You should find yourself a safehouse or a relative close by. Lay low for a while, because you're probably wanted for murder.

I spent the morning at the Elizabeth County Municipal Courthouse dealing with the last speeding ticket I acquired on the off ramp to Newark International Airport way back in March. As I mentioned before, Muni Court is a highly entertaining place, and if I didn't have anything better to do, like have a job, maybe I could spend the rest of my days there being highly entertained by the antics in court. While I was able to get my ticket reduced to a two point offense, the whole process took an ungodly three hours to conclude. But at the very least, my troubles with local lawmen are over.

While on line to pay my fine and put these horrific last few months behind me (OK, so they weren't really horrific), I was amused by a phone conversation which occurred immediately to my rear. Some dude who could not be more than twenty five was calling his mom to discuss the outcome of his Muni case.

"So get this, Ma, they reduced my offence from improper passing to unsafe passing, but the fine is something like $400. Plus, they got me for having a noisy muffler, you know, 'cause it's Japanese, and that's something like $50 dollars. But the kicker, Ma, is that they charge me twice for the court fees!"

I was a bit sympathetic to his plight, at the very least he only gets one point on his license. But it gets better...

"So next week, hopefully, the prosecutor will review my case and be pretty lenient with me..."

Now I thought he was still talking about his traffic offense. I was a bit confused, since he was online to pay the fees for his case which should be closed.

"If the prosecutor is cool, I'll only get probation. Else I might get seven years..."

Oh boy.

I think this dude has more to worry about than his traffic woes.

"Yeah, but if I get probation, I can't leave the State of New Jersey..."

After that statement, I essentially tuned out of the conversation.

I'm pretty much a law abiding citizen, save for the two speed/insurance related issues, and I'm glad that I was raised being a law fearing person. Okay, maybe I was not raised fearing the lawman, but only fear the lawman because he's much taller than I am, as most people are. But given this dude's situation and considering he's been caught not only for traffice violations but for some other offense that requires JAIL TIME, I'd figure if you're in a disadvantaged situation like that (he was about my height, so the fear of the lawman must be there, at least I would think that) you'd be a bit more careful around John Q Law.

But that's my opinion.

Cheers.