Monday, November 30, 2009

8 grand in the hole

Former Towson student travels from Texas to ask a city judge to relieve her of an $8000 parking ticket debt. City council hearing to cap the fees scheduled for next week.
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10 comments:

ppatin said...

I had a rather interesting Friday night/Saturday early morning going on a police ride-along in DC. Apparently cold weather really does prevent hoodlumery, much to my surprise.

Mon Nov 30, 08:18:00 AM EST
ppatin said...

Two hoodlums at MCI-Hagerstown were stabbed this weekend. Sounds like both stabbings were non-fatal.

Mon Nov 30, 09:38:00 AM EST
Maurice Bradbury said...

if you write anything about the ride-along, send a link, would be interested to hear how it contrasts with, say, Justin Fenton's time in Brixton

Mon Nov 30, 09:42:00 AM EST
ppatin said...

It was actually a pretty uneventful evening. There were a couple of traffic stops for people driving like idiots (both were let off with warnings), an old lady who called 911 because her house was too hot (they suggested that she turn the thermostat down from the 80 degrees it was set at...), a noise complaint and a call for a stolen car.

There were two vaguely exciting moments. One was a call for a suspicious person on a bicycle. He ended up being a 16-year old who was out after DC's midnight youth curfew (what the hell kind of parent lets a 16-year old wander the streets of DC at 2:30 AM?) so they took him back to the station and from there to his grandmother's place.

The other bit of excitement was catching a couple knuckleheads on a stolen dirt bike who ended up being arrested for felony theft. One of those two fools started bitching about chest pain when he was taken back to the station. They called EMS for him, but when it was pointed out that a trip to the ER would result in him missing that day's bail hearing his chest pains mysteriously vanished.

Mon Nov 30, 09:57:00 AM EST
ppatin said...

Oh, one thing that did surprise me was the huge number of man-hours taken up with paperwork. IMO the best way to increase the number of cops who're actually out on the street doing police work would be to cut back on the bureaucracy they have to deal with.

Mon Nov 30, 10:00:00 AM EST
ppatin said...

Slate has an interesting piece on the logic behind the "we don't offer abortions" bill that the city council passed.

Mon Nov 30, 10:23:00 AM EST
Maurice Bradbury said...

Great article, thanks for posting. It may have changed my mind-- it sounds like the false-advertising thing would be nearly impossible to enforce, whereas a sign is pretty straightforward-- you have it up or you don't. I wonder if the AG who replaced Spitzer has kept at trying to enforce those consent decrees.
If those "scripts" have withstood legal challenges, then signs could potentially withstand challenges. We shall see...

Mon Nov 30, 11:16:00 AM EST
ppatin said...

Assuming Sheila Dixon ends up signing the No Abortions law, who would be responsible (or more importantly, who would foot the bill) for defending that law in court when the inevitable legal challenge occurs? Does the Maryland Attorney General's Office defend local laws when their constitutionality is challenged, or is that the responsibility of the city?

Mon Nov 30, 12:08:00 PM EST
Maurice Bradbury said...

I guess that would be a job for the City Solicitor.

Mon Nov 30, 12:12:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...

"what the hell kind of parent lets a 16-year old wander the streets of DC at 2:30 AM?) so they took him back to the station and from there to his GRANDMOTHER's place."

ppatin, you answered your own question in the above quote.

Mon Nov 30, 10:01:00 PM EST

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