Arrested Development
Chapter 1. In which crimes are committed, an arrest is made and a conspiracy is revealed.
Tuesday afternoon I interrupted my software development on visualization of branching checked out the Trident Bookstore/CafÈ, which has just introduced free wireless networking to Boston.
On the way home around midnight. I was stopped for driving over the speed limit. This was unfortunate. Then I was handcuffed, arrested, put in a squad car, taken to the local police station, photographed, fingerprinted, booked, told to remove my shoes and belt and and put behind bars. This was outrageous.
According to the authorities (who were well armed with only-partial information) a moving violation from September 2000(!) was never paid, my license was suspended, and thereforeÖthey had no choice but to arrest me (ìIf we let you go, and you got in an accident youíd sue USî.
Two hours later I was released on my own recognizance provided that I promised to show up in court at seven hours later 8:30 AM. Since they had also impounded my car, I had to take a cab home.
Before I left, I asked the officers if they thought this was an appropriately designed system.
Maybe I paid the ticket originally, maybe I didnít. But hereís what the cab driver told me when I began to tell him my tale of woe.
ìI know all about this. It happened to me 13 years ago. And after two lost days of work I was able to produce the cancelled check from the original offence. The judge said, ìnever mind then. Case dismissed.î Two days and several hundred dollars lost. I canít even think about it. [He couldnít not think about it, though, and continued.] I read in the paper yesterday that the city of Boston takes in 50 million dollars a year on parking ticket. 50 million dollars! 50 million dollars! 50 million dollars!î
This helped me remember my own original offence from September 2000. It was late at night in Boston, and I was lost in one of those Big Dig detour mazes. I turned into an alley and was stopped by a cop-in-waiting. ìWrong way on a one way streetî he said, pointing to a sign that was visible now but hadnít been when I turned into the alley. When I suggested that they should fix the signage he got quite huffy. Then I noticed that there were two other police cars sitting in the alley. While he wrote up my ticket, they pulled in two more victims.
I arranged for the cab to return at 7:45 the next morning. On the way in to the courthouse he pointed out that townships and the courts share 50% of the proceeds from traffic tickets, court costs etc.
Chapter 2. My morning in court.
When released on my own recognizance the night before, I had been warned that if I didnít show up in court at 8:30, a another warrant for my arrest would be issued and this one would be serious. So of course I was careful to get there at early. No one was allowed into the building until 8:30. Six disgruntled peers stood with me in the rain and waited.
A sign on the locked door said cell phones prohibited in building. I figured I could check mine at the door. But no. The guard at the metal detector told me to leave the phone in my car. (The car that was impounded the night before.) What did he suggest? His best suggestion was that I leave the building and come back without my cell phone.
I walked to a Dunkin Donuts across the street, bought a cup of coffee and asked the man behind the counter to hold on to my cell phone. Walked back to the courthouse. ìNo food or drink inside builidngî so I left the coffee outside.
By 10:00 AM it became clear that we were to be given no indication of how long this all might take. I found a sympathetic official to whom I explained that Iíd paid the original ticket back in September 2000, had a doctorís appt, etc.
He specifically asked not to be quoted but told me that he sees 5 people a week who are arrested in circumstances like mine. The MVB is all screwed up. They might indeed have failed to log my original payment. And I could request time to prove it. But of course, Iíd be without a driverís license or a car . Hut offered offered to expedite things.
If I agreed to pay $200 court costs, they would dismiss last nightís charge and allow me to proceed to the Motor Vehicle Bureau to reinstate my license.
By noon I cabbed to the MVB in Watertown. In the last 12 hours Iíd spent $65 on three cab fares, and $200 in court costsÖ
Chapter 3. From out-of-vehicle to in-vehicle but out-of-body.
ACLU where RU?
Before describing the out-of-vehicle and out-of-body experiences stimulated by the MVB, Iíll conclude the Legal and Political summary of this whole episode.
Financial
At the MVB, I paid $60 dollars to get my license reinstated, and $90 for the original moving violation. (I was given a number to call for a refund of $90 if I find my original payment.) Another cab ($15) got me to Whiteís auto, and by paying $90 for the towage and storage of my car, I was reunited with my vehicle.
Political
This sounds like a class action suit waiting to happen. Every day, a demoralized fraction of us are, on a regualar basis spending days of grief and hundreds in cash because the State of Massachusetts is entrapping citizens, mis-placing fines, suspending licenses, mandating arrests, and making the whole experience so inefficient and unpleasant that one is happy to pay oneís own ransom. Few of us are guiltless; but this is apparently cruel and usual punishment.
10:28:13 PM 
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