It's a Confidence Game

How many times did you mother tell you that if you set your mind to something, you could do anything.  Want to be a doctor?  Done!  An astronaut?  Not a problem.  A fireman?  Piece of cake - all it takes is YEARS of study, patience, perseverance, tenacity, luck (lots of luck) and your dream will come true.  That's what you need to do if you're ambitious.  On the other hand, some people just want to be acquitted of something they did (or didn't do). 

Take for instance the young lady who got a traffic ticket for wearing a Google Glass device.  Seems the police officer thought that the mere fact that Cecilia Abadie was wearing a Google Glass was sufficient reason to pull her over and issue a ticket.  A jury of her peers thought differently and decided that just because she was wearing the device did not mean that she was using the device when she got pulled over. 

Uh, huh.  So, what the jury said is that if no one sees you do something, you didn't do it.  So, unless someone actually sees a person do a thing, there is no crime?  Sorta like if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, it doesn't make any noise when it crashes down?  So, when a drug dealer passes illegal drugs to a user but the police don't see him, no crime is being committed?  Then people speeding on the freeway aren't actually speeding because the police didn't see it?  Yeah, right - and I've got a bridge to sell you in the Florida everglades.

I guess the only person who knows if they actually were using the device is Ms. Abadie.  Maybe you're in a similar situation and you're looking at a ticket that you know you didn't deserve.  In such a case, might I suggest you take a look at:

• Fight Your Ticket & Win in California (Nolo Press)
• The Criminal Law Handbook (Nolo Press)
• Represent Yourself in Court (Nolo Press)

So, I guess the moral to this story is, if you get caught, don't say anything.  Better yet, take the advice of Orville Richard Burrell (aka Shaggy) and just say, you ticketed the wrong person - it wasn't me!