Pulled over for bad tail light, went home and checked ...
 

So I'm driving home the other night. I usually take the highway as I don't like driving through small towns in a flashy car because it seems to be a magnet for a police "escort". This time I need gas so I skip the highway. Sure enough I have a police car behind me on the way to the gas station. I pin the speed to the posted limit. I can see he's reading my plate because he's tailing at every light. After about four blocks later he pulls me over.
Long pause before he gets out of the car. I don't seem to recall him saying "the reason I pulled you over was..." instead he tells me that my license is suspended.
Apparently here in NJ if you get 1 (one) parking ticket and don't pay it they send this info to DMV who suspend your license. The cop asks me if I have any tickets. I tell him I've not had a moving violation in over 15 years, no points no accidents.
What about parking tickets? I respond "I have one for an expired meter", which I lost but went online to pay for. Problem was for some "interesting" reason simply entering your license plate number will not pull up the ticket -- you need the ticket number. From a prior parking ticket I paid online I know that when you enter the ticket number your license plate number is one of the meta data fields that comes up, one that could easily used for cross-referencing the search result. Hmm..... that makes it easier for the process of suspension to get rolling. convenient eh? A ball you don't know is rolling by reading the ticket... Well in order to restore your ticket DMV collects a handy $100 fee. And of course the township gets to triple the initial $24 ticket to $80 for "costs". Seems to me that the appropriate thing to do -- for the purposes of fine collection-- would be to put a hold on registration renewal until the ticket is paid. DEFINITELY NOT suspension of your license, and the person parking the car may not be the person whose license is being suspended. The lady at DMV says people have come in to get their driver's licenses restored for.... "fishing without a fishing license and riding a bicycle down a one way street". Nice...

So the cop comes back and says "I'm going to cut you a break and not cite you for the tail light or tow your car, you're going to have to go down to the traffic court pay the ticket and then go to DMV to get your license back". Fair enough, this is indeed a break because I'm pretty far from home. He saw my driving record and figured he'd cut me some slack but he cites for suspended license which requires a court appearance.

I get out of the car to check which tail light is out, the cop sees this and says "it's only when you hit the brake... the right side". So as I'm getting gas later I pin the brake down with an ice scraper that I still have in the trunk so I can check the tail light. I walk around to the back of the car.. all three lights are working....;)

Bummer about the ticket

I'd lay odds your tail light out is the European fog lamp
Which lights your drivers side, making your pass side look to be out.

I had coworkers tell me this off and on. Until I found it on a forum I had ripped my tail light assembly apart 3 times.

Mike

You could have a light that's going out and it flickered.

You can lawyer up and probably get the whole thing arbitrated and get your citation for DWS reduced to something else. Truth is, if a license plate check shows your license is suspended and your descriptors match the DMV return, he doesn't even need any more reason to stop you, so I doubt he'd make up a brake light violation, as there's nothing to cover. The whole "I'm writing cutting you a break" is usually a way to try and soften the blow and make it seem like he's helping you out. In reality he is here. In my state, Suspended DL is pretty much a mandatory cite. And the law says, no valid driver, no driving. So the fact he let you drive off on a suspended DL is kind of cool of him. It's pretty dumb that your license can be suspended for stuff like that. I've seen child support suspensions here...talk to the guy and find out he's trying to work to pay his child support, yet they suspend his license and expect him to go work. Interesting way of doing things for sure.

You also have to see the humor in stopping a guy in a flashy Porsche with a suspended DL. I'm sure it's a good story to tell. Maybe not for you though. Things could have been worse. You could've been watching your box get yanked up on a flatbed by the next rotation flatbed driver who has zero clue about what to do with that tow eye.

My right brake light seems to go on and off, I have put in a new bulb and also bent the contacts a little to try and make the connection more secure. Since then I haven't had anyone tell me it is out...

Don't you evah talk that way to me. NEVAH! NEVAH! What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach.

Must have been in the southern part of New Jersey... :)

LOL

And at least hear in CA we are civilized and they just wont let you register the car with outstanding parking tickets
Suspend a license for parking tickets? that's just downright stupid!

Tail lights are new and firmly screwed in.

The interesting thing is that he was on the other side of the town border, meaning he wasn't in his jurisdiction when he started following me. The other town, a city, has a higher crime area that I was driving through on the way to his suburban jurisdiction. My guess is that he was profiling the car coming out of the more urban jurisdiction. But there's nothing wrong with my tail lights. One light on either side lights up when the car is in drive, two lights to the outside and the 3rd light light up when the brake is used.

Maybe he thought you were going to close a bridge

I have put on five pounds recently ....

LOL, but somehow, I don't think you are a bully

ah, now I remember why I volunteered to go to Vietnam and get shot at..... It was to get out of new jersey.

Jersey? You're from Jersey?

What exit?

TO

Only at uncle sam's insistence in the mid 60's. and then only as long as it took to get a transfer to anywhere warmer.

Little Switzerland, NC looks like a very nice area. Used to go camping in that area as a kid all the time. Beautiful.