MARCH
13, 2007 --
U.S.
Senator Barack Obama was in Manhattan, March 9, for a fundraiser
and LPR went to the event to photograph this candidate for
the 2008 Democratic
nomination for president.
LPR's interest had not been heightened by word that the candidate had just settled
payment on old parking tickets.
The reported payment, $375 for 15 tickets, including penalties, amounted to $25
a ticket: chicken-feed in Manhattan, where parking tickets range from $65 to
$115 --before penalties kick in.
(Towing charges, extra, of course.)
Had the junior senator from Illinois incurred those tickets in Manhattan, his
car would likely have been grabbed by
city marshals, years ago.
It is fair to conclude, from this perch, that Sen. Obama has no idea how brutal
New York's city hall is in using parking fines
as a form of alternate taxation.
(The LPRmobile might soon be seized by marshals, again, but this time, of course,
Shana will not be in the car.)
That grab of the LPRmobile with Shana in it is perhaps the kind of thing one
would have expected of the East German state police, not of agents of a democratic
government.
Apparently where, in the 18th century we
had "taxation without representation," now we have "representation
without democratization."
The accompanying photos include one of a sign on West Street pointing drivers
to the PVB pound. (*"Pound" is most appropriate: PVB does, after all,
pound
motorists who are probably the largest class of despised people in New York City
-- given their shabby treatment by officials.)
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Directions
to the pound …
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It is not clear why there should be an arrow to the pound for drivers whose cars
have been towed. Perhaps the arrow is for those of us who WALK up West Street
to retrieve our seized property.
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In
the reception area …
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Patience
is a virtue …
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Also
shown are signs that are posted in the PVB pound's reception area.
Not shown is the sign advising that the towing charge for cars is
$185 and the charge for heavy vehicles is $370.
LPR plans to post more photos of the Obama fundraiser next week. The photo
posted here shows Senator Obama
obscured by a hand.
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Senator
Barack Obama and palm …
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This
photo is coincidentally consistent with the block the Obama press
desk threw on LPR and other photographers with NYPD press IDs saying "Independent."
Indeed, after barring LPR from entering the Grand Hyatt ballroom, the Obama
staff
despatched a volunteer to deliver the message that LPR must leave the outer
area.
(LPR and other excluded photographers later returned and entered the ballroom
at the end of the candidate's pep talk to his supporters.)
LPR has no reason to believe that a rival candidate infiltrated the Obama press
operation to try and antagonize media "independents." That would
be an
interesting political "dirty trick," though.
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