Mugged twice in downtown Houston!!

Yes, I was mugged twice in downtown Houston in less than 24 hours…. by the cops!

This morning I pulled out of my driveway and into the sight of a passing HPD car. As I turned right on to Houston Avenue, he literally did a U-Turn and pulled me over. The reason? For not having a seatbelt on. Normally I do wear a seatbelt, but just happened to not think about it this time. So the punishment for my horrendous crime was a $150 fine.

This stingseven more because just last night about 8:00 pm I took my dogs for a walk at Discovery Green Park and returned to the car to find a parking ticket of $65.00. Supposedly I was parked in a tow away zone, but I never noticed any signs saying “Tow Away Zone”, and in fact parked in this spot because there was a pay station about 10 feet away. I’m guessing the car was about half-way into a no-parking zone and I just didn’t notice.

So, all-in-all, I learned an expensive lesson: living downtown is pretty cool and has some nice perks, but it also means you are at a much greater risk of being fined and ticketed for petty crap. Also, living just a few blocks from a Police Station doesn’t mean you are safer, it means you are much more likely to get stopped for a cop for some petty violation.

Unfortunately, this isn’t my first time being ticketed for no seat belt. I learned the hard way that in Texas you can be TICKETED BY A COP FOR NO OTHER REASON OTHER THAN NOT WEARING A SEAT BELT. This is not the case in many other states (including Arkansas where I came from), but here in Downtown Houston a cop can literally be standing on the street at a stoplight and look into your car and dispense a ticket if you are not wearing a seat belt. I know this to be true from experience.

Pretty crappy, in my opinion. Watching out for my safety? Enforcing the law? Not hardly. This is just pure fundraising, plain and simple. Today I was mugged for $215.00. Now I know I am much more likely to get mugged by the cops than the robbers here in downtown Houston.