“They Take Care Of Us, So We Take Care Of Them”

By on January 17, 2010 5:39 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Lame Excuses, Transportation
Pierrepont Street

Pierrepont Street

“They take care of us, so we take care of them.”That’s what Officer Reynoso, the very polite (and forthright) policeman from the 84th Precinct told me last night, when I asked him why he was writing a ticket for the car on the left, but not for the one on the right.

He said no cop will write a parking ticket on a car with an MD plate, as “someday they may need to take care of us”.

“So you think that if you write them a ticket, they won’t save you if you get shot?”, I asked.

“You never know”, he said.

I said, “But aren’t you supposed to write them a ticket?”

He replied, “Look, I know some people such as yourself may not be happy with this. So you should contact someone like the Civilian Complaint Review Board.”

“I’d rather just see everyone treated equally. We both know he shouldn’t be parked here. I can’t convince you to write this guy a ticket?”

He said, “If I do, he’ll call the precinct, and I’ll get in trouble.”

“So this guy will raise a beef if you ticket him?”

“Yes”, and he again referred me to the CCRB.

So that probably explains this Mercedes-driving doc doesn’t even bother with a placard:

View Pierrepont Street Parking

The good news is that since the publication of “Dashboard Divas” in the New Yorker, and my posting the pictures of the car with the bogus Amtrak surgeon placard, at least that car has not been parked for a single night on Pierrepont Street. To the owner: you’re not banished – just park like the rest of us.

“I am not the law, but I represent justice as far as my feeble powers go.” – Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Three Gables

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  • http://inklake.typepad.com Ink Lake

    You’re right. I’m full of resentment of lots of things. I seethe about coniferous trees and that just about every yogurt maker has switched to 6-ounce size containers with nary a word.

    On my blog, ( http://inklake.typepad.com )I’ve posted pictures of a VW with MD plates, but it is a -nice- VW. The Mercedes was the car that happened to be there when I saw the cop writing the ticket for the SUV, and I happened to have my camera with me.

    You’re right – there is a lot of abuse of the privilege, but I, like the writer of the New Yorker piece last week, do in fact see a connection between these things.

    The status quo allows for not just semi-benign abuse by podiatrists and proctologists, as well as school-teachers and church-goers, but it could allow some really bad people to park their car filled with God knows what.

  • Kim G.

    I think it’s a courtesy. Every state has their ” ignore ” plates. Yes, some will take advantage of parking situations say for example the Dr’s wife? Anyway, parking is very important and I’m a stickler for clear cross walks and hydrants and praise those who enforce those violations. As for the officer’s comments, I think he could have handled things differently. Even if he politely walked away. I know it’s rude to turn you back to someone. Seems to me that if he wasn’t citing both vehicles then he shouldn’t have written a ticket AT ALL.
    If it’s really a parking issue than contacting Motor Vehicles or as the previous poster mentioned City Council and request that an investigation be done.

  • joan

    mytwocents is right. Inklake and ABC are selfserving people with obviously nothing better to do than to moniter the comings and goings of their neighbors. ABC says she would “relax” if the traffic officers would be easier on her and inklake would be happier if he and the other two bikers using the bike lane could displace the many people who attend our local churches for 2 hours 1 day a week.

  • ClarknHenry

    Joan, the issue is not people needing to park illegally for gust a few hours a week so that they can worship. The Presbyterian Chuch on Henry Street (right next to my apartment, so I KNOW of what I speak…) rents the church to Calgary Baptist, and they park huge church vans blocking the bike lane for most of every Sunday adternoon. This, in effect, wipes out the bike lane for HALF of every weekend, when most folks have a chance to ride. All so that these churchgoers don’t have to take public transit, or, God forbid (pun absolutely intended) walk a few blocks from their legally parked vehicles. I think not. Let’s talk about the greatest good for the majority… And smaller carbon footprints, right?

  • ABC

    I’m self-serving for sure, but I’m not really home enough to monitor my neighbors. Still, when someone breaks the law for 5 or 6 years straight, I start to notice.

    My thing is I really just hate to see tax dollars at waste. This area is covered with cops with their ticket book out; Brooklyn Heights was just reported to be one of the most ticketed area in NYC. But they skip the MD plates, the government plates (Marty Connor must missing parking in front of his place), the judge placards, and all the fake placards people print off the web (I’d out the two very grouchy Montague shopkeepers, but they scare me).

    I wish they’d either call off the dogs or step up and get the job done right.

    Ditto National Grid.

  • Heights Neighbor

    The reason that residents of Pierrepont Street are annoyed by people parking on the “No parking” side of the street is that this was NEVER a problem when the DOT was reponsible for enforcing the parking. When oversight was transferred to the police the favors began. On our one little block, the no parking side of the street is often completely filled! When others have to pay a lot of money to park their cars and doctors’ children are allowed to park their cars for free using a fake or authentic placard, that leads to anger and frustration.

    The reason there is no parking on one side of the street is that it is a very narrow street. Apparently someone died because a fire truck could not get through. That’s enough of a reason for me to be angry.

    It’s also not the traffic agents. They are being told from way up high not to ticket these cars…placards, doctors, church parkers. Let’s just all obey the law.

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