Bob CollinsIn Keene, NH, a group of merry people patrols the downtown and when they find an expired parking meter, they throw some money in it and leave a note on the window:
“Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king’s tariffs, Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Please consider paying it forward.”
Nice, right? Nothing is that easy in America.
The group — an anti-government band — is being sued by the city, the Manchester Union Leader reports:
In the filing, parking enforcement officer Linda Desruisseaux said, “Besides following me, crowding around me, making video recordings of my activities, and placing coins in expired meters to prevent me from writing tickets, these individuals repeatedly taunt and harass me, asking why I am stealing peoples’ money and telling me to get another job … In particular, Graham Colson likes to taunt me by saying, ‘Linda, guess what you’re not going to do today – write tickets.’ … The taunting and harassment tends to get worse when there is a group, as they try to one-up each other at my expense.”
The lawsuit does not deny group members’ right to videotape and takes no issue with them filling expired parking meters, but said there is a concern that the three parking enforcement officers will quit. The suit states the city would suffer financially from having to hire and train new employees, and might have difficulty filling the positions.
The city paid private investigator Peter “Sturdy” Thomas, a retired Keene police captain to record the group at work, the city later acknowledged.
Apparently, it’s an issue that gets the people of Keene pretty worked up.
(h/t: Brian Hanf)
