I happened to open our Parking Enforcement database this afternoon, and the notes field for the first record that came up read, in its entirety (and with quote marks as shown):
“Why can’t I just get a warning?”
“You were [parked illegally here] on 2 separate occasions”
“No I wasn’t”
“I placed them on your car myself”
“Oh.”
It’s like a great short story.
Law & Order: PEU.
They write the tickets and transcribe the entire conversation. And memorize the cars they ticket. Also fight terrorism.
One of the pet peeves in my PetPeeves database is referring to “Parking NAZIs”, meaning the people who write those tickets. The term diminishes what real NAZIs did during (and after) the Hitler-era. “Gosh, it must been awful to storm the beaches of Normandy and get all those parking tickets.” “It wasn’t just a Holocaust, there was nowhere to park either.” Or as Winston Churchill would have put it: “We shall fight them on the streets. We shall fight them in court. We shall fight them in the appeals court.”
Perhaps we should put little placards on cars with expired meters. This space is needed for the greater good of the Fatherland. Now we will take your car, then kill you and your family. (signed) – The Parking NAZIs