Brickbat: This Doesn't Add Up

Photographerlondon / Dreamstime.com

When Bob and Sandi Durell got a $100 fine from New York City for two parking tickets, they were puzzled. They don't own a car. They sold the one they did own in 2013. The tickets were written to a vehicle with their old license plate, but they'd turned it in when they sold the car, and it was supposed to have been destroyed. They sent the paperwork showing they'd sold their car in along with the receipt they got when they turned in their tag. The city cancelled one ticket but said they'd still have to pay the other. After a local TV station got involved, the city cancelled the second ticket, too.

Comments

[MSimon]

Addiction is a symptom of PTSD. Look it up.

Dr. Lonny Shavelson found that 70% of female heroin addicts were sexually abused in childhood.

And yet you never see this information when Reason or any other major or semi-major site discusses "addiction" or the heroin "epidemic".

[Fist of Etiquette]

So you're saying that bureaucrats at the NYS DMV are addicted to giving drivers the runaround because they have PTSD? I don't know.

[MSimon]

I don't know.

More study is required.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hit the Kochs up for some grant money.

[gaoxiaen]

Umm... okay.

[Verbum Vincet]

All you anti-government clowns should at least give credit where it's due: the city tried to be cordial and split the difference with these querulous, petulant citizens. Behold! I've long suspected the NYC government was, at heart, a truly righteous and magnanimous government!

[Jerryskids]

Credit to the couple though, they knew you never take the first offer.

[Cyto]

You snark, but this is actually the way they often work.

I've seen this happen personally... I had a ticket for running a red light with reasonable proof that it was in error. The DA offered to drop the ticket if I would pay a $100 civil penalty. In other words, the state just wanted the cash.

I also had code enforcement come after me when a contractor failed to file a permit for a driveway resurfacing. Not only did they want their fee, they have it set up so that only contractors licensed in the county can pull a permit - so one of their cronies gets to charge a pretty big vig as well.

[Cyto]

It was through that process that I learned about the negotiations for a big shipping depot for FedeX. One of the guys I dealt with had a contract to do the parking lot - he was charging about a quarter million. The city wanted a quarter million for the permit. Basically they just looked at the name "FedEx" and said... yup, they are good for a quarter million. They negotiated down to what was still nearly 6 figures. For a permit.

The city also wanted a $45k fee to allow me to add a second floor to my house. The whole project had about a 100k budget. The city was just looking at all the people flipping houses and making $50k or $100k and decided they wanted that sweet, sweet cash for themselves. So the project never got done. Nice.

[Longtobefree]

Procedures were followed.

(editorial comment: the couple shoudl have taken the money from selling the car and left town)

[Old Mexican - Mostly Harmless]

After a local TV station got involved, the city cancelled the second ticket, too.

That sounds like a rackett, doesn't it? I wonder if it is...

New York City...

Well, what about that? I was right. It IS a rackett!

[gaoxiaen]

You never know. Most people would just pay the money instead of the chance of getting SWATted.

[Don't look at me.]

It isn't written in stone that it won't happen.

[AustinRoth]

If dead and non-existent people can vote in NYC, why can't real, living people get tickets for non-existent cars?

Two sides of the same coin it seems to me.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

If I, my contentious self, were involved in this transaction, I would have to question: "So how is it you "forgive" one bogus ticket but not the other? If one is invalid on the grounds that is not my car, then why not the other one as well?" To which they would reply FYTW. Then I would appeal the decision, just to be a pain in the ass, and take it as high up the sycophantic food chain as possible until is cost them several thousand to deal with it. is that not a form of civil disobedience?

[Longtobefree]

That is a form of having every cop in New York putting you on "the list".
You would become a charter member of the ticket of the week club. There is always something.

[Trollificus]

The members of the bureaucratariat are thus kept ungainfully employed. It's a win for them. And no, it is not "more work for them" because they will approach your appeals with the same lackadaisical 'don't give a shit' attitude as they would any other 'work' they encounter during their slow roll towards collecting a sweet pension.

[Curly4]

The efficiency of government! But government knows how to handle your money better than you do. And that is why they want to get all of your money that they can.