Tonight Mike and I both got citations from the LAPD in Westwood Village. I've never received a ticket for being such a bad citizen before, so it was something of a new experience. I will say this much: I have never been treated so poorly by an officer of the law. He refused at least twice to tell me his name and badge number when I requested that information, saying only "I'll be the one asking the questions here."

Oh, there's more, but you don't need to hear about that, and I don't really want to dwell on one individual's poor comportment. (Or for that matter, personal grooming. Have you ever noticed that the really sexy cops don't tend to behave like jerks? I would expect that in Los Angeles the police officers should be at least as good looking as the rest of the general population. If I have to be detained for 40 minutes and then cough up the cash for such a frivolous ticket, I think the least the city of LA can do is to provide me with a really fine-looking cop.)

We were cited for violating Code 21453(d) at the intersection of Broxton and Weyburn Ave. The exact notes were: "Obs violator cross in crosswalk against a solid red phase tri-light, (S/E corner to N/E corner)."

What's our side of the story? There were quite clearly no cars within two blocks of our intersection. Being the kinds of responsible citizens that wish to not be run over by an errant Pontiac Aztek, we looked both ways, in all directions before crossing. And you know, from where we stood, there was quite clearly no visible red light, anywhere.

See for yourself. Click the image to enlarge it:

We'll be contesting this. I think the moral of this story is that if you're a bored cop on a Wednesday night, looking for people to harrass, you don't pick on the ones who are armed to the teeth with an arsenal of digital cameras. We have Photoshop, and we're not afraid to use it.

posted by Lorna Brown at 2:18 AM