Too Bad I Don't Have A Nice Rack

Got pulled over on Dundee yesterday by a cop who claimed I wasn't wearing a seat belt. Fine, except I was wearing a seat belt all along. He comes to my window and sees the seatbelt on, and goes "is there any chance you put that on after seeing me? Just be honest." Well, to be completely honest, I didn't even see him until he turned on his lights, and anyways, I almost always wear my seat belt to begin with (this being one of those times). And this is what I told him.

Now, you'd think that he would just let it go, but then he noted that I was wearing the belt under my arm. I know it's not the "proper" way to wear a seat belt, but I usually tuck the shoulder strap under my arm because it gets uncomfortable and rubs against my neck and stuff. So the cop is like "maybe I didn't see it on because you were wearing it like that" and takes my license back to his car. 15 minutes later, he comes back and gives me the following speech:

"Ok, I'm still pretty sure I saw you without your seatbelt on, but I don't think you're lying, so I'll meet you halfway: this is a 'citation' for a 'seat belt violation' - it doesn't necessarily say that you weren't wearing your seatbelt, but I'll call it a violation because you weren't wearing it the proper way. So unlike a ticket, it won't go on your driving record, you just have to send in $25 to pay the fine. We're just doing this to save lives, you know, to encourage people to wear seat belts."

Let me get this straight: A cop pulls me over for no other reason than him thinking I wasn't wearing a seat belt. In fact, I was wearing my seat belt, he just didn't see it. In the end, he admits that he's not completely sure about seeing me without a seat belt on, and I still get stuck with a $25 'citation' for a 'seat belt violation'. All this, when I'm one of the people in this country who's been wearing a seat belt for years and was also wearing one the time he pulled me over.

It's not like I have a really shoddy history either, I haven't been pulled over at all in about 3-4 years, and that was when a cop wrote me a speeding ticket for going 9 over the speed limit (9 over!! Don't cops have anything better to do??). And I was polite to the guy all along, even when I was tempted to say something sarcastic like "I'm glad I have police officers like you to serve and protect me like this."

Ok, so I wasn't wearing it in the exact proper way. But I know I'm not the only person out there who wears the strap underneath their arm. Big deal, at least I have it on, which is more than you can say for a lot of other people. Just give me a warning and I'll change, is it really necessary to write me a citation and give me a $25 fine?? All I know is, there may have been all sorts of robberies, murders, rapes, quote-unquote "real crimes" that he could have been fighting instead of burning his 20 minutes and mine to nail me on wearing my seat belt wrong. Even one of those horrible people out there who actually don't wear their seat belts would have been a better use of time than me.

So now I'm trying to decide whether or not to fight this thing and get a court date. It's only $25, so I don't know if it's worth the trouble, but there's principle here. First of all, I should not be getting fined for a seat belt violation when I was wearing my seat belt (and always have). If it's their intention to "save lives by encouraging people to wear their seat belt", it's not necessary to go after people like me who already do it. Second of all, cops need to be discouraged somehow from pulling people over for seat belt violations when they're not even sure about what they see. If they have nothing better to do with their time, then I'd have to say that means we have more cops on the street than we really need. Anyways, I'm thinking that maybe if I actually stand up and make this cop defend himself in court, he'll at least feel more accountable for doing the same thing again, and it could save other people like me from having to go through the story I just described.

Now, I've wasted another 20 minutes writing about the dumb thing.