I get where you're coming from. Police departments enforcing the rules not to better the community they serve but to bring in money to pay their salaries. It pisses me off too. The thing is, free parking fucks up cities[0][1]. It makes driving seem like a better idea than it is. It encourages sprawl. We need ways for people to pay for the space their cars occupy, and that means we need ways to punish people who take that space and don't pay. And, yeah, that means we need parking tickets.

[0] http://www.uctc.net/papers/351.pdf

[1] http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/1...