It's all politics when you play the politics game.

Is this a real world example of 'trolls trolling trolls'?

I wonder what blue state that is in? Didn't even click the link.

Well, Mayor McCheese, back with 40% of the vote, gets my fair city of residence on Fark again.

/ Got to move.

...and I'm just going to throw this in here for anyone who can't be bothered to read that article:

Mayor Ryan is an attorney. A former public defender, no less. He's missed four court dates, two of which he claims are because they mailed the summons to an old address in Buffalo which he apparently never bothered to update after carpetbagging his way into Binghamton.

I and the majority of city resident would be extremely satisfied if the judge jailed this crapwizard for contempt.

DNRTFA...I'll bet he cracked down on overtime abuse, didn't he?

freewill: ...and I'm just going to throw this in here for anyone who can't be bothered to read that article:

Mayor Ryan is an attorney. A former public defender, no less. He's missed four court dates, two of which he claims are because they mailed the summons to an old address in Buffalo which he apparently never bothered to update after carpetbagging his way into Binghamton.

I and the majority of city resident would be extremely satisfied if the judge jailed this crapwizard for contempt.

Gonna put that on your van?

LadyBinky: Gonna put that on your van?

No, there's already a van like that, so then it wouldn't be any fun for either of us anymore.

Corrupt courts mail tickets to wrong addresses intentionally all the time. I wouldn't put up with it either. And yes, mayoral duties DO supersede bullshiat tickets. And yes, it's probably politically motivated. Cops USUALLY don't ticket city employees.

And to all you that say, "Pay the ticket." Speeding tickets are bullshiat. Either you're a hazard or not, If you're a hazard, lets do something like an arrest, like a drunk driving situation. Even a mayor knows tickets are bullshiat.

70% of the time you can beat a ticket by taking it to court. Either the judge is golfing, or the cop has a day off and one of the two don't show.

40% of the time you can beat any charge just by taking it to court; jury court, for the same reason. Or, they can't grant your speedy trial and must release you.

It's simple. If every criminal would take their crime to trial; as is a right many stupid people waive, then most would go free.

Plea Bargains are for the weak.

Ted, you rock.

Whatev. What is the deal with google today?

I didn't realize that when you become a public official, you have to waive your right to a trial and simply pay whatever fines are levied to you.

I don't care if his argument was "gay Nazis from outer space were chasing me!"....

You cal that a bad mayor?
Link (new window)

He is being a model citizen by fighting it.

Who wants to bet he never pulled these kinds of tricks out of his hat for folks when he was a public defender?

Mithiwithi: This is one of those cases where I wouldn't want to take a side one way or the other unless I lived there. Absent knowledge of local politics, it's more or less equally plausible that a corrupt police force is sticking it to a mayor who crossed them or that a corrupt mayor thinks he's above the law or that both sides are corrupt and this is just a turf war.

it is one of those cases where you neither side can win.. give the ticket..it is politics...don't give the ticket... it is politics. Sounds like they need a court date and a different city to have some hope of getting a result.

Skunkarific: Corrupt courts mail tickets to wrong addresses intentionally all the time. I wouldn't put up with it either. And yes, mayoral duties DO supersede bullshiat tickets. And yes, it's probably politically motivated....Either you're a hazard or not, If you're a hazard, lets do something like an arrest, like a drunk driving situation. Even a mayor knows tickets are bullshiat.

While I get what you're saying, you may not realize that Mayor Ryan is a little, ah, different. If you read the article, you'll see that in this instance, he finally hired an attorney on Thursday, then on Friday claimed that his attorney was on vacation and used this as his latest excuse for why he could not proceed. He's just deliberately evading the hearing which he has been demanding for the last 15 months.

Years before this, while teaching law, he actually decided to flee a stop for running a red light while telling a Vestal officer "you don't have the authority to stop me!", then led him on a chase before running into his house while apparently warning that officer that he was a "karate expert". (According to a writeup in a paper at the school where he taught, he later claimed that he had been "frustrated" because the police were supposedly repeatedly accusing him of being someone else, and that's why he fled.)

Even before his first election, there used to be some nutty guy who followed politicians with a camera here, and he had an amusing video of a heavily intoxicated candidate Ryan leaving a campaign event in his car, preparing to drive drunk, then, when confronted, warning this guy (again) that he's a "karate expert". It culminated in Ryan calling the police on himself, the officer taking him aside and explaining something to him in private, and Ryan walking away up the street without his car. The popular interpretation is that the officer had to explain to him that he was, in fact, too drunk, and would fail the test if he took it.

