When cops have nothing better to do

[BlownSC]

I was out in Livermore on Saturday night, nudge nudge wink wink. I was driving along, maybe a few over the limit, when I changed a cd and looked up and the light was yellow. My friend that was ridin shottie said cop, so instead of goin through and maybe makin it, maybe not, I couldn't make the call cuz I didn't see when the light turned yellow, I stopped. Unfortunately for me it was the wrong choice. I stopped hard and went a yard of two over the line. I backed up over the line and watched the cop that was at the intersection come across the intersection, the wrong way, make a u turn facing the opposite direction of traffic, and get behind me. He pulled me over and wrote me a tickett for a red light violation. This is total bullshit. What should I have done? Gone through? I couldn't tell. I also had backed up over the line? Does that matter if I did it before the light went red? I'm going to fight this. It's BS. He was just ticked cuz he couldn't catch any racers that night. I looked into the CVC but couldn't find anything that would help me. Do cops usually show up to ticket hearings? I know if they don't it usually gets dismissed. I've gotten pulled over plenty of times be Pleasanton cops for stupid stuff, and they are allways really nice and let me go. What's up with Livermore cops? What should I do? Thanks guys, and SJpopo for your responses.

[sjpopo]

I bet if you really look deep, you'll realize that you're more angry at yourself than at the cop. I bet you have a lot of pride in your ability to drive skillfully and what happened that night was an error and not an example of your usual driving behavior. I bet you're mad at yourself for getting distracted and even more peeved about the fact that the cop was at that intersection at the wrong time.

The cite was appropriate. The goal of the cite is to get you to pay more attention around stop lights. It'll be a $281 fine (approx), so it will probably accomplish its goal.

When an officer gets called to court it's not a request. It's an order by the court to show up. I can only speak for SJPD, but if I don't show up for court, I face unpleasant consequences.

By the letter of the law, you're required to stop behind the limit line. You probably made the right decision to stop and you deserve to be patted on the back for that. The real problems were caused by the decision to go "a few miles over the speed limit" and to get distracted from the road.

Isn't there a rule someplace that says the dude riding shotgun is supposed to handle the CDs?

Drive safe,

Ofc. Hoyt
SJPD