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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.
One of the inspectors, Linda Desruisseaux, said that one of the six liked to taunt her by saying, Linda, guess what youre not going to do today write tickets.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anchorage-Parking-Fairie/249891492847
Linny Pacillo Parking Garage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The garage is named after Carolyn "Linny" Pacillo (September 2, 1959 - November 17, 2006). Her family operated Courtney's Tudor Service on East Tudor Road, which was one of the very last remaining independent gas stations in Anchorage. The Pacillo family sold the station in 2003, which has since gone out of business. Linny Pacillo, along with her sister Susan, became pop heroes in Anchorage (and later elsewhere) by donning tutus and plugging parking meters downtown to protest strict parking enforcement. They were dubbed The Parking Fairies. State Senator Johnny Ellis, a Democrat whose district includes downtown Anchorage, sponsored the bill naming the garage for Pacillo. The Anchorage Assembly approved the name in February 2007.
Pacillo and her sister, Susan Pacillo, dressed in pink tutus and black tights to become the "parking fairies" who wedged coins into meters. Their campaign in the 1990s helped inspire a 1997 referendum that limited handing out parking tickets to sworn police officers, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Read more: Anchorage 'parking fairy' dies - UPI.com
Leave it to the north east yankees to spend millions suing people to get nickles and dimes. It must be the old Puritan heritage that emerges from time to time.
The lawsuit concerns harassment, not feeding parking meters.
If the Robin Hoods were to go about their business, saving motorists from tickets in a respectful manner, this wouldnt be an issue.
And working as a parking inspector is neither useless nor unproductive, as all forms of employment have worth and dignity.
Its sad and telling this is what the libertarian movement has come to: the pointless and unwarranted harassment of city employees simply doing their jobs.
The lawsuit concerns harassment, not feeding parking meters.
The lawsuit concerns harassment, not feeding parking meters.
Right. NOW - if, on the other hand, the lawsuit was about preventing the city from making money on parking meter fines, then I might feel differently about it.
I have always felt that traffic enforcement is less about public safety and more about governmental revenue. If it was the former, then if there was never another traffic ticket ever written again because, suddenly, everyone begins obeying the traffic laws, the cities should be very happy. Of course, I don't think they would be, because while there would be no more traffic accidents or traffic violations, they would also not be making any more money on this particular aspect of governmental oversight.
This raises an interesting issue. Is feeding expired parking meters the same thing as putting up a big sign that says "Warning - Traffic Enforcement Hiding Behind Billboard in Next Block"?
Yes, telling someone they're not going to be able to do their job because you're going to fill people's meters is "harassment."
Regardless, yes, there are unproductive jobs. Those jobs which are not created by the free market but rather by the government, which must take resources from their best possible use, are indeed unproductive. If they were productive the market would supply them.
Yes, telling someone they're not going to be able to do their job because you're going to fill people's meters is "harassment."
No, it isn't. The way you put it, it sounds like the Robin Hoods are standing in front of the parking meters, physically preventing the ticket writers from doing their jobs. That may happen sometimes but, I would suspect, most of the time, the Robin Hoods just stick a coin in an unexpired meter when the ticket writers aren't even there. That is not "telling" anybody anything, and it is certainly not harassment.
Regardless, yes, there are unproductive jobs. Those jobs which are not created by the free market but rather by the government, which must take resources from their best possible use, are indeed unproductive. If they were productive the market would supply them.
This is one of the most distorted arguments I have ever heard. Last time I looked, your beloved "free market" is not in the business of enforcing parking regulations - that's the job of the government, usually a city municipality. And since when do we define productive jobs as only those that are created by the "free market"? I guess, by your test here, police officer would be an unproductive job - for that matter, so would the job of being President of the United States.
