FEBRUARY 18, 2008 --

It happened again to the LPRmobile.  This loyal car was grabbed once again by a city marshal in connection with claims for parking fines -- and towed from Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan miles away to a pound in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.  

The tow happened less than a week after I received a four page letter from the New York City Department of Finance advising me how to arrange a payment plan for fines, It was my intention to contact Finance on February 7; the car was taken the evening of February 6.

It was not possible to learn car's location by phone. A taped voice apologized for the "inconvenience" this lack of information caused. The location was learned next morning via the internet.

A sign on the fence around the pound suggests that the these cars have been towed because the owners "scoff" at parking tickets.  LPR wonders that the "GOTCHA TOWING INC."  sign on the fence points to the real source of scoffing -- scoffing of City Hall towards motorists.  

Who is really scoffing at whom?

After taking photos outside the pound, LPR took a few photos near the redemption area and was ordered to stop.  After paying for the car's release, LPR was about to take photos of the pound through a space at the pound's gate and was stopped by someone who threatened to take the camera and break it.  

Apparently, at a city marshal's car pound, there is no right of the public to know.  LPR despairs that the powerful media of New York City has any interest in knowing about the "gotcha"  parking fine enforcement policies of the City of New York

Three years ago, when the LPRmobile was first towed (with Shana inside), this writer pointed out that there was no information where the judgment originated, how the tow order was issued -- nor even how the car was spotted.  

Given the nighttime tow on this occasion, LPR thinks that cars are spotted by some form of high-tech device.  Indeed, LPR is amazed by the application of high-tech methods of issuing tickets -- in seconds: another form of "gotcha", compared to the continued low tech means of road maintenance and traffic signals.

Under the circumstances of this tow -- to distant Brooklyn from Manhattan, soon after a Finance Department letter that seemed to offer a way to avoid further difficulty -- it is difficult to conclude other than that City Hall intended to teach me a lesson, another lesson, that is, and a severe one, indeed.  

LPR concludes that when it comes to motorists, the City of New York has zero tolerances for a kind and gentle parking policy. LPR does believe that "gotcha" government is not what James Madison called for in Federalist 57,  when he advised our leaders to stay close to the people.

Is "gotcha" government good government?

LPR coopts this sign, at an anti-war rally several years ago, for purpose of this article.

LPR does not begrudge parking privileges for VIPs, but must ordinary people be hammered so hard?

Don Imus' Limousine

City Hall Parking Lot

"American Gangster" location filming