Really Deep Thoughts

Last summer, I was given a ticket by a poor excuse for a civil servant in San Francisco. I was very upset. In response, I wrote the following letter. The San Francisco court’s response is posted below my letter.

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August 30^th, 2006

To Whom it May Concern at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco,

I am sending this check of $114.97, corresponding to citation number MXXXXXXXXN, because I have no other option, nor apparent recourse to question this fine, available to me. I am writing this letter to you at the San Francisco MTA, the San Francisco Guardian and Mayor Newsom’s office because the circumstances causing the imposition of this fine, which I and my friend both received, were unfair and highly discouraging of visitors to your otherwise fine city.

My friend and I were in San Francisco for the San Francisco marathon in late July. I live in Los Angeles, and my friend that I traveled to San Francisco with lives in Long Beach. While we both have traveled to San Francisco many times, we are not very familiar with the public transit system in that city. We usually ride bicycles when in San Francisco.

On the particular day that we received our fines, we had taken the Muni from our friend’s house to the Embarcadero station in order to pick up our race numbers for the race the next day. Upon re-entering the station the way we had exited (as far as we knew, the only entrance,) we found all of the turnstiles closed to accepting money. There were bits of metal disallowing the insertion of the coins we had just changed from our bills. There were no directions posted on the turnstiles about how one could go about paying her money and then use the Muni to get where she needed to go. We were both perplexed. We saw that there were people downstairs, who had somehow paid their money to ride the Muni. We also saw that there were two people in police uniforms on the platform below, just as another passenger walked past us and used the wheelchair door to go downstairs, avoiding the turnstiles. We quickly decided to do the same and approach the officers for direction on how to pay our money in order to ride the Muni.

As an aside, I was raised to look up to police officers and consider them the authority figures to approach when in trouble or, in this case, when you need some guidance for familiarizing oneself with a foreign transportation system. They are supposed to protect and to serve. As an adult, I now know that this image of police officers is a mythology, but in this case my friend and I both earnestly believed that a simple good-natured request for direction would be harmless. I imagined it would, at least, not bother the officers as much as screaming from upstairs for some directions, which appeared to be our only other option.

So, we descended the stairs, coins in hand, and approached the officers, only to receive about twenty minutes of belittling and rude behavior from one officer, named K. Randall, serial number 21 (according to my citation.) The other officer remained silent. We received no help in learning how we could have paid our money to approach the platform until after being issued the fines. Ostensibly, we were punished for not paying money before approaching the platform. However, we were really punished for being tourists in San Francisco and not being familiar with the fact that there is more than one entrance to the station or that, when in doubt about what to do if the turnstiles are out of commission, one must scan all of the notices on the operator’s kiosk to find one that explains what to do in that situation.

To be most honest, this whole situation couldn’t have seemed more like a trap to extort money from tourists. Here was the Muni station closest to the race depot on the day before the race, and the stairs entering the station lead directly to turnstiles that will not accept money. Then, at the bottom of the stairs past those turnstiles (and not at the bottom of the stairs with functioning turnstiles,) there are two police officers barking to those descending, “Do you have your ticket?” The citations issued are for no small change, yet small enough that it would be ludicrous to take time off from work and get oneself to San Francisco for a court date to contest it, which is the only listed option that we have.

I’ve always been a fan of San Francisco for so many reasons, but this experience has left me with a negative view of San Francisco police officers and a decreased interest to travel to the city again. If this is how police officers are trained to handle tourists and the process for violation contestation is set up to exclude recourse for tourists, I’d rather forgo the many hours of ruminating the injustice of this situation, the egregious treatment from Officer Randall, and not spend the valuable work time I have had to dedicate to writing this letter.

I request that our fines be overturned and that the apparent system of hiring officers in order to gouge money from people in the city in order to pay those officers’ wages be closely examined. It seems like a negative system, from the perspective of one that has been exploited by that system.

Sincerely,

A. Velorucion

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October 25, 2006

IN RE: CITATION NO: CMXXXXXXXXN

Please be advised that Commissioner G. Rosen-Park reviewed your citation, and the matter has been dismissed. Therefore, the matter is now closed and no further proceedings are necessary. You will be receiving [sic] refund of $114.97 within eight weeks. Please retain this letter for your record.

N. Gabriel,

Deputy Clerk