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Jan 27, 2019
taking a risk and then complaining
I love how people go to the news with every problem they have with authority, justified or not.
The latest top headline on Kikar is about someone who went to RBS (the RBS C/Gimmel neighborhood, I think, based on the picture in the article, but not sure) for Shabbos and parked on the sidewalk. He woke up on Shabbos morning to discover that the police had ticketed his car on Friday night. He had received a 500nis ticket for blocking the pedestrian walkway.
The fellow complains that he had arrived right before Shabbos and had his elderly 90 year old grandmother with him who can hardly walk and couldnt find appropriate parking in the immediate area and the sidewalk there is very wide so he was not disturbing anything and parked the way he did and the police should not be giving him a ticket for that especially on Shabbos but should be fighting crime and dealing with the high number of break-ins in the area.
As if the police are supposed to know that he had a grandmother that could not walk. As if the police are supposed to know and discount that he showed up minutes before Shabbos and did not have time to look for a better parking solution. As if the police are supposed to take any of that into account anyway.
My approach on this time of crime, breaking parking laws and the like, is that go ahead and park illegally if you want to, but you are taking a risk of getting a ticket. 9 times out of 10 you might get away with it with no ticket, but don't complain when you do get a ticket - you took the risk knowing the chance was there that you might get the ticket. the sidewalk is for pedestrians and the street is for cars.
Should the police be dealing with illegal parking on Shabbos? I don't know. I think that might be new.
I would add that until recently I was not aware of the disturbance caused by cars parking like this, when it is a wide sidewalk. I think most drivers are not so aware of what pedestrians have to deal with and what bothers them, just as I think most pedestrians are not aware of what goes through the drivers mind and what challenges drivers deal with (such as pedestrians in dark clothing that are difficult to see, pedestrians that step out into the street with no warning, bikers and runners, etc). I was recently made aware of the difficulty some pedestrians have with cars parked like this when they have to deal with strollers or wheelchairs, and more somebody in crutches or using a cane that is not walking in a stable way and obstructions on the sidewalk and be a big problem for them even if there technically is enough space. On Shabbos especially maybe it is taking up space from where kids would be playing.
Anyways, as I said, park illegally if you want, but do not complain when you get a ticket. The sidewalk is for people and the street is for the cars.
The latest top headline on Kikar is about someone who went to RBS (the RBS C/Gimmel neighborhood, I think, based on the picture in the article, but not sure) for Shabbos and parked on the sidewalk. He woke up on Shabbos morning to discover that the police had ticketed his car on Friday night. He had received a 500nis ticket for blocking the pedestrian walkway.
The fellow complains that he had arrived right before Shabbos and had his elderly 90 year old grandmother with him who can hardly walk and couldnt find appropriate parking in the immediate area and the sidewalk there is very wide so he was not disturbing anything and parked the way he did and the police should not be giving him a ticket for that especially on Shabbos but should be fighting crime and dealing with the high number of break-ins in the area.
As if the police are supposed to know that he had a grandmother that could not walk. As if the police are supposed to know and discount that he showed up minutes before Shabbos and did not have time to look for a better parking solution. As if the police are supposed to take any of that into account anyway.
My approach on this time of crime, breaking parking laws and the like, is that go ahead and park illegally if you want to, but you are taking a risk of getting a ticket. 9 times out of 10 you might get away with it with no ticket, but don't complain when you do get a ticket - you took the risk knowing the chance was there that you might get the ticket. the sidewalk is for pedestrians and the street is for cars.
Should the police be dealing with illegal parking on Shabbos? I don't know. I think that might be new.
I would add that until recently I was not aware of the disturbance caused by cars parking like this, when it is a wide sidewalk. I think most drivers are not so aware of what pedestrians have to deal with and what bothers them, just as I think most pedestrians are not aware of what goes through the drivers mind and what challenges drivers deal with (such as pedestrians in dark clothing that are difficult to see, pedestrians that step out into the street with no warning, bikers and runners, etc). I was recently made aware of the difficulty some pedestrians have with cars parked like this when they have to deal with strollers or wheelchairs, and more somebody in crutches or using a cane that is not walking in a stable way and obstructions on the sidewalk and be a big problem for them even if there technically is enough space. On Shabbos especially maybe it is taking up space from where kids would be playing.
