London police are refusing to rescind a $145 ticket given to Penny Batkin, 40, who had the audacity to pull to the pavement to jump out to resuscitate her severely disabled son, Freddie, 4.
Baktkin was driving to a hospice in the emergency. The Richmond Council’s parking office later refused even when told of the circumstances. While disabled activists are seeking merely to have the ticket rescinded, they should be pushing for an officer to be removed from the force.
Of course, we have seen similar acts of utter disregard and cruelty from our own officers, as in the recent Boston case.
Thanks for creating a link to the Stony Brook parking vigilantes story.
Amusing, but still doesn’t do it justice.
Eight years after I graduated from College and received my official diploma, my request for a transcript was held up for failing to pay $265 in campus parking tickets. I had paid these, but it took me a month to reach the man who was campus Dean at the time I was an undergraduate (he had gone to another school)and convince him to contact my(his)former school and attest that the tickets had been paid. My proof was the Diploma I was issued, which I never would have gotten unless I had paid my fines prior to graduation. The university incidentally was a Long Island “Commuter” School which had parking for 3,000 and a student body of 6,000 and where you couldn’t park on the surrounding community’s streets. With the Stony Brook article I see that decades later the farce continues in a similar type of school. It is interesting too that College costs have risen at about 5x the rate of inflation.
As to the London case, which is typical of many cases the Professor posts, I suggest a new film series titled: Officals
Gone Wild,” which while giving less anatomical exposure would mimic the effort of the “Girls Gone Wild” and “Jackass” genre.
So, uh, I guess they got retarded cops in England too. Huh.
MikeS:
that is a very good idea, you could sell millions. Interview those simple minded SOB’s and put them on the internet.
I cannot believe that such incompassionate people actually exist in the UK now. I daresay some will say I’m being naive but how could any UK authority possibly employ such a person and also how could they as an authority respond in such a fashion? Both Richmond Council and their Parking Officer should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. I believe “what goes around, comes around”, and hopefully one day they will receive their just deserts.