'Robin Hoods' who feed parking meters are hit with lawsuit in New Hampshire | Hacker News Reader

'Robin Hoods' who feed parking meters are hit with lawsuit in New Hampshire

usnews.nbcnews.com

11 pointsdylangs103014 comments

The city of Keene says its three parking inspectors have been taunted, insulted and followed by the group — to the point that one of them says he has suffered heart palpitations and is thinking about quitting his job.

In case its not clear from the headline (its not) they are being sued for harassing the parking inspectors, not simply putting money in meters. If they were just wandering around feeding meters, they would probably have been left alone.

Thanks for noting this. I think it's still technically illegal to put money in meters, but you're right. It amounts to a teenage prank.

They probably shouldn't have harassed people and tried to be "activists."

"Linda, guess what you’re not going to do today — write tickets."

That isn't harassment. That is hilarious.

This just boils down to a municipality relying on parking tickets rather than meter fees for revenue. Fuck them.

The solution is simple: raise the fee.

They are being sued for harassment but being sued does not automatically mean you are guilty. Why, as suggested in the article by one of the defendants, have they not been criminally prosecuted for harassment if it is cut and dry?

There is no proof of harassment so far. Even if it were true that is a case against individuals not an amorphous group.

AFAIK feeding meters has been illegal for a while, but I have yet to hear of anyone being cited for it. This is nuts! Maybe if the meters were more reasonable people wouldn't do stuff like this...

I don't quite understand why feeding parking meters is illegal.

Bear with me...

In some cases of abuse, like with NYC metro cards, there is a legitimate reason not to use a single metro card for a number of people (the limit is four I believe). The reason is because putting a large enough money on the metro card to accomodate those people automatically gives extra money as an incentive for large purchases.

But if you use this other people, you're technically ripping off the system, because those individual $2.50 cards wouldn't have gotten any extra percentage.

So in examples like the foregoing, I get why it's illegal to "share" money. But feeding parking meters has no such incentive anywhere, as far as I know. Why would it be illegal?

It's not. They're being sued for taunting and harassing the parking inspectors, not for feeding the meters.

I know that's the reason in the article, but the parent had said it's illegal, so I figured I'd ask.

The "taunting and harassing" is a smokescreen, these guys posted video of several interactions, I wouldn't be surprised if more came out.

Because you're depriving the city revenue they would make from writing traffic tickets when the meters expire.

"...would the city still be complaining? Well, the answer is probably yes, because their intent to enforce the law isn't to prevent law-breaking but to raise money.

> Why would it be illegal?

Because its about revenue. The cities want to give out tickets to prop up their bottom lines. Yes, there is a congestion and anti-car component but do not be fooled, its all about parking tickets.

The headline is misleading in a way that this is not even a story

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