Ichat error

[1082]

So it turns out I've been walking around with a felony on my record for the past 25 years. Back in 1989, when I was 18, I got into a fight at the beach. One thing lead to another and I ended up with getting charged with a misdemeanor and paying a $300 fine.

I never really thought much about it again until recently. A couple of months ago I got a call from the Superintendent of our local school system saying that I wouldn't be allowed to go on a field trip as a chaperon because of a felony on my record.

I contacted the court and they apologized and got it fixed, but I still missed the field trip and my kids were still embarrased in front of thier teachers and friends by the whole thing. I tried to buy a gun a few years ago and the Sheriffs Office said I couldn't get a permit because I failed the background check. They wouldn't tell me why, but I'm guessing this is it.

I wonder where I'd be right now if this mistake hadn't happened? I wonder what jobs I didn't get because of this?

The system sucks. That is all.

[Iowa #1603]

Your guess is as good as ours

[tanksoldier]

I tried to buy a gun a few years ago and the Sheriffs Office said I couldn't get a permit because I failed the background check.

...and you didn't follow up?

With a felony you can't vote either.

Mistakes happen, but it sounds to me like you didn't care enough about your own life to make sure it was straight to begin with.

Anybody who relies on "the system" to make sure they can exercise their rights and life their life, taking no action when it appears something is amiss and no personal responsibility for their own affairs, doesn't deserve to exercise those rights or live that life, IMO.

[Monty Ealerman]

So it turns out I've been walking around with a felony on my record for the past 25 years.

It took 25 years for you to find out about that?

Back in 1989, when I was 18, I got into a fight at the beach. One thing lead to another and I ended up with getting charged with a misdemeanor and paying a $300 fine.

You say that one thing led to another instead of saying that you did something you should not have done. You apparently thought yourself to have been adjudicated to have been a misdemeanant in the altercational matter. If you had done no wrong you should have pled not guilty. If you had done wrong, e.g. mutual combat battery not excusable as self defense, you should have pled not guilty or pled guilty to a misdemeanor. Anyway, you do not get a fine without a conviction, and a felony conviction would ordinarily carry a more severe penalty.

I never really thought much about it again until recently. A couple of months ago I got a call from the Superintendent of our local school system saying that I wouldn't be allowed to go on a field trip as a chaperon because of a felony on my record.

It may be that you were initially charged with a felony, plea bargained it down to a misdemeanor, but still got recorded as convicted of a felony.

I contacted the court and they apologized and got it fixed, but I still missed the field trip and my kids were still embarrased in front of thier teachers and friends by the whole thing. I tried to buy a gun a few years ago and the Sheriffs Office said I couldn't get a permit because I failed the background check. They wouldn't tell me why, but I'm guessing this is it.

Apparently the Court hadn't yet corrected the record.

I wonder where I'd be right now if this mistake hadn't happened? I wonder what jobs I didn't get because of this?

What if you hadn't wrongfully gotten in a fight at the beach?

The system sucks. That is all.

The system is not perfect. But that is not all. Fighting when you shouldn't is wrong.

[slamdunc]

With a felony you can't vote either.

Is that a law? I know that persons who are incarcerated cannot vote, but as soon as they get out, many do vote.

[retired]

[QUOTE=slamdunc;3471318]Is that a law? I know that persons who are incarcerated cannot vote, but as soon as they get out, many do vote.

[/QUOTE

Try this website.

http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000286]

[retired]

...and you didn't follow up?

With a felony you can't vote either.

Mistakes happen, but it sounds to me like you didn't care enough about your own life to make sure it was straight to begin with.

Anybody who relies on "the system" to make sure they can exercise their rights and life their life, taking no action when it appears something is amiss and no personal responsibility for their own affairs, doesn't deserve to exercise those rights or live that life, IMO.

You don't think you are being just a tad too harsh on this individual? I assume you never made a mistake.

