Mugging Vs. Ticketing

After maintaining a clean driving record for 4 years, I finally did it. 2 AM on a desolate road, and I had the glaring red and blue guide me to pull over. Apparently there was a STOP sign and I had stopped only for 2 seconds instead of 3! It was 2:00 AM!!!

Finally got the 'Courtesy Notice' and have been fined for a whopping $200. (for endangering the fellow invisible nocturnal drivers with my 'rash' driving!). The thoughts that followed after looking at the 'courtesy' notice were out of desperation, out of spite of being violated so. The incident was so similar to getting mugged. Then I thought how is mugging different from being pulled over for a ticket, and which would I rather prefer?!

Similarities:

• One feels robbed at the end of both events.
• Both jump at you at unexpected moments.
• Both the mugger and the Cop hide, sadly, behind a dumpster or a tree, waiting for a prey.
• Talking back/arguing with either never works.
• One ends up losing/ paying up in the end.

Differences:

• If I am being mugged, I know obviously that someone is robbing me. But with a cop, the robber is not so apparent, and hiding behind/as the LAW! Here comes a feeling of being violated. One I can get over, the other not so easily.
• A mugger takes my purse...Cost to me after that? Well I don't carry a lot of cash. So at most I will lose about $20, and then in the next 5 minutes I will be calling my bank and my credit card companies to cancel all my cards. And then another $25 for my Driver license/ ID. That's it. But if I were pulled over and ticketed, it would cost me a minimum $150-200.
• Being mugged has got nothing to do with what I did wrong...Yeah, maybe I should not have come into this alley after-dark. Other than that, I am not guilty of anything. But with a condescending cop talking to you, with a straight face, one feels guilty. One does not find words to even voice that 'there might have been a mistake, for I know I did not speed, officer'. Instead, we shut-up, take the ticket and occasionally ask for a pardon!!!
• At the end of a mugging there is a fat chance the mugger might be arrested. With a pull-over, maybe I will be arrested if I spoke too much. :)
• The pain of being mugged does not last long, the lesson does...Not to go into a dark alley after dark. But the actual impact of it is rather short...Maybe a week. And soon we return back to normal life, with new credit cards and a new driver license with a much better picture (one that I might be so happy with that I would be glad I got mugged!). With a ticket, there's a record that takes years to disappear. Well, for it to disappear quicker, you can ofcourse go to a class, where a customary 8 hours is spent relearning the difference between a STOP sign and a YIELD sign!
• When a mugger jumps at you, there is a possibility of getting hurt, killed even perhaps. With a cop, you are a lot safer, or are you? Seeing some recent news, I think this aspect should rather go into similarities...You can get hurt in both!

So, considering all this I think I would rather be mugged twice in my life than see that red and blue light flashing behind me even one more time.