When it comes to criminal activity sometimes it is in the eye of the beholder. In the world we’re living in anyone can be considered a criminal if they get caught doing activities that are not necessarily criminal; activities such as jay walking, having no seat belt on, speeding, riding a bike without a helmet..etc. The Police will write a ticket, and if you choose to contest the ticket then you’ll end up in front of a Judge in Criminal Court. If the Judge rules against you, then it goes on record and as far as the State and law enforcement are concerned you are a criminal.

Let’s say that you don’t answer the ticket, then a warrant goes out for your arrest and you’ll be put up in one of those fine rent free accommodations that the City, county and state has available. After you leave the facility, you’re a criminal as far as the powers that be are concerned.

This brings me up to Fandango’s Provocative Question #75; “have you ever committed a crime?”

If True_George told you the stuff that he got away with; then he’d have to kill you. Better yet the Constitution says just plead the 5^th. But I can tell ya, that True_George was on the brink of being a Juvenile Delinquent. It could have gone either way, depending on the type of friends and the mischief of the day. The line was never truly crossed; I suppose out of fear that my parents will find out and do some sort of drastic action.

 Second chances were granted, plus in my day school officials weren’t calling cops on students because of teenage antics. They recognized immaturity and that it wasn’t worth having a life time record just because you did something without thinking because of raging hormones transitioning you into adolescents. They often made it a learning moment. Calling Cops was a last resort if everything else failed.

Other than that the only other time True_George was considered a criminal is when traffic violation tickets were racked up. When I got my Driver’s license and brought my third car. I started racking up violations for everything with the exception of DUI.

I had so many tickets, that one Judge remarked “we’ve got a criminal.” Fines got more and more expensive. My Driver’s License was revoked at one point. But I used my status as a member of the National Guard; my unit asked the DMV to keep the license valid because they needed me to transport trucks.

 But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when no Insurance company was willing to give me a policy. It was bad enough that males under 25 pay the most. But if you have a bad driving record and you find a company that was willing to take the risk, they quoted prices that they knew you couldn’t afford.

The good thing about racking up traffic violations is that every three years, your driving record is wiped clean.  This gave me a window of opportunity and it took about nine years to have a totally clean record.   

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