Anyways, as I said, park illegally if you want, but do not complain when you get a ticket. The sidewalk is for people and the street is for the cars.
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Please.. nobody gets parking tickets on Shabbos for parking like this. It's an unspoken rule. Be that as it may, the main complaint was that there are breakins and other issues in RBS G and this is what the police are doing;
ReplyDeleteI dont know about unspoken rules. unspoken rules are not really rules and can be changed at any time.
ReplyDeleteThe police issued a response this morning (which I saw no reason to mention as it was not relevant to my point).. basically crime in the area is significantly down from 26% last year at 12% this year in that area and it is because of police efforts to prevent break-ins and the like. Being as it may, police work is not mutually exclusive. There are officers that deal with violent crime and there are other officers that deal with public safety and other officers that deal with parking tickets and who knows what else. Just because there is some crime does not mean the police should not keep up efforts on other issues under their responsibility. I am not justifying the police work on Shabbos - if this is against the rules or not considered necessary work to be done on Shabbos, that should be dealt with.
ממשטרת ישראל נמסר בתגובה לפניית "כיכר השבת":
"כחלק ממאבקה המתמשך של משטרת ישראל כנגד עבירות תנועה על סוגיהן, מבצעת המשטרה אכיפה 24/7 ובדגש על עבירות הגורמות הפרעה לציבור הולכי הרגל ועלולות לסכן את חייהם, בהן גם חסימות וחניה על מדרכות שלעיתים מאלצות את הולכי הרכגל ובהם ילדים ואנשים עם עגלות תינוק לרדת אל הכביש".
"עוד נציין, כי ברחוב המוזכר בכתבה אין כל מצוקת חניה וישנם לאורכו מקומות חניה מוסדרים לנוחיותם של כלל התושבים והמבקרים מבלי שיאלצו לחנות על מדרכות".
"בניגוד מוחלט לטענה אודות עבירות התפרצות וגניבה, מבדיקה שערכנו עולה כי דווקא בשנת 2018 בעקבות פעילותה של המשטרה בבית שמש, חלה ירידה בהיקף עבירות גניבה מרכבים של כ -26% ובעבירות ההתפרצות חלה ירידה של כ - 12%."
"משטרת ישראל תמשיך לפעול על מנת לספק לכלל תושבי המקום את הביטחון לו הם ראויים, במקביל לפעילות אכיפה שמטרתה לשמור על חייהם של הולכי הרגל."
Not so right if rules are ignored for years and then one time somebody decides to enforce them
Deletethat is a fair argument, though I have no idea if it holds water as a legal argument.
Deletealso, the city has been giving tickets for parking like this, just not (that I am ware of) on Friday nights. So it could easily be argued that the rule hasnt been ignored for years (or even if it was, that was a while back but for a while already this has been enforced)
I know someone who grew up on the same street as a minyan factory. They would regularly be blocked into their driveway by people who needed to get to minyan and didn't have time to find a proper parking spot. She even missed a final university exam because they couldn't get out of their driveway. They even started leaving notes on cars, making them aware of the hillul hashem they were causing. It didn't make a difference.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, seeing the efforts of these people to make sure they davend with a minyan didn't make a positive impression on them. The person is no longer frum.
The question of "why the police are giving parking tickets instead of dealing with more important things" is a silly question.
ReplyDeleteBy cracking down on minor law-infractions, like parking issues, the police are showing that they are present in the neighborhood, and are watching what is going on, and deal with crime issues. Knowing that there is an active police presence certainly deters crime.
Look, it's pretty common knowledge that Israelis will bend the law, and derech eretz, and common sense, until they get caught. The guy did something illegal, and he got caught. Maybe he'll learn a lesson and not do it again.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the ticket was given before Shabbat or by non Jewish policemen
ReplyDeleteThe person who parked the car has transgressed on at least three levels:
ReplyDelete1. He has obviously no regard for pedestrians
2. He broke a law
3. He caused a presumably Jewish policeman to write a ticket on shabbat.
He deserves no sympathy and only punishment, in the present world and world to come. The fact that he has any claims whatsoever is complete chutzpah. Go back to kindergarten.