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| Courtesy of philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com |
I have a theory.
Life is a crazy journey. That is its wonderful, awful
nature. It twists and turns and drags us along while we move our feet and hope.
And if we have the wisdom, we pause and truly see the good moments...then bear
down and survive the bad.
Who would have ever thought my life would find one such
twist on the High Trestle Trail in Sheldahl, Iowa? But I did. A bicycle outing was interrupted by a deputy who
challenged us with demeaning and bullying words:"Do you know what a little, red, octagon sign means?" A few moments later, after he charged down the bike trail in his squad car and we scrambled off the path and out of his way, he issued a threat: "I'm gonna rain on your parade!" After a 30 minute wait, he emerged from his vehicle with $300 in tickets for me, a $100 fine for my friend despite the fact we never broke a law!
We wanted justice. Sometimes, good people must act on principle; this is what Lisa Schaa and I did.
We pled not guilty. We fought the charges...we filed a complaint. Today, four months later, our painful voyage through the justice
system is complete. ALL CHARGES HAVE BEEN DISMISSED! We won.
It’s important for all to know that I have had deep respect
and admiration for law enforcement officials all my life. My life has been
blessed with family members who serve their communities as officers, and I have
the witnessed the enormous demands the work places on their lives and their
families. The men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting and serving
our world deserve respect.
However...what happened on that bike trail on that day with
that officer needed to be addressed.
The County office? It harassed us....ignored us....delayed us.....then finally asked for a strange solution: mediation. Mediation allows victims to speak to those who hurt them and try to find a good solution. But in our crazy scenario, the deputy played the role of the victim. Unbelievable! This bully sat fully uniformed and wearing his fire arm. I mentioned to the mediator that I found it upsetting that this man, who threatened and bullied us on a bike trail, now sat in front of us fully armed. The deputy objected and pointed to his badge: "I'm on duty 24/7."
His same haughty and empowered attitude prevailed.
We asked, for the third time, to view the video tape or hear the audio recording so we could prove our innocence; we received the third different excuse as to why this is not recorded: his camera and audio equipment were both broken. Oh my....But in the end, justice was served and we left with all charges dismissed. The system worked.
There is no doubt; I was naïve. I did believe we were doing
the right thing when we filed the complaint with the Sheriff’s department. I
did believe the system needed an awareness of what had happened. I was wrong. They didn't want to know.
Was it all worth it?
I am
unsure. I do not have the wisdom to know if good will come from our battle with
injustice. But I can reflect on the goodness that has flooded my life from the
misadventure.
I walked into a courtroom and found a world which I did not
know existed. I blogged and experienced the great, good fortune of having
people listen. And I received the blessing of support from dear friends and
complete strangers. For all of these things, I am deeply grateful.
And I am so very grateful it is all over!
On June 28th, I blogged that I had suffered injustice and lost my faith. The day I wrote those words, I was completely defeated. I
was dazed and sick by the state of the justice system. I was incensed to suffer
disturbing treatment on a bicycle trail and then suffer further bullying and
intimidation from those who I thought would care about my ordeal.
But I continued to shuffle my feet and hope. Somehow, with
some great good fortune, I found justice....and I found my faith....and I found so many blessings.
So, I guess I have found the moral to this story: just keep
shuffling.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI think Lisa Schaa deserves the credit. I would have caved like a wet paper bag without her. She is the strong one!
DeleteI'm glad that you and Lisa stood up against it - and that you had two dedicated attorneys who felt your cause was worth the time and fight to see a resolution. It was a whacky situation that could have been taken care of much more simply and easily. BTW, I found this last week. Proof that there are great, dedicated cops who understand that they serve the public: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/10/local/la-me-motor-cop-20120910 You are an amazing person, and I'm glad I know you!
ReplyDeleteBoth of you are strong to stand up to law enforcement. If that were me in your situation, I would have felt like everyone would take the cops side because he is a cop. I think it is cool that you won your case.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Cathy! Now I need some justice.
ReplyDeletethey did it again to me! the DMACC judicial officer just wont stop!
http://www.bullyville.com/?page=story&id=5487
That one officer is who makes a whole force look bad. I want to go into the law enforcement field but stories like this discourage me. I think you are right about the system not wanting to know when their own screw up. Keep on plugging there are good cops out there, who do all they can to protect the people they are paid to serve. I am proud to say my teacher fought the law and won.
ReplyDeleteSo this is what happens when I stop reading your blog for a while, huh? My my, Mrs. Olson, you've had yourself quite the adventure. Well, first off, I suppose that I must give you a great big congratulations! You stood up for something that you believed was right and prevailed. It takes a strong morality and a strong determination to succeed against injustice. Kudos.
ReplyDeleteI also want to say that, no matter what happens in your life, you should never loose faith in the goodness of people. Even if you can't see it, there are good people in the world. They're not always televised, or in the paper, or on the radio; no. They're people like you who act on what they believe in. Who would stand up to injustice simply because it's wrong.
And we can see it. Looking back, history is full of people who stood by their morals against injustice. Martin Luther King Jr., for one, Mother Theresa is another. But more than we can see it in history, we can see it reflected in our literature. For example, (because I can't help but think of this when thinking of you going to court) there is juror number eight in Twelve Angry Men. And Atticus Finch, from To Kill a Mockingbird. And really, what child hasn't wanted to be a superhero at some time?
We look up to these people, these protagonists because they're doing what so many of us wish that we had the strength to do; They're standing up for what they believe is right. They're protecting the people from injustices.
So, as long as the protagonists remain our favorite characters, and as long as there are still children who want to grow up to be Superman, or Wonderwoman, I'm willing to count on there being very many good people in the world.
It seems like life has taken an interesting turn for you. Good luck :)
Kaitlyn