This morning when I turned to get on 280S at the on-ramp near Glen Park Bart, the traffic was a bit backed up because there was a police car that had pulled someone over on the on-ramp. I started to go around when the policeman waved me over to pull over. So I did, a little but confused about what I had done. He was talking to the other driver, then he came over and told me that he stopped me for “failure to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk.” I said “Okay,” which is pretty much my standard response when I get pulled over, but that seemed to confuse him, so he repeated himself, and I said “Okay” again. He asked me if I had seen the pedestrian and I said “as I was turning,” which was true. I saw that he was about 20 feet away at the start of the crosswalk when I turned. The officer said, “So you don’t look in front of you when you drive?” and I didn’t respond, because really, what would the right response be? I gave him my license and registration and he went back to the other car to talk to her for a few minutes. When he came back, the other car started pulling away, and he said “I’m in a bit of a predicament. I have two of you pulled over, and only one ticket, so I asked her who I should give the ticket to, and she said you, so I’m letting her go. What do you think about that?” I said “Okay” again. He handed back my license and registration and said, “No, I wouldn’t do that. I’m letting you both go.” I said “Thank you” but in my head I was saying “WTF????”. He continued, “The next time, you’ll kill someone, and I don’t know if you’ve killed someone before, but it’s not a good feeling.” More mental “WTF”-ing. Then he told me “Drive off”, so I did.

It was a little annoying to be pulled over for failure to stop for someone who was 20 feet away, when I’ve been very nearly run over or honked at several times crossing other streets in SF. And if this really is a big problem at this particular crosswalk, maybe they should rethink the whole crosswalk-across-freeway-on-ramp thing and build a pedestrian walkway.

Now, as far as interactions with policemen go, that one was fairly painless, but it never ceases to amaze me how every policeman seems to have that same jerky way of talking down to you. It must be something they teach at the Academy.

For those of you local folks, watch your speedometer on 280 today. According to this article:

Good thing the local police is spending their resources pulling over people going 5 miles over the speed limit and not, you know, catching murderers and stuff.

Well, so much for my plan to not get pulled over before my New Mexico car registration expires. I got pulled over this morning because the registration sticker on my license plate was partially covered by the stupid Garcia Honda license plate holder. It’s only a fixit ticket, but more than just giving up my New Mexico license and registration, I am giving up my last shred of New Mexican identity. (Except for my undying love of green chile and peculiar pronunciation of the word “room.”)

But in all honesty, I’m pretty disappointed at having to get a California driver’s license and license plate since I thought I was pretty cool with my swanky NM driver’s license and bright yellow license plate.

All good things must come to an end, I suppose. I just hope I can still find my car once it has one of those damn white plates on it.