[MargeGunderson]

And I presume that tanksoldier owned his mistakes, fixed them to the best of his ability and didn't blame a messy system for his poor choice to not follow up on the consequences of his other poor choice.

It isn't about "making a mistake;" it's about blaming the results of one's quarter century of apathy on the big, mean, soulless system and randomly faulting that system for every bad thing that happened, or good thing that did not happen, in those 25 years of inaction.

[codemanski]

You beat me to it Marge...that's a definition of criminal behavior. Someone who doesn't take responsibility for their own actions yet blames the "system" for all of their shortcomings and pitfalls. It's not the system's fault. MYO

[1082]

It sounds like some of you have been pre-programmed to defend your system at all costs, but you can't blame me for not catching THEIR mistake. I took 100% responsibility for my actions. That guy needed an ***whoopin and, right or wrong, I gave it to him. I plead guilty because I was and I paid my fines and court costs without complaint. Now let's see the person who put the inaccurate information on my record take responsibility for their actions. It'll never happen. That's why this system sucks. There's no accountability. There is absolutely nothing a citizen can do about things like this.

Seriously, how is not knowing about someone else's mistake apathy on my part? 23 years had passed between this incident and me getting turned down for a gun permit. During that 23 years I had no reason to wonder whether or not there was a mistake on my record. Why would I? I had even been voting the whole time. And when I was denied the permit they wouldn't give any hint as to the reason. They just gave me a fax number to NICS to send a request to get more information. I sent over a dozen faxes and mailed letters and never once got a reply. This seems to be typical of the service you get when dealing with a system where there is no accountability. There is nothing you can do to make them respond.

[1082]

double post

Double post

[Monty Ealerman]

You appear to be prejudiced against systems of justice.

... That guy needed an ***whoopin and, right or wrong, I gave it to him.

You are not the legitimate arbiter of what negative sanctions someone else needs. Please be rational enough to distinguish between the needs of others and the desires of you. Obviously you mean you thought he had it coming but it's WRONG to not care whether what you do is right or wrong.

... There is nothing you can do to make them respond.

Nothing?

I contacted the court and they apologized and got it fixed.

Is that nothing?

You can file a FOIA request. You can go to Court. It doesn't make sense to get turned down for a gun permit and then be all surprised and flustered when turned down 2 years later for a field trip proctorship. If the school can find such information right away why can't you find it in over a year? Did the school Superintendent who referred to a felony on your record specify whether the record was for a felony arrest or for a felony conviction?

Sorry to resort to rhyme but please don't cry if you don't try.

[1082]

Yeah, you're right Monty. I shouldn't be whining.

That's actually something that bothers me more than the ichat mistake. I've been to this same field trip with three of my other kids already. The first time was in 2007. And no one caught it.

[MargeGunderson]

The system can suck (and no, I'm not part of it and never have been), but where you lost a lot of people here was when you extrapolated all sorts of crap in the past 25 years and speculated as if you would have been a crime fighting, lottery winning, ninja neurosurgeon piloting the space shuttle while writing computer code and wearing eight Super Bowl rings had it not been for that fateful keying error completely unbeknownst to you.

How many times did you wonder over the past 25 years whether some unseen force was effing up things you thought you'd earned? How many did you come up with after learning about the court mess?

FYI, you may have had a point about the jerk at the beach, we weren't there, but

That guy needed an ***whoopin and, right or wrong, I gave it to him.

would not have cleared up the matter with your children's principal nearly as well as you seem to think had that been your explanation if they'd asked before the trip.

[Monty Ealerman]

Yeah, you're right Monty. I shouldn't be whining.

That's actually something that bothers me more than the ichat mistake. I've been to this same field trip with three of my other kids already. The first time was in 2007. And no one caught it.

You're right. That's incompetent and inconsistent. They should have stopped you the first time if they were going to stop you the most recent time. So you're mad at the system both when it fails to catch you and when it incorrectly does catch you. I get it.