If it's not one wacky thing, it's another. Last month, the city council unanimously revoked his authority to put things on the side of city hall because he was using it to put up privately funded political issue signage, and he's been in the news creating public disturbances by demanding free entry to charity fundraisers, then going ape when he's refused.

I say this to paint a fuller picture of the guy for you. Whatever he is, he's not some moral crusader against "bullshiat tickets", regardless of the virtue of that position.

What a waste of public resources.

If I'm ever cited into court again I'll have to remember this brilliant ploy of the mayor. He hired an attorney the day before his most recent court appearance. Then when he got to court he asked for a continuance because his attorney was on vacation.

Assholes! The lot of them.

TedNigma: 70% of the time you can beat a ticket by taking it to court. Either the judge is golfing, or the cop has a day off and one of the two don't show.

40% of the time you can beat any charge just by taking it to court; jury court, for the same reason. Or, they can't grant your speedy trial and must release you.

It's simple. If every criminal would take their crime to trial; as is a right many stupid people waive, then most would go free.

Plea Bargains are for the weak.

I once demanded a trial for an arrest so stupid and minor that they actually looked shocked when I asserted the right. Five minutes later, the case was dropped. And believe me, I would have lost. It was a bluff - had they gone through with it I wouldn't have wasted everyone's time.

from Binghamton area; getting kick

to freewill: the Mayor graduated from a Binghamton area high school, Binghamton University, and worked for years as the Broome County public defender, so yeah he's definitely a textbook carpetbagger.

Although I don't particularly follow local politics and don't reside in Binghamton proper, friends of mine who pay attention consider him to have been a good mayor, in stark contrast to the one prior, who was widely considered to be a corrupt wheeler-dealer (involved in some scandal I can't remember the details of). One friend who worked with Ryan in the public defender's office during his tenure has had only positive things to say about his character.

I don't really know the specifics of this case, but if you've spent any time on Fark, you know the kind of shiat local cops pull. Binghamton cops usually have better things to do than pull you over for a 46 in a 30. Johnson City cops (and cops in the other surrounding towns) on the other hand do not, and will take any opportunity to fark with your shait because they have very little else to do or worry about.

Binghamton is likely not an dull place to be mayor, and I'd expect him to have better things to do than bother with court for a traffic ticket. But he certainly as the right to go to court and should if he thinks something smells foul.

Thanks for the perspective, freewill. It changes my opinion to "Just jail him." for being a douchebag.

CygnusDarius: It's all politics when you play the politics game.

Wait. You're the MAYOR. YOU ARE THE POLITICS.

/help help I'm bein' repressed!
//see the violence inherent to the system!

thosejaunes: from Binghamton area; getting kick

Although I don't particularly follow local politics and don't reside in Binghamton proper, friends of mine who pay attention consider him to have been a good mayor, in stark contrast to the one prior, who was widely considered to be a corrupt wheeler-dealer (involved in some scandal I can't remember the details of).

I do respect your differing opinion, and I don't want it to be about partisan issues. By "carpetbagging", I was referring to the popular criticism that he purchased property in the city for the express purpose of grabbing an open political opportunity in a city in which he did not live. In retrospect, I was overly irritable when I checked Fark earlier and shouldn't have used that particular word. It *was* unfair of me.

That said, it seems pretty obvious here that Ryan is doing this on purpose. He has a recurring problem with traffic laws, appears to be deliberately wasting the court's time, and is lamely trying to accuse public officials in another town of being in on some sort of conspiracy against him. Even your post seems to assume (by acknowledging that cops may have nothing else to do there) that he was, in fact, speeding. Given that we both seem to accept that premise and that we both seem to agree that the JC cops would nail anybody on that (rather than just the mayor), what principle could he possibly be standing up for? He hasn't exactly articulated one.

If he thinks he didn't do it, fine, but that means actually getting a court date and arguing it. He seems to have time to find new and inventive ways to drag this out, so he certainly had time to deal with this in the conventional way. He didn't feel the need to hire an attorney for his last four appearances, so why hire one who happens to be on vacation now, except to deliberately antagonize the court?

