Have you ever noticed that really sexy cars look so much sexier without extra junk all over them? Especially the bureaucratic kind.Over the weekend my husband and I were walking in the Mission district of San Francisco when we saw two police officers on bicycles pointing at cars and demanding that the drivers pull over. I was wondering what on earth was happening and why they were pulling over cars that were seemingly following all of the rules. My husband (speaking from experience) said that they were cracking down on drivers that had no front license plates on their vehicles. He then added that this is the kind of thing you would never see in Pacific Heights (a very well off neighborhood of San Francisco).
California state law requires that all vehicles must have a front and rear license plate. Most of us take that rule for granted. We receive 2 plates from the DMV and so we put 2 of them on our car. Those people who are lucky enough to drive beautiful cars (my husband for example) receive 2 plates from the DMV and then are racked with the issue of whether or not to ruin the aesthetic lines of their precious car or to comply with California law. Many decide that the risk of leaving off that front plate is worth the benefit of keeping their cars just a little bit sexier. But the question still remains, "Is this something you would see in Pac Heights?"
The question arose again yesterday in class. We were discussing the probability of receiving a ticket for not putting money in your parking meter. While most people habitually get out of the car and put money into the meter, there are those who calculate whether to take the chance of getting a ticket or to pay the meter. One student then mentioned that part of that calculation is what kind of neighborhood you're in. Aha! There it is again! She mentioned that it is much more likely that police are vigilant about the rules in lower income areas than they are in higher income areas.
While I don't have any concrete answers about this, I'm certainly intrigued. How does class effect one's willingness or even necessity in conforming to these little laws that so many of us take for granted?
