Illegal or Not, You're Still Getting a Parking Ticket

WCBS features one of those completely infuriating stories today that probably led to the origination of the phrase "You can't fight City Hall." It involves NYPD city parking agents willing to issue tickets to vehicles, whether they're legally parked or not. The news report actually videotapes a man receiving a parking ticket from a cop as he is legally parked. When he protests and points to the obvious sign that indicates that he is legally parked, the cop apologizes but says that the ticket is already written and will be dismissed in court.

The WCBS reporter said that the bogus tickets was the result of an NYPD quota that the department placed on traffic agents to generate revenue. That would certainly correspond with the report last week that traffic agents were just randomly jotting down license plate numbers and later assigning them to bogus tickets in order to conceal the fact that they were either sleeping on the job or just not working.

(Image from No parking at all!, by ianqui at flickr)

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By Dave Hogarty in News on August 14, 2007 5:30 PM

Comments [rss]

guest

If I'm not mistaken, the "brownies" have been gone for years and were under the control of the DOT.

Today's "Parking UN-enforcement Officers" are part of the NYPD's Traffic Control Division:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/transportation/parking.html

guest

Fucking Pigs ! See that's why I could never see myself as a Cop ! Their is just to much corruption with in the Department ! If Ur a good Cop trying to do the right thing, Ur not going to get far with the NYPD unless Ur willing to cut angles . I know this because I have a growing number of friends that became Police officers in years past ! They tell me these things and it never surprises me . Poor guy will have too show-up in Traffic Court a couple of months from now and tell the judge that his was legally parked , Prove it ,& Then get the ticket dismissed on "Justification" ! Which is the judges way of saying "The Cop that gave you the ticket should have used there common-sense and not given it to you in the first place, Thus not wasting you, OR the Courts time with this stupid shit ! Posted by; "Still Not Amused"

guest

loser = non-NYer

guest

no car = loser

Aces N Eights

no car = no tickets

Reality Czech

The police are corrupt. The enforce what they want when they want. Is parking within 15 feet of a hydrant any less dangerous at 3AM than at 3PM? I don't think so, yet you will never get a ticket for this at night. Is a truck double-parking less illegal than a passenger car? Is a person double-parking to buy pizza less illegal than a person double-parking to go to church? Look at www.uncivilservants.org or http://nyc.mybikelane.com/ and you'll see the hypocrisy that is the NYPD.

guest

They are the scum of the earth. Just look at them. They are the rejects from the lowest third world countries. They are not part of the NYPD, so they shouldn't dress like they are. Put them in striped uniforms or something more degrading because they are just slimeballs.

Tim N.

I see our out-of-town guests have checked in.

If there are so many lawless drivers in NYC, then why do the brownies have to ticket legal cars to make their quotas? Hmm? Talk what you know.

guest

I call them obese nocturnal bovine.

guest

There should be an automatic disciplinary action for any officer found to have written a certain number of "bogus" tickets within a particular time period. Maybe that will give them pause before they start writing a bogus ticket that "can't be altered".

Monster_mash

I got a ticket a few years back when, after being parked in a perfectly legal spot, some little gremlins came overnight and literally put a new sign over the old one indicating the space was now a construction zone. They didn't bother to wait for the next street cleaning. And why should they have? The gremlins left a parking ticket on every single car on the block... nice. My protest to the court was greeted with $25 off the ticket... what a racket.

BTW, "gremlins", "wombats" or "meter maid" are the appropriate terms for anyone involved in giving out parking tickets in New York.

guest

Half of those brownshirts are probably illegal immigrants to begin with. What do they get paid an hour?

What corruption is there in the FDNY? Drunken firemen crashing their private vehicles is not corruption.

guest

Uh, this has been standard practice for years. I got a ticket for a perfectly legally parked car in NYC the last time I visited. None of the other cars on the street had tickets, just the one with the foreign plate.

JMH

[7], I agree with you, but it's a whole lot less effort to write a ticket for a parked car with nobody in it than a car that's in the middle of an intersection.

guest

right on #7. nyc drivers are completely lawless.

guest

I thought parking tickets are $115? thanks bloomberg.

guest

the sort of comical addition to these stories is when you contest a ticket and before they hear your appeal you get mailed a letter that says basically "ok, so how about we make the fine $35 instead of $60 and call it a day?" at least then to reject their offer you don't have to do anything.

guest

[8] - Summer School???

guest

This reminds me of the time I got a parking ticket in Bay Ridge for parking outside a school where the sign said "No Parking School Days 7am-4pm" in July.

mocanlagunas

Quotas? If the majority of traffic violations (double parking and blocking the box for example...) were ticketed they would have all the money in the world... and people would fucking obey the fucking laws...