islander wrote: 

That is a very similar situation to driving in Cleveland.  I have found that if one ever gets pulled over for speeding or running a light or something similar (and they really got you), make sure that you unbuckle your seatbelt so that you receive a seatbelt ticket as well. 

Next, show up in court, plead not guilty and get a trial date.  What will next happen, that is if the cop who wrote the ticket shows up, the prosecutor will meet with you and the cop before appearing before the judge and offer to let the moving violation get dismissed if you are willing to plead guilty to the seatbelt ticket.  Without the seatbelt ticket, you have nothing to plead down to.

The city gets more money out of the seatbelt ticket than the moving violation and the defendant does not get any points.  I don't recommend this strategy anywhere else but Cleveland, Ohio.  But it is time tested, plus half the time, the cop doesn't show up anyway and you just might walk away from everything.

 islander wrote: 
You don't drive a Taco truck do ya?

 islander wrote: 
Quite true. In my experience, the inspectors weren't out to put the company out of business.  They mostly tried to find little crap that took about 15 minutes to correct.  They were then able to justify their existence.

It's a matter of pressures put on employees.  In the private sector it's cost reduction committees.  I take cynical pride in one of my contributions - undoing the cost reduction idea of a previous employee.  As I recall, the previous guy substituted a cheaper reagent for a process.  Unfortunately, it was consumed at a much greater rate than the more expensive one.  I recall that during a trial period, the more expensive reagent actually did save money.  What a worthy flunky employee I was.

 islander wrote: 
I wonder if another vendor at that festival complained to an inspector about the girl's lemonade stand.

 Manbird wrote: 

The stein you say...

 buzz wrote: 
Used to be a commercial on TV, don't even recall what they were selling, but it talked about systems and such then said something like "and then they you add the human factor" to which I would always reply "now things are really f***ed up".

frankie say relax

 phineas wrote: 
Ah...The old bait and switch...

 oldviolin wrote: 
Being human, hence the problem.

 buzz wrote: 

humans being what?

...never gonna happen. no way, no how. not gonna happen so long as you got human beings involved in any part of the process.

 oldviolin wrote: 
Android Disabled my Phone. 

 oldslabsides wrote: 
duh

 miamizsun wrote: 

Monopolies are best served by government.

 islander wrote: 
This is the unwritten rule in our business. "Placatory Behavior" 

This one is a little more troubling....

How A Good Samaritan Was Arrested For Driving Drunks Home


Jonathon Schoenakase of Quincy, Illinois was arrested last Saturday outside a local bar. His crime? Operating "Courtesy Rides" - a service offering free rides to bar-goers to prevent drunk driving. The reason? Taxi companies lobbied to make it illegal.

Schoenakase began operating Courtesy Rides on January 31, 2008 following a decision to do something about drunk driving after one of his friends was killed by a drunk driver. The service offers free rides to anyone who's been out drinking and needs a ride home, donations are accepted, but it's free to all. It was such a success Jonathan added a second car to the effort in 2009, then a bus, and that's when Diamond Cab service took notice.

They complained to the city that Schoenakase was operating a de facto taxi service without a proper license, but in reality they were mad he was cutting into their profits by offering for free what the Diamond was charging for. Amusingly, he was probably hitting a different demographic, cheapskates who don't want to pay for taxis but want to get home so they drink and drive, but that's beside the point. The cab company complained loud enough that the Quincy City Council changed its taxi and limousine ordinance to remove the words "for hire" from its definitions and thus eliminate the loophole Schoenakase was operating under. Following the change, Jonathan applied for a license and the Chief of Police was supposedly about to approve it, but withdrew and said Schoenakase needed to clear up some legal issues.

Since then Schoenakase has continued operating Courtesy Rides and has been arrested twice now during sting operations, once in February and then again just last Saturday.

We understand the police are just following the law, but this entire situation stinks like a three-days-worn t-shirt off a drunk's back. A guy goes out of his way to reduce drunk driving in his town, an effort he's doing to honor his dead friend, and the city shuts him down at the behest of a taxi company. Real nice work there. If nothing else how about just give the guy his $10 license and be done with all this pointless nonsense.

 islander wrote: 
Ha! Inspector Psychology 101.

 phineas wrote: 
I deal  with inspectors a lot. I intentionally leave something obvious wrong for them to find and note for a fix. If you don't do this they will find *something* that needs a writeup. Better to just hand it to them and get it out of the way.

 islander wrote: 
Absolute inspector power corrupts inspectors absolutely...

 islander wrote: 

It is a commodity in increasing short supply.