Free Republic

It bears the hallmarks of a classic urban scourge: back-channel sales, assaults on enforcement officials and even death. It is the price of parking in San Francisco. Burdened with one of the densest downtowns in the country and a Californian love for moving vehicles, San Franciscans have been shocked in recent months by crimes related to finding places to park, including an attack in September in which a young man was killed trying to defend a spot he had found. More recently, the victims have been parking control officers — do not call them meter maids — who suffered four...

PEORIA - Three parking tickets and a tow-away sticker had been placed on the sport utility vehicle in which a dead man's body was found last week. Peoria police confirmed someone in the parking-enforcement division had issued the tickets and sticker to the SUV, which was parked illegally on Hamilton Boulevard near Methodist Medical Center. The ticket writer did not see the body of Michael T. Hudson, a 46-year-old Decatur man reported missing Feb. 6, inside the black Mercedes. His body was discovered in the back seat Feb. 9, when someone walked by and noticed a foot against the passenger-side,...