Posted on 05/05/2014 12:14:47 PM PDT by PaulCruz2016
KEENE, N.H. — In most places, the parking enforcement officer reflects the municipal compact. Armed only with a gadget that can spit out a ticket at the forgotten drop of a dime, the officer quietly serves civic and commercial life by ensuring that meters are fed.
In most places, yes. But not here in charming Keene, where parking officers figure in a philosophical tug of war between a small band of activists who live by the motto “Free Keene,” and the great majority of residents who were unaware that their city was in bondage.
Keene’s two parking officers, both women, are often videotaped by young adults known as “Robin Hooders.” They track the whereabouts of the officers by two-way radio, feed expired meters before $5 tickets can be written, and leave a business card saying that “we saved you from the king’s tariff.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Libertarians crack me up.
Only loyal readers of the New York Times do not think the citizens of this country are in bondage.
I dont get this. These meter maids aren’t persecuting anyone. You dont feed the meter, you get a ticket.
Although there is nothing illegal about what these people are doing by feeding the machine, they are just slowly going broke doing it.
Your right to free parking ends, where my need to find an open space to park begins.
$5???????? Mine was $35
This kinda stuff is nothing new. Other do-gooders have done this before.
But when they have - THEY are arrested with “interfering” with official police business.
Simply be sticking a quarter in a meter to save someone a ticket.
Luke had the right idea...but then, he was cool :-)
Be cheaper to just fill all the meters with glue.
Oregon:
http://theexpiredmeter.com/2010/01/oregon-man-arrested-for-feeding-strangers-parking-meters/
Los Angeles:
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-10/news/mn-63253_1_parking-meters
I love this! Why should you have to pay rent to the government to park on the street you paid to build? And then be treated like a criminal if you are a second too late in feeding the meter?
This is odd because most libertarians support fee-based services, or at least say they are the least bad form and fairest form of government. The alternative is to charge everyone for maintenance of the parking spaces, by higher taxes.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/14/new-hampshire-city-suing-robin-hood-paying-parking/
The New Hampshire city of Keene is suing “Robin Hood and His Merry Men” — a group that has made a name for itself by putting coins in people’s parking meters before parking enforcement agents can slap them with a ticket.The New Hampshire Union Leader reported this week that the six “Robin Hooders” named in the suit troll downtown Keene — often tracking parking enforcement officers — in search of cars parked at expired meters.
Thanks for those links. I was thinking of going to Snopes for some proof as well. Your links - and there are more I’m sure - are evidence enough of how far gone this country is.
When a freaking meter maid can bust you for sticking a quarter in a meter.....
If you read the article, you see what radical leftists they are, they live the true, open, and unashamed libertarianism that libbers on FR strive to conceal and downplay while trying to promote their agenda to conservatives.
Well, I really didn’t have a problem with either side until the city stepped in to sue them. I guess they have nothing better to do.
The ENTIRE POINT of a parking meter, in the vast majority of cases, is to have people conduct their business and then leave.
For people that actually work at the those businesses (i.e., 9 hour shifts with lunch...maybe 7 hours now, due to Obamacare, but same concept) - they have to park out of the way.
Meter feeders just get in the way.
“Although there is nothing illegal about what these people are doing by feeding the machine, they are just slowly going broke doing it.”
“Jack-ass” had a meter cop tell the actors it was illegal to feed someone else’s meter. Seriously.
“Be cheaper to just fill all the meters with glue.”
Or use a pipe cutter to remove it. They keep relacing it until it is too small to take seriously; then they just leave the sawed-off stump.
Or so I’ve heard...
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