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.”
I agree with ya on KEENE. It seems our state has been in a tug of war for awhile now, red, blue no red wait blue.
Maybe the voter id law will help to solve that.
EXCELLENT post, especially the subtle point about OWS.
(which group, by the way, faded into obscurity rather than gathered steam, because they were alternately owned/disowned
by whichever Interest Group could exploit their thoroughly confused message.) You’re onto something.
it’s funny how various parts of the country treat their citizens so different.
Here in the Texas town I live in not only is all downtown street parking free (with a two hour limit) but the business owners have banded together and formed an organization that makes additional improvements to the area like free parking lots and access to a free shuttle that travels around downtown to make it easier to patronize various downtown businesses while only having to park once.
Ehen I was a member of the Exchange Club, a national service club, our local secretary, a retired banker, was provided with a budget line item for meter change, which he would put into expired meters where the cars had out of state license plates.
He would then insert into their wiper a card that told the story of our city (York, PA), and of our service club.
You’re right, but keep in mind that parking meters have a function that goes way beyond just raising revenue with the meters. In a commercial district, the main purpose of a parking meter with a time limit is to ensure that the parking spaces are vacated frequently — thereby allowing customers to patronize local businesses without getting hindered by local residents (or employees of local businesses) parking in the same spaces for hours or days at a time.
If I keep up my outspoken public dissent against this administration, I will probably be on a chain gang somewhere.
I am no longer a conspiracy theorist. I’m a conspiracy factualist.
seeing your name I though you might be interested
1. The first was in 1981 as I was headed to Ft. Bliss. I put money in the meter and set my stop watch. I return 5 minutes before the expiration, the meter maid had just written the ticket. I point to the meter that still had 5 minutes on it, but the expired flag was there. She just shrugged her shoulders about the meter being broken.
2. I went to New Orleans in 2002, stayed at a Comfort Inn near downtown with valet parking so never parked on a city block. 2 years later I got a parking ticket in the mail with late fees totaling over $150. I can only guess the scumbag Valet Parkers just tore up the ticket. I got NO to rescind the late fees, but still had to pay the fine.
So I am all for these Robin Hoods.
EVERYTHING I’ve been made aware of about Texas in recent years has made me positively LUST to move there at some point when we can swing it. There is simply NO WAY OUT of the stranglehold of high taxes here in this NY/NJ corridor.
Everywhere you turn, you pay through the teeth for the “privilege” of being inconvenienced. The George Washington
Bridge,for example, now costs FOURTEEN DOLLARS TO CROSS, all in order to get into NYC and be subjected to more of Mayor Bloomberg’s fiefdom. The GWB serves as a prime example of
Big Gov in action: decades ago, its initial tolls were put in place only to (presumably) pay for its construction and maintainence, and were a few bucks-—predictably, they have risen year by year from the 2 or 3 dollars they were when I moved here in 1985 to the $14 they are today.
That is exactly the meaning of my freeper name. Most conspiracies are due to overactive imaginations. Others bear a little deeper research. Was 9/11/01 an inside job? Nope. Was 9/11/12 a cover up to hide incompetence, or worse, dereliction of duty that cost 4 American lives? Yep.
My easy solution...if a downtown charges for parking; I don’t shop there. I can find it somewhere else.
That’s a good point.
Great point!
Thanks. In that context, these “Robin Hoods” really aren’t doing anyone a favor.
Flash meter mobs. :-)
??? The meter maids are just doing their job, why should they be harassed ? Why can’t thes people just put the money in and be quiet?
Absolutely
......the pump don’t work cause the vandal took the handle....
How odd our homegrown Ayers bunch took their name from that songs lyrics
I remember it well....5th grade...my folks thought the words strange....lol...they are
But compared to “ water dripping up the spout man I don’t care..let it all hang out”....its lucid
Meters like that would send the movie Cool Hand Luke in an entirely different direction.....
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