Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Parking Tickets, NJ Cops, and California Plates

Alright, I understand that many states across America do not like California. There are the secret wishes that the BIG ONE will hit and California will drift off into the ocean. The jokes about California being the land of fruits and nuts does have some merit. This stereotype, generality or dare I say, profiling hurts EVERYONE. Let me share my story with you.
I am originally from Iowa. Iowa is known for corn, wrestling, sincerity and the great midwestern work ethic. I lived in San Francisco, California. San Francisco is known for great food, beautiful scenery, gay mecca and the heart of liberalism. I have since moved to New Jersey. And to be honest, I am still too new to know exactly what New Jersey is known for, but I am sure I will learn and share it with you. Hopefully, you are getting the picture. Iowa Farm Boy with a California Car living in New Jersey.
My second day at work, I am parked in the location that my employer told me to park. I did notice that there was a sign that stated 3 hour parking. "Nah, they never ticket here", said the nice man who hired me. He completely under estimated the allure that a yellow Dodge Neon with California plates has on a New Jersey Police Officer. I can only image how the cop felt when he saw the opportunity to ticket a "Fruit" or "Nut" from California with a $45 parking ticket. His extreme joy spilled on to the cars around me. He actually ran out of tickets on his pad as he was able to ticket ALL of the cars in the lot. Basically, my YELLOW DODGE NEON with California Plates was the beacon which alerted the officer to over 20 other cars that were parked there for longer then 3 hours. My car was the victim of profiling, thus opening the flood gates. The officer made his quota for the whole month in just one trip to the 3 hour municipal parking lot.
My thoughts pondered, if only I had gotten New Jersey plates the first day here, would there have been a parking ticket massacre on my second day at work?

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