Taking the Law Into Your Own Hands the Right Way
71I believe in the power and the right of private, civilian citizens to take the law into their own hands.
Wait. Before you jump to conclusions, before you accuse me of advocating illegal actions or violence, please understand: There is a right way, a legal way, to do this. It's not about vigilantes. It's not even about replacing the Courts.
It's about--well, here. I'll give you an example.
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Spokane, WA, circa 1971. In a residential neighborhood full of young families, two teenaged boys are visited by a friend in an orange Camaro Z28. When the fellow leaves, it's hammer down.
More than a dozen children under the age of five live in that block.
One young father decides to prosecute. It is similar to a "citizen's arrest" except that no arrests are made. There is, however, a court date set for a hearing in front of a judge.
I am the neighbor who lives across the street from the teenagers and am asked by the man filing the complaint to join him in prosecuting the punk. Motivated by concern for the safety of my two young daughters, then ages five and two, I agree.
My coworkers at the office sneer at our chances against the young son of a local millionaire.
A man is sent to my neighbor's home to threaten him. He reports the contact to the Court.
I load my rifle just in case. No one comes to see me, however. It seems likely I am being entirely overlooked by the opposition. Never a good plan.
The defense attorney is the millionaire's lawyer he keeps on retainer, most likely for corporate work. In a criminal court, he is woefully incompetent, proffering a feeble defense in which my neighbor and I poke gaping holes. Then he abandons that tack, tries a different approach. That doesn't work, either.
He tries "mistaken identification". Both my friend and I firmly ID the bright orange Camaro with its distinctive pipes and the license plate number we have long since written down.
He tries tackling me in particular for my estimate of the driver's speed: 50 by the end of the first block, 80 by the next intersection. He attempts to press me, asking if I might not have mistaken loud drag pipes for high miles per hour.
I am 28 years of age. I built my own hotrods as a teenager, though favoring the "sleeper" car that is faster than it looks. I assure the Court I know the difference between noise and speed.
The young man is convicted. Not of Reckless Driving, for which we had tried, but of Careless Driving. $100 fine, whatever. It's a victory no one thought we could get.
We take it, and gladly.
My office mates are stunned at the verdict. It is not the last time I will be involved in winning a supposedly "hopeless" court case, but it is the first. I like the feeling.
In your face, rich boy! In your face, you clock-punching, nine-to-five, scared-of-everything sheeple in office clothing!
We see the orange Camaro in the neighborhood after that, but only rarely. It travels well below the 25 mph speed limit, pretty much idling, which is a rough process for an engine that sounds like it sports at least a three-quarters cam.
I believe in the citizens of these United States taking the law in their own hands.
The right way.
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Well put, Brian. Thanks for commenting.
another great hub...thank you for sharing it...hopefully it will do some good.
Its great to see you weren't afraid to speak up. Nowadays though, it might be a different story. Some neighbors are not friendly and I'm always worried about the outcome. This is just a womans point of view....
I am constantly doing my duty and calling the police on people who park in handicapped spaces without proper authorization from the State. Those spaces are there for people who can not "walk" far for some reason. I do not understand the people who park in handicapped spots and literally run into the store. If you can run, you can park elsewhere.
It sort of reminds me of a time I got in an accident where the other drive pulled in front of me from a stop sign.I was given a ticket without even being interviewed by the cop.My brother discouraged me from going to court saying I'd never win.The case was thrown out of court. The other party sued and the insurance company was going to pay.I told them to counter sue for $100 against their much larger claim. It took five years but the other party dropped the suit.
tlmcgaa70: Thanks, Tammy. I just wrote it to be writing it, really, but doing some good would be nice, too.
marellen: It's really not so different nowadays. When my neighbor and I did that (as I failed to mention), (a) the neighbors across the street went from definitely friendly toward us to definitely hostile, too bad so sad, and (b) none of the other people on the entire block would touch testifying against the Camaro driver with a ten-foot pole. Jim and I were the only two "prosecutors" (we had no attorney on our side--"Citizens for the Prosecution!")
Fast forward to the present era: In our rural community, we had friends who decided to do something about a crooked Fire Chief and ran for the Fire Board. We helped them get elected (sucessfully) in 2010, and since that time, the corrupt dude has been replaced with an awesome lady firefighter who was promoted from within. Much "cleanup" of the Department has been done.
For supporting those actions, some neighbors appreciate us, some couldn't care less, and at least a few hate us with a purple passion.
Same stuff, different day. My motto: If nobody hates ya, you haven't done nuthin'! :)
Becky: Understood, and good for you. To this day, we've never gotten one of those stickers, though with Pam's disabilities, we likely should.
Don: Excellent, especially for requiring your insurance company to avoid taking the "quick nuisance closure" route.
Good for you.
I was in an older, borrowed Lincoln Continental one rainy afternoon, preparing to turn a corner in residential neighborhood. Had to pull out farther than comfortable to see around a huge evergreen (which has since been pruned way back) to see if anybody was coming from the direction I was turning into. There WAS a car coming, but it was almost a block away. Lincolns in those days didn't have a tight turning radius, so even though I was in the oncoming lane at first, I had plenty of time to get back on the right side of the street before the other car got to where I was. What I didn't notice was that while I was muscling the beast around the corner, the other driver saw an opportunity to collect a few hundred $$ from the Lincoln owner's insurance. While I was still on the "wrong" side he had sped up, then slowed wayyy down to about 50 feet in front of me. I instinctively stopped, but he kept right on coming until his bumper ever so gently **kissed** mine. After getting out and looking at the bumpers, we both agreed there was NO damage...but he still *insisted* on calling the police. That shoulda been a red flag.