He may well be a nice enough guy in private life, but without putting too fine a point on it, I do not believe that it is plausible that all of these other people are at the root of his problems when the only common factor in all of these incidents is Matt himself. The guy is apparently a powerful drama magnet.

thosejaunes: Binghamton cops usually have better things to do than pull you over for a 46 in a 30. Johnson City cops (and cops in the other surrounding towns) on the other hand do not, and will take any opportunity to fark with your shait because they have very little else to do or worry about.


Dunno about where you live but don't most law enforcement agencies have a tendency to get upset & issue tickets when anyone (other than a fellow cop of course) is driving 16MPH over the posted speed limit?

craxyd: thosejaunes: Binghamton cops usually have better things to do than pull you over for a 46 in a 30. Johnson City cops (and cops in the other surrounding towns) on the other hand do not, and will take any opportunity to fark with your shait because they have very little else to do or worry about.


Dunno about where you live but don't most law enforcement agencies have a tendency to get upset & issue tickets when anyone (other than a fellow cop of course) is driving 16MPH over the posted speed limit?

I think that if the person that they pull over is the mayor, they generally would not issue a ticket.

/also if he is a karate expert

I'm an Internet Karate Expert, so I'm getting a punch out of these replies.

I guess he can kiss his dog goodbye right now.

RminusQ: On an east coast interstate, going less than 75 is frequently suicidal.

Gets like that here on I-77 quite often.


LittleBlondeJug: I think that if the person that they pull over is the mayor, they generally would not issue a ticket.

/also if he is a karate expert


At the same time, there are some cops that flat out don't give a shiat who you are if you're going 16 over inside the city limits.

{person of sometimes questionable importance}: "Do you know who I am?"
{cop}: "Why, did you forget?"

RminusQ: LittleBlondeJug: craxyd: thosejaunes: Binghamton cops usually have better things to do than pull you over for a 46 in a 30. Johnson City cops (and cops in the other surrounding towns) on the other hand do not, and will take any opportunity to fark with your shait because they have very little else to do or worry about.


Dunno about where you live but don't most law enforcement agencies have a tendency to get upset & issue tickets when anyone (other than a fellow cop of course) is driving 16MPH over the posted speed limit?

I think that if the person that they pull over is the mayor, they generally would not issue a ticket.

/also if he is a karate expert

Weren't you in jail for 6 months for DUI or some shiat?

I don't want to derail this thread into a personal discussion - so you've got mail.

Since I live in Binghamton and have met Mayor Ryan, I should probably chime in: as far as places to be a mayor go, Binghamton really sucks. Lots of problems with the local economy and crime - you might remember last year (in April) a mass shooting took place here. There's a big divide between the residents and the student population. A new Walmart (the second for the area) will likely hurt the local economy even further.
The cops here (like everywhere) are total assholes, so I don't blame him for wanting to fight a BS ticket. If he did hire a lawyer who then went on vacation just to delay his court date, well that's pretty sleazy of him. If the court did mail his old address, well that's pretty sleazy of them.
He is a nice guy in person, though I guess politicians have to be. There are a lot of people around here who don't like him, but then again there are also a lot of republitards.
So it's pretty much a case of both sides just being jerks.

Hmm, let's see...

More than 50% over the posted speed limit (kind of a big deal). Committed in an area where nothing else happens (lots of bored cops out here...had one pull me over to tell me to go under the speed limit when going over the train tracks (because I was going the speed limit)). Person is issued a ticket. Doesn't appear in court to argue it. FOUR TIMES!

You know what? How about you just pay the stupid ticket. You've used up your "fairness" points for the year.

Oh, and who brings a lawyer to argue a speeding ticket?

/yeah, yeah...right to a day in court and all that...
//from the area, getting a kick...
///tired slashies...

HarryPottersStuntDouble: You know what? How about you just pay the stupid ticket. You've used up your "fairness" points for the year.

It sort of warms my heart to see how many of us from the area there actually are on Fark. Way down in the cockles, or least, my general cockle region.

freewill: HarryPottersStuntDouble: You know what? How about you just pay the stupid ticket. You've used up your "fairness" points for the year.

It sort of warms my heart to see how many of us from the area there actually are on Fark. Way down in the cockles, or least, my general cockle region.

Well I'm getting pretty fed up with my comments being deleted from the PSB site. It's part of why I love Fark: people say *way* worse things than I do and the mods allow it.