fbpx

Reflections

Thinking back to yesterday, I’m extremely proud of the boy for keeping his cool, managing to impress the judge in a rapidly deteriorating situation. Then again, it’s what he does best, unlike moi. Not one of my best qualities. In fact, I have very few redeeming qualities, and I think it’s good that I can step back objectively and see that! Either that or tomorrow morning I’ll come back and delete this paragraph….

As he calmly explained, we used to live on Rata St, and he had pulled out of the drive and driven away a hundred times before- why would he lose control on this one, dry, night? And why did they only take statements from the other side, and not him? And why on earth did they send him home? Dodginess.

Which….brings me to my next point! I have very little faith in our police force left. I base this on his experiences with the police, which my default are mine also. I did also have a brief brush with them when I left home (a rather upsetting episode, which is thankfully long gone), and was rather unimpressed with one of the cops that day. But then again, it’s understandable, how many teenagers in a snit has he had to deal with? If only he knew this time was different. I’m just grateful I got out that day.

Although I feel that on the whole our police have terrible attitudes, it’s not really that surprising. Cops who ask if you have a licence, and are surprise that you do (or that it’s not suspended/revoked). If you have a job. I guess the majority of people they deal with fail on those counts more often than not, so no surprise that they get jaded, really.

And I’m amazed at how the people who work in the courts can stand it. The lowlifes that pass through there! No respect for themselves, let alone others. One idiot (would describe him, but can’t really, had to be there sorta thing) came out after being sentenced. The clerk(?) lady asked if he had any other outstanding fines, and how much? Seven….and a half…GRAND, none of which he was paying. She gave him the slip with his new fine amount on it. He walked off wordless, screwing the paper up in a little ball as he went, then tossed it away.

I wanted to kick him in the nuts.

People like that are a waste of space.

Back to my topic. The time the boy stood up for one of my friends after my high school talent quest (where we won second place thankyouverymuch), and ended up arguing with a cop and getting arrested. The charge was obstruction, along with two or three other made up charges – something like rioting or starting a riot or inciting a crowd. See, how do they come up with this? There’s being inflexible but doing your job within the guidelines. That’s understandable. Fabricating charges is another ballgame. Using your power for kicks isn’t cool. Maybe you want to assert power over a big stocky Westie who is larger and probably stronger (although rather unfit) than you. I don’t know, whatever. I’m with Rage Against the Machine on this one….

But once they found out he was Army, they pulled all the extra charges, thankfully, and rightly so. It’s amazing just how much discretion they have. I could understand the judge having full discretion, but these were just run of the mill officers.

So he finished his community service, and all was well; diversion meant that was the end of the matter. Until he was pulled over months later and told there was a warrant for his arrest for failing to appear in court. Yeah, that’s right. The Sallies, or someone along the line, failed to report him as having completed his hours and he was down as needing to come back to court for not completing the requirements. The same thing also happened one night as I walked home from work and he and his friends were in the carpark by our apartment block. Cops were cruising around, same story, warrant still out. I had just had a very long day and was none too impressed, and protested. How could he have shown upĀ  in court if there was no notice given that he needed to go? And why, oh why was this bloody thing dragging out nearly a year later!

So off to court we trundled, me with my notes cramming for my exams, and the judge apologised, and sent us home. Took all of two minutes. They confirmed there had been a mixup and it wasn’t his fault. All this faffing around, him having to take time off work, UNPAID to attend court, and of course, it’s NZ, so no compensation.

And of course, this whole drama of “careless driving”, reached on the word of one party only – despite the fact the cops had every chance to do that one right.

Yeah, I don’t appreciate their bungles, especially after this last one.

After all our time they’ve wasted and stress caused, is it any wonder I don’t think super highly of them? I hope one day they can restore my faith in them. But until then…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.