Saturday, May 30, 2009

Parking officers act like they're above the law

From the Daily News:

Parking enforcement agents are parking their own cars at meters all day long in Westchester Square without paying.

Instead, they put a folded field inspection form on the dashboard to identify their vehicles to their fellow agents, who ignore the expired parking meters.

"It's a theft of city services," said a frustrated John Bonizio, president of the Association of the Merchants & Business Professionals of Westchester Square. "They believe they're above the law and do not have to comply with the requirements of every other privately owned vehicle in the city of New York."

He and other merchants have complained for years about loss of business because of overzealous parking enforcement agents - and more lately, government agencies hogging the meters.

On a recent day, Bronx Boro News found eight private vehicles parked at expired meters on St. Raymond's Ave. in Westchester Square with the folded field inspection forms on the dashboard.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice

Anonymous said...

I also remember seeing traffic agents hanging out in the Trump building in Manhattan and shopping during work hours with their uniforms on during the eighties.

After they spent a couple of hours hanging out, they would blitz every nearby car with tickets, whether they were parked illegally or not and leave it to the drivers to fight it out in court.

Frank said...

This abuse is incredibly annoying. Cops in my neighborhood do this all the time with their private vehicles. Areas that are marked "No Parking" for safety reasons are not "cop parking".

I have to disagree with John Bonizio, though. Parking spots are not a service the city provides. Parking meters were originally installed in commercial areas in order to keep cars moving and keep parking open. The city eventually decided that meters and, more importantly the fines from not paying at a meter, were a source of income. These parking officers are assholes and should be punished like non-officers do but calling a parking spot a "city service" isn't accurate and is a dangerous precedent to set.

Anonymous said...

Cops killing cops in Manhattan (124th and 2nd avenue). These people are power hungry megalomaniacs.

Anonymous said...

Cops killing cops in Manhattan (124th and 2nd avenue). These people are power hungry megalomaniacs.

Anonymous said...

Traffican-Americans.