While Robin was picking me up from work yesterday, waiting in the parking lot right next to the 45th St Plaza, a guy approached the car and knocked on her window at the same time that I arrived at the car. He gave her a parking ticket, but we think it was unjustified.
- she was there maybe 3 minutes
- she was in the car
- the lot was empty
What’s gets me the most is that the guy didn’t have the common courtesy to knock on her window and ask her to move *before* *parking* behind her and writing a ticket. She didn’t notice him parking behind her…
What is the legal definition of “parking?” If she had been driving in circles in the lot, would that have been better? Seems rather ridiculous. What about if she had the car in drive and her foot on the brakes?
The point is, she was *in* the car. We thought parking meant a vehicle left unattended.
She was in the lot because she didn’t want to be in the busy street. It was safer for her to be in the lot.
We did a little research on the parking ticket and it was issued by a private company called Parking Enforcement Services. Turns out they were taken to court by the state attorney general for misrepresenting their authority and for having an arbitrary repeal process.
They have no interest to serve the public, of course; for them collecting payments from their tickets is their business model, which explains why the shithead didn’t just tell Robin to move first. We don’t trust them to listen to our repeal.
So, I threw the ticket away. Was that dumb?