English legacy that the British left behind when the US became independent, a few centuries ago. I had half a mind of not standing up just to see what would happen, but I didn’t have any more spare days from work to appear in court in this calendar year.
Anyways, everyone stands up, the court clerk blabbers something and then everyone sits down to contiune their stupor.
20 minutes later, my name is called out. I go up, show the photographic evidence and the judge clearly sees my side of the story and in a short smile seems to convey….”was that cop blind??”. Exactly my thoughts, your highness, I wanted to say. And then add….”all great minds think alike”. Of course I stopped before that, reason as stated above…..no more vacation days left to report to court.
So I am done, take my paperwork, thank “His Highnes The Mighty Judge Presiding Over All Mankind of NYC”and walk away. And realize, what a waste of time this was.
Can I sue the cop and hence the NYPD and reclaim lost wages ?? Ah, how I wish my sister was practising law, here in NYC and not in India.
And, then also wonder, why oh why are government employees so dumb….not the judge, but the others around him.
Well that’s fodder for another post.
I’m sure it was a simple mistake. You should have tried to get in touch with the police officer. I’m sure if you had a nice conversation with him/her and sent over a copy of the picture, you wouldn’t have had to appear in court.
That “all rise” thing is quite funny. They even do it on Judge Judy.
Actually, Civil Court employees are employees of NY State, not the City. We municipal employees are much smarter, but the job does tend to suck the joie de vivre out of you. And sorry, but no, you can’t sue the cop for making you waste your time on a bs ticket.
As for the security, they’re trying to tighten up all of the buildings, but to be honest, it ain’t that secure. The courts are likely more secure, but I can tell you that ’security’ in most City buildings is just a few rent-a-cops and a metal detector.
Oh, and never pull that “my taxes pay your salary” line on a gov’t employee: we’ll just ask for a raise.
Neil
I actually did. The original summons had the name and precinct of the officer and i wrote to him the very next day with pictures etc, hoping that he would void the ticket. No such luck !!
Anonymous.
Dang….no wonder. Those state employees.
Ah ok..I was giving them the benefit of the doubt but if the guy ignored obvious evidence then that officer definitely was incompetent. Don’t know about a lawsuit but perhaps put in a complaint against the officer and proceed from there.
Cops will almost NEVER void a ticket because so many people will, unlike you, just pay the minor offense and not take the trouble to come down and prove themselves innocent. I know people who have gotten out of traffic tickets by appearing at their scheduled court dates…simply by showing up.
As far as I understood, a summons could not be undone once written… That is why you can never argue parking tickets. On TV (sad that TV is such a source of information or me), whenever someone gets a ticket and try to argue it, the officer says “I already wrote the ticket, I am unable to rescind it!” or something to that effect.