Apparently a neighbor had already called 911, so the cops showed up almost immediately...and then the show began! Other Driver claimed one of his kids who'd supposedly been seat belted in in the back seat was complaining of neck pain. Whiplash. Big bucks.
But even the responding officers couldn't figure out how that was possible when there was NO evidence that our bumpers had even "kissed", let alone hit with enough force to cause whiplash on any of us.
I cleared up that mystery real quick by telling the officers that just before our cars kissed, all three children in the car were STANDING UP, two holding onto the backs of the front seats, and the third - the one claiming whiplash - was leaning over the console between them, as if they *knew* no real crash was about to occur but wanted to see Dad play Kiss The Bumper.
Instead of getting a windfall from my friend's insurance, the guy got several tickets for child endangerment by allowing the kids stand while the car was moving and failure to stop or yield to avoid an accident.
But that didn't stop him. He went ahead and tried to get nuisance money from the insurance company. But after the agent checked the guy's record and found he had quite a history of such claims, you betcha she denied this one!
leeann: Thanks.
JamaGenee: That's a fascinating story; thanks for sharing!
During my twelve years (total) of work as a commercial insurance underwriter, I got to see the "inside stories" on quite a few "interesting" claims. Some of the slip-and-fall artist who made repeated claims against shopping malls and such for "slick floors" (or whatever) were real pests.
Dennis has Disabled Veteran tags. In TN, if you are a Disabled Veteran, you pay a $2.00 fee for the tag. That is it. This is a permanent tag and does not have to be renewed. Free tags for the Disabled Vet, YAHOO. I really think all States should adopt this one. It is good to park anywhere a vehicle can park and no parking meter fees either.
On Becky's disgust with the non-disabled who don't have a handicapped tag or hang tag, such people make my blood boil. Also ones who drive a truly disabled's vehicle but that person isn't with them on that particular trip to the store.
The police dept in the town I used to live in patrolled disabled parking on a regular basis and delighted in leaving tickets for $100 plus court costs on any non-disabled vehicle they found. They also encouraged citizens with cells to call the non-emergency number if they found one, and an officer would come right out and write the ticket!
That said, I'm guilty on one occasion of taking advantage of the disabled tag on my friend's wheelchair lift-equipped van that I had to borrow for two weeks while my car was having major surgery. One rainy evening, I discovered I'd run out of milk and when I got to Wally World there was an empty spot *right across from the door* so, yep, I pulled into it.
But...most of the disabled spots were also empty, and it's my experience with my friend and disabled seniors that they don't venture out in bad weather. In my defense, even knowing the chances that 20-some disabled would suddenly decide to brave the rain were zilch and therefore I wasn't depriving one of them of a prime parking spot, I did suffer a severe case of conscience for days and never did it again! ;D
A fine example of how individuals can make a difference by rightly 'taking the law into their own hands'. I was part of a Minuteman group for a while; we were accused of being vigilantes (taking the law into our own hands wrongly), but no Minuteman on the border was, to my knowledge, ever tried for such a crime.
The doubters will always harass those who step up to do the unusual-you succeeded, thus putting them to shame. Great work.
Becky: Got it. In our case, the car's in my name, & since I'm not disabled, we'll likely need to go with the "hanging tags" for the times Pam is with me. A note from the Dr. and a trip the the DMV, coming up sooner or later.
JamaGenee: LOL! Love the highly developed conscience there! I don't park in Handicapped zones either, but that's impressive.
Hxprof: One member of our local Tea Party group is a Minuteman, does work on the border. Never heard of him being busted for anything , either.
Thanks for commenting.
Ok, so answer this. Is it wrong for me to use his handicapped tag when my asthma is bad. I don't have the tag, why bother. I only use it when I am having problems.
Power to the people!
Becky: I can only answer for myself, but I don't see even one itty bitty thing wrong in using your husband's handicapped tag when your asthma is acting up. The tag itself doesn't prove, "THIS PERSON IS IN NEED"--it REALLY only says, "THIS PERSON JUMPED THROUGH A FEW BUREAUCRATIC HOOPS OR AT LEAST HAD SOMEBODY DO IT FOR THEM."
BPop: There ya go!
I enjoyed your hub. That is exactly the right way to do it and I applaud you and your neighbor for taking the time. Most folks wouldn't have. Cops can't be everywhere and never seem to be there when you need them. (Just when you don't! LOL!)
Great story!
...and you should know! (About cops and where they can or can't be.) :)
To our other readers: Just FYI, resspenser writes (among other things) some true stories from his former law enforcement career that you simply DON'T want to miss.
BrianFanslau 8 months ago
Great example! We as citizens need to involve ourselves with the state and help voice our concerns. Lets hope more people wake up and take action and protest things openly and debate their differences openly as well. Or we will continue to get more legalism and less freedom.