The Blank Goes to Court — And Loses

Now that I’ve lost, I have to go back to my neurologist (already called and left a message — will also have to cancel my follow-up because they say they’ve yet to get the insurance to pay to schedule the new MRI) and then get another signed statement for MVD… Then secure another (like the one that got stolen in the car wash whose replacement was said to also be permanent because I was already in the records and that I should ignore the expiration dates) “permanent” placard… Then go back down to court to prove I’m legal as far as MVD is concerned… Then I’ll get another court document saying the fine was waved so they don’t issue a bench warrant in January.  The remaining $532.00 I owe with the court finding in favor of the City makes absolutely no sense, because I had to wait an hour to pay a $20.00 fee against the $588.00 citation today, and that does NOT add up to being a total of $532.00 remaining! So, besides my being out $15.00 for parking (the first lot ate my $5.00 and didn’t give me a ticket, then the second lot required another $5.00 and all I had was a $10.00), what I’ve paid to date will then be sufficient for the remainder to be waved — once I pay yet another $20.00 in “late” fees.

Understand?

Neither do I.

My favorite part of the conversation with the judge was when I told him MVD issued the new placard with the expiration dates punched in it but then told me to ignore then because I was already listed as being permanently disabled with the state, and he responded with, quote: “And you believed them?”

Seriously.

He actually said that.

I mentioned that I thought they were from the government and they were here to help.

He laughed.

Really.  He seemed quite amused.

Since he wouldn’t accept my neurologist’s letter into evidence (he said “I believe you” and that was that), I read him my favorite “predatory and insane” line from said document.  He went on and on about how he didn’t believe that to be true, describing all the abuse he sees with people taking advantage of the placards.

“Obviously, like me.”

“I believe you have a disability, but there’s nothing I can do.  It’s the law.”

“Since I can’t pay, how ’bout community service?”

“There’s no community service for Civil cases.”

“Then, what, you garnish the wages I don’t earn?”

“There’s other mechanisms.”

“A lean?”

He just looks at me.

He then went on to explain that he recognized the number of the CSO who issued the ticket as “making more money for this city than any other officer” to make both me and the woman who had been cited for parking on top of the diagonal lines IN HER WHEELCHAIR RAMPED HANDI-VAN at a fucking Wal-Mart feel better.  It was such a gloriously well-phrased explanation about “punishing the wicked” that, for a moment, I almost forgot I was simply listening to an Obama stump speech.

What’s the point in explaining anything to anyone about this?

It’s what we are as a county anymore.

It’s ALL we are as a country anymore.

It’s our fault for not killing as necessary from the very first moment we said there needed to be killing.

Hell, if I really cared, I’d already be up to my eyes in blood and screaming widows and orphaned children by now, right?

So, I s’pose I really don’t.

He took my expired sticker, too, so that’ll restore life to the way it was always meant to be in the Land of the Free: as shitty for me as it is for everybody else… Well, up until I get another “permanent” placard to show the world I’m better than they are and that it barely cost me a thing to prove it.