Life in the Twilight

Works and Days » Life in the Twilight:
 "When I get hit by an errant motorist in my environs (and it has happened more than once), or have some one run off the road onto my property, the strange thing is not that I expect him to flee, leaving no ID, no registration, and no insurance behind — that is de rigueur.
The odd thing is that the officer on the scene nonchalantly assumes the same thing, too.
Yet his shrug does not hide the lie that if I were to do that, I would be charged with felony hit and run, while my victim that night would be contacted by a lawyer to sue me.
We all know this and we all know, like good Eastern Europeans circa 1970, never to say that aloud.
In Los Angeles, hit-and-run is kinda like jaywalking elsewhere."