What a difference it makes when you put a face on it

There is a young woman who often stops on her way home from work, shortly after 2 AM. She works in a, shall we say, not very respectable place. I’ve gotten to know her a little. She and her boy friend now have three children and live with her mom and step-dad. I don’t think her boy friend works regularly. She just recently had her third baby, as in four weeks ago, but had to return to work because she is literally the bread winner in the home.

She came in last night to buy gas and cigarettes. After paying, she told me she was going to hang around for a while because there was a police car parked outside and she had no insurance on her car. I looked out the window and saw the police car. He was poised like a cat ready to pounce, and I had the feeling that he was not on break, but was waiting for her. Sure enough, when she went out to her car, he pulled up and I knew she was busted.

This incident lasted a little more than two hours. They were out by the pump for some time and she was on the phone for most of it. Then she pulled her car to a parking spot by the door as he followed, and I knew what that meant. I went out to talk to her. It seems the officer allowed her to contact the insurance company, but insurance would cost her $93 and had to be paid by debit/credit card. She doesn’t have one and had only $10 cash on her. The officer had also suggested I wouldn’t allow her to leave her car here to wait for the tow truck. (Why would he tell her that??) While I was talking to her, the officer got back out of his car and asked me, “Do you have any questions for me?” (Now why would I have questions for him? I was vexed at him!) “Nope.”

So, her car was towed. Meanwhile, she had to wait for her mom to come get her, from almost an hour away. The towing charge is $110, plus $25 a day for every day the car is on their lot. She can’t catch a break.

It’s easy to be tough on crime when you don’t know the people or their story. But, when you know the story, it breaks your heart. Here is a girl who lives right on the edge. Any thing that happens is nearly catastrophic. And of course, stuff is nearly always happening to her. And now this. This crime has a face and I admit, I was irked that the officer didn’t give her a break. I mean, doesn’t he know that she is trying? and barely getting by?

Is this justification for driving around with no insurance? No. And he did give her a break, he didn’t take her to jail for driving with a suspended license (oh, did I forget to mention, when your insurance lapses your license is suspended?).  But, what a difference it makes when you put a face on the crime.