Comments on: Free Parking Addicts Resort to Placard Smash-and-Grabs

By: roy

roy — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:06:20 +0000

As an fdny ff, I can attest that an FD parking placard does not allow one “free parking” or even a professional courtesy from meter maids.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:05:04 +0000

Jonathan, I see what you’re saying, but selling stolen property is selling stolen property, regardless of what purpose you say you’re selling it for. If the powers that be are serious about curbing abuse, they should be looking at every one of these listings.

By: ddartley

ddartley — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:57:17 +0000

anonymous, If cops’ BADGES were made to also be rfid tags that could open any and every MTA entrance point, that might be more effective in coaxing some of them to use transit rather than drive than the present system of free metrocards, which must surely be cumbersome to administrate. Metrocards also get left at home, forgotten about, and/or lost. Cops’ badges don’t quite suffer as much neglect, I’m sure.

(This system should one day get rolled out for all emergency responders, not just cops, of course.)

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:33:26 +0000

By the way, “socialscientist”, this will not in any way go away with free public transit. Cops already have free access to the subway and bus systems, and yet they are among the most prolific users and abusers of parking placards.

By: vnm

vnm — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:30:09 +0000

You’ve gotta be pretty ballsy or pretty insane to break into a cop’s or firefighter’s personal car.

What happens to the person whose car is broken into?

He or hse gets a new placard and a “geez, that sucks, sorry about your window” from their supervisor.

Now there are two nearly identical placards floating around out there, one legit, one stolen but still looking valid.

What does it cost to fix a car window?

What is the annual value of free parking anywhere, any time, for one’s spouse?

Anybody else thinking what I’m thinking?

By: Innocent

Innocent — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:09:45 +0000

Why should anyone be able to park when they’re not on duty – and if they’re on duty, wouldn’t they be using the official car? What is the ostensible reason for the placards?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:49:15 +0000

Again, I think the best way to do this is muni-meters everywhere and instead of a placard you give the current legal placard holders a free card to use at any muni-meter location. They would put the receipt in the window just like everyone else.

If you don’t have a legal card, then you don’t get free parking period.

Take the parking enforcement officer out of the decision-making role on which violations to ticket. You either have a valid receipt or not.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:56:27 +0000

A cop wouldn’t want a sticker since that would only let them illegally park one car…they want portability and to be able to abuse the law in any car they are in.

By: Sam Clifford

Sam Clifford — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:30:57 +0000

Can’t do a sticker on the windscreen?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:20:05 +0000

Josh, I checked the auction site and the item copy (for a NYPD window decal, but same idea as the placard) says, "For collection purposes only." All those sites cater ostensibly to police-paraphernalia buffs and people who just want to "support local law enforcement." But you and I know what's really going on.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:05:45 +0000

Wouldn’t it be easy to, I don’t know, catch the people who are doing this since they’re parking cars in public with placards that aren’t theirs, or selling them on ebay (which is traceable)?

By: socialscientist

socialscientist — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Komanoff, add this to your list of what goes away with free public transit.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:59:26 +0000

Mark, the whole point of the placard is that the driver leaves it in the motorcar in plain view, so the traffic bunny moves on to the next illegally parked car.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:53:55 +0000

Or the placard owner could simply take it with him, as people already do with car stereos and GPS units. This should not be used as an excuse to re-expand the number of placards.