yellowpad

A couple of friends of mine did community service and $1000 each for throwing them out of the window. One of my petpeeves is seeing smoker tossing cig butts out of the window while driving. I hate seeing sh*t like this. I am a smoker too but i don't do that ever. I am all for this law......

OverBooster

for littering. As if this world does not have enough bad stuff going on, but then people have to trash up the place

x-man

Hate to sound like jerk here for you but I hate all those people that throw cig out of the car. They like to smoke but don't like the smell or cig bud in their car Why can't you just put it in the ashtray and through away at home.

You should just pay the fine and make it a lesson. I don't think there is much you can do. I knew a guy who throw a candy wrapper out the window on the freeway and got caught as well. He lost but I'm not sure what the fine is.

SenderGreen

I think littering is wrong. That being said the cop sounds like a real piece of work. Just out of curiousity was it a filtered or non-filtered cigarette? i don't think it makes a difference the way the law is worded. Perhaps you try and make some kind plea for leanency if you could argue that it the cigarrete butt was biodegradeable (non-filter, and hope they mention the chemicals in one or that someones pet could eat it). You could also point out that this was done at the request of the police officer, during a momentary lapse of judgement while you were mainly concerned with trying to comply with an officer of the law. It is also intereting that you were told you were doing 60 in 40 yet you were not issued a ticket for the offense, Why? I would think speeding would be dangerous than littering (even if it dosen't generate as much revenue on a single offense). So if the only reason you were issued a citation for littering is because you did it in the officers prescence and she felt she just couldn't let that go, why were not cited for speeding? Perhaps they can not prove you were speeding or maybe you weren't even speeding at all. Which finally brings me to, why did they stop you in the first place? Maybe you were just kinda singled out "profiled". I would basically ask why are you being stopped and harassed by this cop? I would even call the department and threaten to file a formal complaint against the officer. They will try and scare you with the very real fact that if during a hearing the officer is found to have not done anything wrong you can be in trouble for making such a complaint against the officer (nice huh). They say once a ticket is written there is nothing they can do, however a long time ago I was coming home from the store to my house and they had the street I was traveling on closed due to filming. This happens alot around here because we are within some 50 mile limit of hollywood where no one gets paid to be on location and there are not alot of palm trees so they play it like we're anywhere USA. Anyway the cop stops me (CRX, long hair, teenager), after a few minutes I ask if it's all right if I back down the street and turn around, (filming is up ahead) Cops says sit tight. Now it's about ten minutes later, I ask again having already explained I am going home about 2 blocks away. Again he says sit tight. At this point I turn up my stereo (Black Sabbath, funny I remember) not so loud as a noise violation or even enough to interfere with their fiming (couldn't have if I tried). Now the cop says y'know what pull it over right here and step out of the car ( had me sitting in the middle of the street till now). I comply, he starts writing the ticket for no seatbelt (which although I was in the street, the cop had watched me remove it while I was sitting there held against will, not under arrest, and he was not conducting any sort of investigation). His actions I believe were in fact unlawful. Turns out my license was expired (I had no idea ). He the let me walk past everyone, up the street, where I was supposedly not allowed. My father went to recover the car, which he was allowed to do (don't know which way they let him go on thestreet). We went straight to the police deparment and I went nuts on the watch commander. I said I was gonna find out exactly what I had to do to and who to complain to. I just kept saying I want to make formal complaint in writing. The watch commander starting giving the whole wrap about if I was in the wrong it is criminal for me to complain with consequences, I said lets do it and I would be back with a lawyer (father said next to nothing). In my case I had explained everything to watch commander and also stated that I knew the city and the cops were ass kissers to the hollywood people because our city and especially the police get alot of money everytime they film around here. I said it's not right at the expense of the people who actually live around here. We left, I calmed down and was preparing to just eat it. I really was afraid I would lose any kind hearing (long haired teenager). Time passed, I had the ticket but actually forgot about it and was up north at the time. ( I was gonna go to normal court and plead my case to judge in normal court to just try and get out of it) When came back to my city I realized I had missed the court date by couple days and probaly had a bench warrant. I called the courthouse with my copy of ticket in hand. They courthouse had no such record of ticket even existing. They told me to bring my copy right down (ya right ). It has been years and nothing ever came of it, nothing. I believe the watch commander and the cop made the ticket disappear. Sorry to go off like that, it all just came out. Officer Jaime P. Alafaro wherever you are (not in my city for long after that actually) in my opionion you are jerk who should not be in uniform if you even still are.
Anyway if the cop that stopped you was a rookie (as in my case) maybe you'll find someone who will agree that your situation is at best unnecessary and actually rather strange considering you were stopped for speeding. I remeber the watch commander told me "cops are people too and sometimes they have bad days just like anyone else" of course he was trying say that if cop has a bad and you suffer for it, well the that is your loss. Don't accept that logic, at very least try to get people to see that this is what happened before you invoke any kind of sympathy from your cops boss or a judge. Good Luck

SD_S2K

I gotta agree with this bit here. I hate to chime in when you are asking for advice, but come on man. Southern Cal has enough f*&$&ing trash and litter everywhere. I wish you smokers would learn to use a F*&^%ing ashtray...

F*&$ing hate it when I am driving and some a$$hole in front of me tosses his lit cig out the window directly in front of my car....

pay the fine, and learn something from life. If you have any other tix on your record, then be happy she gave you the cig ticket. Your insurance shouldnt be affected by this one. But a speeding ticket will affect your insurance for 3 years, meaning probably the same difference in overall cost, if not more.

GL anyway

vonHultgren

Yeah...and down to the fires that are set every year to improper disposal of cigs.....

smracer31

Its up to the judge as to how your going to be fined, hopefully you can get a judge who smokes, but most likely you will not. If the judge has had a bad experience, or despises smoking... your in for a heafty fee.

estukaye

A few days ago someone threw their lit cig out their sunroof and bounced off the hood of my truck and windshield. I wanted to return the favor with a molotov cocktail.

shaolin

expensive. depends on what city or even what city did your butt flew to.

i got one outside my gate about 1.5 year ago in Irvine and that was 350

imseksy

it was in huntington beach... i hear huntington beach cops are indeed racist but i dont know. this is my first run in with a HB cop. and plus i dont usually smoke in my car, i just smoke in my car when i am in a hurry to go somewhere (i.e. this time i was in a hurry to go to a party) but i guess i have to pay up... it sucks, but lesson well learned. but im just so mad that the cop pulled me over for speeding yet i ended up with a cig ticket.. baffles my mind.