Meter Maids Jump the Gun in Fort Greene
It sounds like the traffic cops didn’t get the memo from DOT that the new alternate side of the street parking rules in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are not in force until Monday. According to this tip we got, they were just a little too anxious to start making everyone’s lives miserable again: I…
It sounds like the traffic cops didn’t get the memo from DOT that the new alternate side of the street parking rules in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill are not in force until Monday. According to this tip we got, they were just a little too anxious to start making everyone’s lives miserable again:
I came home to Willoughby Street today to find cars all the way up the block with tickets (including mine). It seems a Traffic Agent Blackett decided to ticket everyone even though alternate side goes back into effect next week. I’d be interested to hear if other streets had this same problem.
How ’bout it: Anyone else get hit with premature ticketulation?
Do not pay. And when you apear the guilty verdict – still do not pay.
See:
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2009/07/16/bay_ridge/bay_ridge_courier/news/bay_ridge_courier_newsjvcfwmz07162009.txt
From this weeks Bay Ridge Courier.
“Proves to me that we have an administrative nightmare in the adjudication of tickets. It’s clear that DOT put out a rule that exempts … ticketing, yet we have a haphazard decision process from the administrative law judges. Some dismiss the tickets. Others find the motorists guilty, when the rule is clear that these sites are exempt.â€
This must stop. Do not pay any of these types of tickets!
I have received tickets that had no basis in the law, and they were always written by police officers, not by traffic enforcement agents. Always thrown out. Do you think the cops are punished??? Not bloody likely.
bxgrl,
I seldom disagree with you, but committing fraud IS dishonest, even if it’s under pressure from supervisors.In fact, AFAIK filing a false report is a misdemeanor. Of course nothing is ever done, even though large numbers of tickets are dismissed, because the supervisors encouraging this dishonest behavior are promoted from within and, presumably, know, and encourage, all the tricks.
Polemicist,
A mix of both. I’d guess that traffic control agents are under so much pressure from supervision to produce revenue that they write spurious tickets when they can’t find enough real offenses. Fortunately they often are not very bright, their fraud is poorly done, and the tickets can be dismissed easily. That’s not to say that MOST tickets aren’t for real offenses, just that most of the parking tickets I get are phony, no doubt because I’m careful about parking legally, not because I’m especially virtuous, but because I’m cheap and don’t want to pay fines.
Or pressure to meet a quota- even if the tickets get thrown out?
Bob:
Do you reall think it’s dishonesty and not incompetence?
I believe that if a disabled person is being dropped off or picked up, they can’t give a ticket or it will be thrown out in any case. I know there are laws regarding that. But they need id- I’m not disrespecting people with serious illnesses, A person being dropped off at a hospital for dialysis? Is a “meter maid” supposed to make a medical diagnosis? These people get told every story in the book- how are they supposed to tell what’s true and what’s not? My other question is if this person were dropped off in front of a clinic, I don’t understand how anyone was ticketed. Aren’t there exceptions for hospitals (and I think churches?) for drop offs?
But unloading kids? Everyone has kids- should all parents get exceptions so everything is for their convenience? And this issue isn’t if you’re locked out of your car- it’s where you put the car before you got locked out.
the point is, traffic agents are not allowed to make judgment calls. Why should they lose their job for your convenience? You’re asking too much.
I understand that traffic control agents have a hard job. I also understand that, unlike police officers, they are not allowed to use discretion in writing tickets (I presume to avoid corruption). HOWEVER, I have received enough patently fraudulent tickets from TCAs (when my car was legally parked–and NOT when, as is often the case, parking signs are ambiguous) to limit any empathy I might otherwise feel. These tickets are always dismissed when I plead not guilty online, but on a technicality, so that nothing is ever done about the rampant dishonesty of these agents.
quote:
It’s called “The Lottery.”
i have no problem with the lottery. in a sense it’s a stupid people tax. and usually it’s poor people on public assistance who buy lottery tickets anyway. and most of the lotto revenue goes to good things like schools and welfare. so it’s like they are sorta kinda paying taxes in a sense.
my grandparents used to play lottery. at least 20-30 dollars a day. no wonder we lived in the projects. ridiculous!
*rob*