"Don't follow leaders/Watch your parking meters"
Posted on 05/18/2013 3:52:34 AM PDT by billorites
A group of self-styled Robin Hoods who scamper around the streets of a New Hampshire city and feed expired parking meters for strangers has been hit with a harassment lawsuit.
The city of Keene says its three parking inspectors have been taunted, insulted and followed by the group — to the point that one of them says he has suffered heart palpitations and is thinking about quitting his job.
In its lawsuit, the city is asking a court to order the group not to come within 50 feet of the parking inspectors.
The suit names six defendants, most of them bloggers for Free Keene, which describes itself on its Facebook page as “your connection to the liberty activism movement in New Hampshire.”
One of the six, Ian Freeman, told NBC News that “The Robin Hooders have always been courteous in my experience” and pointed out that the city has not charged them criminally with harassment.
“The city is upset because they are losing revenue and are coming up with anything they can to try to stop it,” he said.
He also noted that the city’s job description for parking inspectors, included as part of the lawsuit, requires that inspectors “endure verbal and mental abuse when confronted with the hostile views and opinions of the public.”
The city attorney in Keene did not immediately respond to a call for comment from NBC News.
After they feed a meter, members of the group place a card on the windshield of the car that says: “We saved you from the king’s tariffs. Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Please consider paying it forward.” The card features the Disney depiction of Robin Hood as a fox.
The group has fans in Keene, a city of about 23,000 near the Massachusetts state line.
“My husband had it a few weeks ago,” Pam Stetzer told NBC affiliate WHDH in Boston. “He was just running a little late in one of the stores … and when he came back he had the little card there saying they had put a little extra money in for him. It definitely saved him.”
Another member of the group, James Cleaveland, told The New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper that the group has stopped the inspectors from writing about 4,000 tickets.
The three parking inspectors, in affidavits filed with the lawsuits, say that the taunts from the group have ranged from accusations of racism to basic trash-talk.
One of the inspectors, Linda Desruisseaux, said that one of the six liked to taunt her by saying, “Linda, guess what you’re not going to do today — write tickets.”
"Don't follow leaders/Watch your parking meters"
My thoughts exactly.
Recently there was a thread about shortened yellow-lights, to induce tickets from red-light cameras.
Are these parking meters digital? If they are do they keep accurate time or do they run fast?
this is the part that will really get them in trouble. wait til disney hears about it.
Parking meters = parking tax collected with the same zeal as the IRS targets conservatives for audit.
I got a 20 dollar ticket at 6:00pm for being at one of them. The meters are supposed to stop at 5:00 when people got out of work, but they found that keeping some until 6 would nab a nice cash shot because most of us have no idea that they would have done something like this.
The fact that they think they are Robin Hood is hilarious. These left wing blogger morons vote for Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham every election.
As for the hatred of parking meters I'm ambivalent. Should we tax everyone or just people who can't tell time?
These Robin Hood guys are RACIST!
Consider, though: if there were no parking meters, how hard would it be to find a place to park?
These are refugees from the ‘Free State Project’...Keene is their ‘headquarters’ for all intents and purposes, since the influx of rude/arrogant New Yorkers (spit) has muted their influence in the rest of the state. ‘Free State’, my *ss...more government regulation in Red Hampshire than I have seen anywhere.
This is Communism folks. Backwards reasoning to confuse citizens.
Maybe Americans are so uneducated that they have no idea what Communism even is.
Most Americans have been told that anybody using the word Communism are Nuts, Loons,
and Crazy insane political hacks who are dangerous and must be ignored or stopped.
They are being told this in Schools, Colleges and in the biased Media.
Keene is a communist out post in Western NH. There is an ongoing war between the commies at Keene State and the local politburo in City Gov and a fairly large Libertarian population.
Now, now...can't damage the self-esteem of your haughty and arrogant New England government overlords...they are 'parking inspectors'. ROTFLMAOPIMP!
What we have here, is failure, to communicate.
failure to communicate.....
Three full time ticket writers for a city of only 23,000? That seems excessive! Each one must clear his cost in tickets each year. That is an insane amount of tribute collected from only 23000 people . No wonder they’re revolting!
Sounds like jist ol fashion Thugery to me.
the criminals are in control.
I haven’t gotten a parking ticket in probably 8 years or so, but that’s only because I got so many of them so consistently that I decided I just HAD to make sure I had plenty of quarters in my pocket whenever I had a job in the grinding, traffic-clogged burg of FT. LEE, NEW JERSEY, which was very often , since I had a bunch of regular customers who had various Real Estate there. There would be one scrawny little 60ish woman who would visit and re-visit cars along the business district strip, and make sure to get there THE MINUTE the meter expired. There are ALWAYS meters that don’t work, that swallow your quarters, and happen also to be the only vacant meters in the immediate area,leaving you with the choice of just taking your chances or driving around for ten minutes until you can find another meter reasonably close to where you have to go. This is in a town
which built a VAST public parking lot, using taxpayer dollars, in the middle of the business district, manned by automatic machines that require you to punch in your parking space number, feed the appropriate # of quarters, receive your little ticket, and place it in your windshield where the meter maid can see it. In best Big Gov tradition, your tax dollars are being used directly to punish, fine and MAKE YOU PAY AND PAY AGAIN. A self-enclosed circle of futility for the taxpayer, which is enough to make anyone crazy, and very very pissed off over time, because there is NOTHING behind it except extortion, and the funding of more and more
“projects” like this, which serve as successful examples of
the stranglehold they have citizens in.
“We saved you from the king’s tariffs. Robin Hood and his Merry Men. “
THIS is why the town is mad. They HATE it when we stop being sheep.
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