Flashback: Getting over on the system...

Just a thought: Getting over on the system

About a year and half ago I got pulled over for speeding. I was going 45mph in a 25mph zone, but as the State Capitol police officer said, he was doing me a favor and dropped it down to 39mph. Lucky me, even that didn't matter because the ticket was tossed out the window before my court appearance. YES!

Rewinding back to the day that I got pulled over. I was cruising along a secondary road near a park and I wasn’t in a hurry, (which was usually when I’ve almost always gotten pulled over) I simply wasn’t aware of how fast my car was coasting along because of the downhill roll of the direction I was traveling. I actually saw the State Capitol police car but didn’t pay it a mind, why?  It was the State Capitol police and not Raleigh Police (so I’m thinking “what can he do?” Well I just found out!) Plus, I didn’t have the pedal to the medal and I felt like I was just cruising along.

As I passed the State Police vehicle I noticed it did a quick u-turn and it wasn’t registering that he was coming for me. I made it onto the blvd before I saw the lights signaling me to pull over. I did, and as I sat there waiting on the officer to approach my car I still didn’t have a clue to why I got pulled over. I went through a quick check list: tags are current, I couldn’t have been speeding because I was simply cruising along, my tail lights are fine, etc. Once he made it to the car, I handed him my information as he did the customary “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

Well, when he went back to his car to write up the ticket. I immediately made a call to a detective friend of mine who’s been a major life line for me when it comes to dealing with issues within the city limits of Raleigh, well I take that back, he actually help me get out of a ticket outside the city limits once too!

As always, I’ve been fortunate that when I’ve called him, he answered right away. I let him know my situation and he instructed me to get the officer’s attention to see if he’ll come back and speak with him on the phone. Well, I did manage to get his attention and he made his way up to the car. I let him know I had a Detective John Doe on the line and he wanted to speak to him. Not sure how all that worked as he was willing to take my phone and speak with the detective. They converse and once the call was concluded. He tells me that with the new system they have, once they type information in there is no rescinding it, and that if I had been quicker with the call to my detective friend we could have avoided the court date being set.

In the meantime, my detective friend asked that I send him a reminder a week out from court date to see if the issue could be squashed before having to go to court. I followed up as requested and the morning of my 2 pm court appointed time I get a call from my detective friend saying, “It’s done, no need to go to court and from this point on, slow you’re a$$ down you’ve used all your life lines,” he laughed and I laughed appreciatively.

Yes, I just got over on the system and don’t feel one bit bad about it, well to some degree it’s in the back of my mind that I did something wrong and I asked for help to avoid the backlash of getting a speeding ticket.

So the moral to my story, there is always a ‘think on it’ with most thoughts I share. And I like to close with the following question.

What is it you have no real issue with doing that allows you to get over on the system that’s in place, no matter the level? Now ask yourself, are you in a place to truly judge another for a behavior or chosen action that leads to having them tip toeing or straight up crossing the line of doing right by the system in place?

I think we all have our prejudged thoughts on things but until we’ve truly walk in another’s shoes. Who am I to make them an outcast and stain them as the worst to ever walk the planet on two feet?  I guess what I’m trying to say, we all are human and to our own degree of what’s right/ wrong and, or what we’ll be okay with that which allows us to get over on so many levels. My level of what allows me to get over may be a joke or a serious matter to another.

To this day, I feel relieved of the outcome from the speeding ticket, but at the same time it made me reflect on a larger scale of what is acceptable in society.