Cameras Capture Illegally Parked Cops

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MSNBC | August 17, 2007

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By Bob Sullivan

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world

"Jimmy Justice" shoves his camera in the face of a New York City parking enforcement officer who left her car in front of a fire hydrant. He starts filming and he taunts her."You're supposed to be enforcing the law, and here you're breaking the law," he says with all the outrage he can muster after his camera caught her shopping at a drug store while parked by the hydrant. "What do you have to say for yourself?"She rolls up the window and drives away, but not before offering the traditional New York single-fingered farewell wave.Jimmy Justice -- he keeps his real name a secret for obvious reasons -- stalks New York streets looking for official parking cheaters to film. Finding them never takes long. "Justice" talked to MSNBC.com as long as we promised not to reveal his identity."Writing summonses is not about public safety; it's about revenue," says the vigilante. "These people are tax collectors. It makes the whole system into a big joke when they violate laws."(He also appeared Friday morning on NBC's Today show..)If you've ever seen a cop break the law with seeming impunity, you'll cheer Jimmy Justice when you find his video clips on YouTube. The confrontations are irresistible. ("I'm good at pushing other people's buttons," the 36-year-old budding filmmaker says.) In one clip, he shows a parking officer buying food at a deli while her car is parked at a hydrant. All the while, fire engines roar in the background; there's a fire down the block."You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" he screams as she returns to her car. She walks away without responding. "Justice" says he's got 28 hours of video showing enforcement officers shopping at places like Victoria's Secret while double-parked or leaving their cars at bus stops.The use of video cameras to catch misbehaving police officers has a long, controversial history. Most readers will remember the video of the Rodney King beating, which ultimately led to the 1993 Los Angeles race riots. But "CopWatch' projects date back at least to the 1960s and a project conceived by the Black Panthers to document racially motivated police abuse. Many cities around the country still have cop watch-style programs devoted to filming arrests to ensure fair treatment of suspects.While those videos exposed dramatic police brutality, the YouTube phenomenon has taken video patrolling of patrol officers down a notch, enabling videographers to document everyday "above the law" behavior.There is nothing violent about unfair parking ticket policies, but they do evoke emotionally charged responses.Jimmy Justice is just one online vigilante seeking to expose those who park "above the law." A New York City-based Web site named UncivilServants.org is dedicated exposing official abuse of city parking passes by government workers. It encourages residents to send in photographs of illegally parked city cars, which it publishes anonymously."There is a culture of misuse that has evolved over generations," said Wiley Norvell, communications director for the site. "People are clamoring (for justice). This is a huge problem."In a recent entry, titled "No Standing Anytime ... that includes haircuts," the site published a photo of a private car with a city permit parked illegally near a hair salon."I personally witnessed the driver pull into the spot and walk into Astor Hair. I happened to be getting a haircut there too," the writer said.UnCivilServants.org is designed to embarrass city hall officials into clamping down on illegal parking. It's run by Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit group that advocates cycling and mass transportation. Having residents anonymously submit photographs allows them to report "above the law" behavior without fear of retribution. That's a serious concern, Jimmy Justice says, claiming he's been punched and pushed around by cops he's filmed, though he provided no video evidence of that.UnCivilServants.org, launched in April, goes to great lengths to expose the illegal parkers, in some cases filing Freedom of Information Act requests to identify the drivers and report them to managers.The site also gives law enforcement officials a chance to explain their behavior; many have offered comments explaining the need to park illegally while performing official duties."We had a real dialog with the community," Norvell said.Anyone who's ever received a parking ticket will think "turnabout is fair play," and visitors who watch Jimmy Justice embarrass city officials risks developing a serious case of schadenfreude. But these turn-the-tables sites are not inevitably successful. A similar blog named Arlingtonparking.blogspot.com, based in the Washington D.C. suburb, caused a ruckus for area officials back in 2006, then went silent in the fall. Attempts to reach its author were unsuccessful.Still, seeing the popularly of the Jimmy Justice videos and UnCivilServants.org Web site shows many drivers may be reaching the boiling point over parking tickets and their use as a revenue-producing tax -- rather than a legal instrument -- by local government officials. New York City collects close to $600 million in ticket revenue each year, and wrote 10 million tickets. Los Angeles collects $110 million.Apparently not all of that money results from traffic and parking violations.Recently, four New York City parking officials were arrested for writing false tickets in order to reach pre-ordained quotas. A recent story by WCBS featured video of a police officer writing a ticket for a resident parked in a legal spot.In L.A., the city recently admitted it makes 100 to 150 clerical errors every day, issues tickets to the wrong drivers and collects more than $1 million each year from those who pay the undeserved fines.Recipients who don't want to go to court had little recourse but to grit their teeth and pay the fines -- until now.Now they can turn to video vigilantes like Jimmy Justice or join the movement -- if not for justice, at least for a little satisfaction."I want to inform civilians that they are allowed to make complaints against rogue officers," Justice says. "I don't want people to misunderstand that I am against police. I am against police who abuse their authority."

Submitted by admin on December 18, 2007 - 16:59. categories [ ]