Federal judge orders car returned to homeless man struggling to pay parking tickets

[John61CT]

Sean Kayode, a homeless person hustling to make ends meet in San Francisco unsurprisingly received a lot of parking tickets, in San Francisco. Naturally, the best way for San Francisco to secure payment was to seize his method of earning money. A federal judge has ordered the car be returned, for now.

Article
http://www.sfexaminer.com/judge-orders-sf-return-impounded-car-homeless-man/

 

[JuliaAnne2018]

Interesting.

Sent from my RS500 using Tapatalk

 

[Moxadox]

You'd think the shelter would have some kind of parking arrangement, since so many homeless people live in cars. With the wealth imbalance we have today, I'm sure this parking ticket problem is going to mushroom.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[RoamerRV428]

oh yea this type of problem will mushroom out of control. already starting definitely.

 

[travelaround]

San Francisco parking is insane. First of all, it is very difficult to find a parking space. Second, even if you get one, you have to move your car on a specified day of the week for the street cleaner. If you forget to move your car, you get a ticket. Same in Oakland, where I lived back in the early 1990's - I got three tickets for forgetting to move my car to the opposite side of the street on that special day when their street cleaner comes through. It is a racket. I finally gave the car away so I wouldn't have the problem anymore.

 

[John61CT]

Totally standard for big dense cities worldwide. Keep moving, no long term storage.

In many a parking spot is worth lots more than $3000 a month.

The sensible solution is to eliminate private vehicles, not just using taxes to discourage their use.

But the US is stoopid about bicycling and public transportation.

And our homeless "crisis", now accepted as "normal" is an immoral abomination.

 

[DannyB1954]

When taking calls in San Francisco many of us trades people would add the cost of the ticket to the customers bill. If you wanted to park within a mile of the place you were servicing, you were bound to get a ticket. Customers understood as otherwise we could not take the call and their business would suffer. They had no place for us to park while we worked on their equipment.

 

[John61CT]

Then fast wheel boots and a call to tow it away becomes necessary.

I had my truck towed within 15min of the deadline in NYC, had to wait til Monday, then took seven hours and $650++ to get it back.

 

[Moxadox]

Yup. I had my car towed in Boston, making a house call at 6 a.m., had signs all over the car (medical lab). Came out of the patient's house with freshly drawn blood to find them hooking up my car, they wouldn't stop, even at the sign of the white coat and blood samples. Wouldn't let me get my stuff out either. They enjoyed my distress thoroughly....bunch of sadists.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[LivingTheDream]

you should have called the cops, in a medical emergency you are allowed to have priority.  you probably should have left your emergency flashers on though.

 

[highdesertranger]

and they should have allowed you to get your stuff. they are towing your vehicle not confiscating your personal property. highdesertranger

 

[John61CT]

Yes in some places might still find cops that would help out in that situation.

Media exposure for the towing company would have been good too.

Problem is the incentives built in all the way up the line, highest profits go to the biggest dickwads.

 

[Moxadox]

The cops were there...flashers were on. They considered my distress and protestations to be good fun! Boston area cops are notorious for the towing scam. One of my cars was out-and-out STOLEN by the Summerville police. That ring was eventually busted, but my '56 Bellaire was long gone by then.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[highdesertranger]

that's messed up. highdesertranger

 

[RVTravel]

Take a persons vehicle and you may severely limit their ability to hold a job, depending on their commute. A viscious cycle.

 

[John61CT]

Yes, see the brutal gang within Baltimore's police? Oakland too, underage sexworker out in the station parking lot.

Seems a huge challenge to get things under control once impunity's spread through the culture.

 

[travelaround]

When my son started driving a semi, he worked for Swift for two years. He drove across the country to Tennessee and parked at a place that was advertised as a truck stop - it turned out to be a gas station with a small bit of truck parking behind it, with a McDonald's next door.

He pulled in late at night and parked next to another semi. In the morning, he walked to the McDonald's for breakfast and to use the WiFi. When he finished his breakfast he walked back to his truck, and saw someone hooking a tow truck to it! The truck right next to him had left, and behind where that truck was, there was a no parking sign he'd never seen before.

The tow truck driver made him pay over 300 dollars on the spot, for a towing fee in order to get them to disconnect from his semi.

Another racket... I wonder if that no parking sign was even there until they decided to make money off the unsuspecting truck driver.

 

[Moxadox]

In the Boston case, the po-po were getting kickbacks from the towing companies. In Summerville they were simply selling the vehicles that were towed into the police lot.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[Dingfelder]

In the Boston case, the po-po were getting kickbacks from the towing companies.  In Summerville they were simply selling the vehicles that were towed into the police lot.

The Dire Wolfess

I don't know what's more distressing, to read of this kind of depraved corruption over and over again, or to read the denials of it.

I don't think the police are any worse than anyone else, but I think there's plenty of both proof and reason to believe that they quite often are not any better, and sometimes play a part in systems that are terrifying.

Is it possible to support people without trusting them?  I try to trust, and am always cooperative and polite to anyone and everyone I meet to the best of my ability, just as a moral principle.  But it's not a world in which one can realistically expect that trust nor that goodwill might reliably be rewarded. A good deal of it is going to have to be counted as a loss up-front before one gets down to the heart of the matter.

 

[John61CT]

Dunno man, an armed gang granted the effective power to arbitrarily kill, backed up by the state.

They will demand my obedience.

Not sure they care about my respect.