Murphy's Law Should Be Repealed

Every time I fly something goes wrong. Flights are delayed or cancelled, gates are changed without notice, storms blow up out of nowhere, there is a class of 50 14 year old girls (shudder) on the flight with me, etc. It's always something. But these are minor inconveniences even though it appears Murphy's Law will always apply when I fly. My niece is heavily impacted by Murphy's Law as well, but hers applies whenever she has to deal with a government agency. And in our ever increasing government, these instances of Murphy's Law happen to her all the time. Today was just another example.

I've mentioned my niece in a previous blog, but if you missed that one, here's the skinny. My niece, Aimee is physically and psychologically disabled. She is bi-polar, learning disabled, and prone to anxiety attacks on top of having severe back and knee issues. However, her mother, a dumb ass of truly epic proportions, swears up and down that smoking pot while she was pregnant had no impact on her daughter. Uh, huh. With all of these emotional issues, Aimee is not best suited to deal with a Murphy's Law with a government agency attachment.

Today that father of all bad legislation, Mr Murphy, reached a new low. My niece, called me frantic because the police had just come to her door to arrest her. Seeing that her 5 year old son would be left there alone, thereby being taken into foster care, and that Aimee was quite pregnant, and since he knew my sisters and me, he didn't arrest her. Good man. Good cop. He did however explain to her that there was a warrant for her because of an unpaid fine and that she needed to come up with the money to pay it by tonight or he would have no choice but to take her in tomorrow morning. But this would at least give her time to make arrangements for her son so he didn't end up in the foster system.

Aimee was, of course, beside herself. Mainly because she had no idea this fine had even existed. We're still not sure why it does. She moved recently because her land lady was a nutcase, not to put too fine a point on it. When Aimee moved, her landlady sued her for $1,200 worth of damages. She had photographs of the apartment being totally trashed after Aimee moved out. This suit ended up being dropped because Aimee had several witnesses, including the movers who were the last people in the apartment, swearing that she left it clean. The suit was dropped. She was charged $100 by the court system for inconveniencing them by being sued. She paid that fine. Evidently, this other fine is for the charges of cleaning up what was determined not to be her mess in the old apartment. She received no notice of this fine, and her first indication that she was fined for something she had proved she didn't do, was when the cop showed up at her door.

She called around to see if she could borrow money for just 2 days until she got her check in order to keep herself out of jail. Nobody could help. Everybody had just paid their bills. She called her mother whose brilliant advise was "do the time. What's the big deal." Understanding of course that her mother aspires to one day reach that elevated social position of poor white trash, this advise isn't all that surprising. My oldest sister is the poster child for what is wrong with a welfare society. She's a blog unto herself. For family that is reading this, you know I'm right.

The officer had advised Aimee that if she could come up with half of the money he'd still arrest her but they could keep her out of jail. So this is what she was striving for. Of course she had to ask me how much half of 150 was. That's how learning disabled she is. So learning disabled that she can't learn to use a condom. But I digress. She was going to call my parents for help but then discovered that they had just sent her mother $250 to move. Something her mother had neglected to mention. Mind you, when Aimee's case worker embezzled her food stamps my sister wouldn't help her then either because she wanted to buy herself a wedding band for her upcoming nuptials to an abusing, womanizing, jackass who alternately beat her and screwed her in between stints in prison. Yes, my sister is a real piece of work. So Aimee is trying to stay out of jail and having a hard time.

I finally sent her half of the money and she was going to call the officer to see if she could go in on her own the next day to avoid being "taken in".

On my advise she called legal aid but they wouldn't get involved until she was actually in jail. She'd have a public defender tomorrow but we just aren't sure how much of a defense that would be. Then once in jail, they'd refer her case to legal aid and they'd show up for a consultation with her. Eventually. She really was trying. And the worst part is that this is all over a bogus law suit that she actually won!

This blog has no real purpose except maybe to show how bureaucracies can go wrong, but mainly it is for me to blow off some steam over how my niece gets treated. She lives 1,300 miles from me so I can't help her as much as I'd like. She is, however, planning on moving to where I am next year. She's going to let her son go through kindergarten, save up some money for herself (assuming the government will let her) and then she'll move. My sister is of course not happy about this and wonders how Aimee can be so cold as to take the grandchildren from her. Yeah right.