I Fought The Law and the Law Won

An alternative title that I was considering for this post was "Third Time's a Charm." I was travelling into downtown Morgantown last Friday night on a road that I literally travel EVERY DAY. Perhaps I'm cursed (and that may be a serious consideration... but that's another story), but as soon as I got into the Morgantown city limits, I was pulled over by the police.

Long-term friends of mine are probably aware that I have been pulled over by the police twice before - both times for speeding. This time was no different. Chief Wiggum caught me going 42 in a 25. On the plus side, he told me he was going to "cut me some slack" by putting "29 in a 25" on my ticket. Why couldn't he save me a lot of trouble and just tear up the ticket? I'll tell you why - because Officer Barbrady probably checked his records in the car and found out that I've already got two speeding tickets.

Here's a little history. My first speeding ticket was completely ridiculous. I was going 35mph in a 25 zone on my way to school. Officer Ziggo (I'll forever remember that name) pulled me over. Apparently, the neighbors had complained about speeders on this lovely stretch of road in the peaceful hamlet of Kittanning. I have literally seen people going 55 on this road. I've been PASSED (quite illegally) on that street. But Ziggo decided to pull me over to teach me a lesson - a $110.00 lesson apparently.

Well my second speeding ticket was pretty legit. I wasn't paying attention and I got nailed going 72 in a 55. That's pretty fast. I grant that. One wonders, however, if I would have gotten off with just a warning if I didn't have a prior speeding ticket.

That leads to the latest ticket. Regardless of why the cop gave me the ticket, I now have it, and I have to deal with it. On my way into school on Monday (going a carefully regulated 25mph I might add) I happened to notice that NOWHERE on that road is the speed limit posted.

I was eccstatic! I was going to fight the law!! Rage against the machine!! How could I get a speeding ticket if I couldn't possibly have known the speed.

That is until I looked some stuff up on the Internet. Apparently, municipalities will have an "unwritten speed limit" rule written into the law. The speed limit is automatically whatever the city council deems safe in the absence of marked signs. That is some shady shit right there!

I thought I still might have had a chance given that Officer "I'll cut you some slack" wrote 29mph on my ticket. The Internet then informed me that officers will still note the actual speed in their records - probably to guard against irate citizens (such as myself) who have a vendetta against local law enforcement.

So before I even had a chance, the law already won the battle.

Maybe if I had shown off a little skin I might have gotten a break. This is a pretty liberal town. The cop might swing that way....