Just got a ticket… Was he Pacing me or Pushing me?
admin on Mar 29th 2008
I was on my way to work a few days back when I got pulled over for speeding. I admit I was speeding so the ticket was justified. I was going 70 in a 65 zone by my account. (Probably about as fast as everyone else on the interstate.) I wasn’t late for work, in fact I was early and I was only going a bit fast keeping pace with the rest of traffic at that time of morning.
To describe the scene, I got into the far left lane and there wasn’t anyone in front of me for a good 30+ car lengths. Its still quite dark outside bieng around 5 am. A car pulls behind me and gets right on my rear bumper. I don’t appreciate the bright lights in the rear view mirror so I speed up a bit to keep from getting blinded by the bright lights. Now I’m going 74 and this guy pulls right up behind me. We repeat the process again and again until I’m getting up to around 80. I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to speed up anymore and I start looking for an opening to change lanes. I figure I’ll change lanes and slow back down so this jerk will finally go around me. Just as I finally find a spot to get over and am starting to change lanes the guy with the high beams turns on the blue and red.
I guess it really doesn’t matter what the scenario was. There is no chance I am going to take a day off work and go try to fight the ticket. In fact he could have pulled me over for something I wasn’t doing and I still would have had to pay the ticket. Bottom line - It costs me more to take the day off work than it does to pay the ticket. Then assuming I didn’t successfully fight the ticket I’d be paying double. Bieng a working class stiff has doomed me to just take it and suffer. I can’t afford to do anything more righteous.
The truth of the matter is that I wouldn’t have been going more than 70 if the cop hadn’t been driving behind me so closely that I felt uncomfortable. I admit I was wrong by speeding up and in fact I’ve already paid the ticket. Still I feel I was pushed. The cop said he “paced me at 80.”
I’m not sure there is anything to be done here. I just wanted to rant about it to get it off my chest. After all those who don’t speak up are doomed to never change anything. I feel like this whole “Pacing” thing is dirty politics. I’m not going to be the one to do anything about it though. I will be busy watching my family starve till next payday. After all the money to pay this ticket comes out of our food budget. Thats the only place where I can find a few bucks and not start getting nasty phone calls. In the end, I’m just glad there is always cheap ramen!