WARNING! Invalid Parking Tickets

[Joe Russell III FCT]

At approximately 8:17am on the morning of Sunday, March 29, 2009, I exited my home at 520 S Martin Luther King Jr Ave, a designated snow route, to get to Mass early. I observed Officer Schmitz placing a parking ticket on my car. I informed him that a violation does not occur until there are two inches of snow on the ground, to which he replied that I was 'ignorant', and placed a ticket on my neighbor's car. So I got a ruler and measured the snow in his presence, proving the depth at only 1 1/2 inches, ( I took a picture with him in the background and the ticket and ruler in the foreground). I called my neighbor to tell him that he had received a ticket but not to worry as I was filing a complaint, and to be sure and contest the ticket. I then called the Waukegan Police Department and made a preliminary complaint.
Resuming my way to church I saw another neighbor exiting her home and reacting to the ticket on her van. I pulled over, behind her van and adjacent to her driveway, to tell her to contest the ticket, that I had proof that there was no violation. At this point Officer Schmitz pulled his squad car in front of my car, preventing me from moving. I loudly stated, for the benefit of the squad car's recording device and my neighbor's attention, that I considered his behavior harrassment and that he was purposely blocking my egress. Officer Schmitz then requested my driver's license, which I provided.
I have subsequently been ticketed for illegally parking on a snow route and improper lane usage. I have complained that the instigating ticket is erroneous as I have photographs taken in Officer Schmitz's presence that the snow was only 1 1/2" deep, that I was treated unprofessionally by being called ignorant, (yes, I am African American), that I was being targeted by Officer Schmitz after the initial encounter as he tried to intimidate me at my neighbor's home, and that the second ticket resulted in blatent entrapment as Officer Schmitz pruposely blocked my egress.
All of this is to say: if YOU received a snow violation ticket today you might want ot confirm its validity.
The epilog to this story; while I was at the police department submitting my complaint I overheard an officer telling a female on their inner office communication line to telephone the residents on a North side street and advise them to move their cars for plowing. I can only logically surmise then, that preferential consideration is afforded North side residents while South side residents can expect to be harrassed, intimidated, insulted, and entrapped by some on the force.

[Don Petrone]

Joe,
That is horendous behavior for a city employee.
It is exactly that lack of professioalism and intimidation that Sabonjian wants to put a stop to.
Tis is the kind of thing that happens when you don't have government that is Open, Honest and Fair.

PLEASE contact the voters you know in Waukegan and ask them to vote for Bob Sabonjian on April 7th.

Note: Early voting ends on April 2nd.
You can vote early it the lobby of the County Bldg. until April 2nd.
The hours are 830 to 4:30 M-F and 8:30 to 12:30 on Saturday.

Caste your vote for Bob Sabonjian and get others to vote for him too.
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[Frankzilch]

This is a very common scenario.

Folks, this is all planned procedure. Anyone who challenges police authority in any way is singled out for "special treatment" and intimidation. Question police once too many times and an honest citizen will find themselves getting tasered. Can you imaginge questioning the meter reader from the gas company becuase he read your meter wrong and when he runs out of good answers you get tasered. The goal is an undermining of the average persons rights and duty to speak out against unprofessional and unfair treatment. The police want no one to complain EVER... they wield the power and sadly, the willingness to abuse that power to effectively shut out any and all accountability. I think police are under the mistaken belief that this will make their jobs easier. This only amounts to bad public relations for police departments and leads to distrust of the police by people who normally would trust them, making their jobs even more difficult in the long run.

The only way this will ever get better is if the people speak out against it. I don't think that will happen because most people are too fearful of authority. We are a nation of PUSSIES. What good is Freedom of Speech if we are afraid to use it? Our wise Forefathers foresaw this and tried to address these issues in the Constitution and Bill of Rights but the Haters of Freedom have found a loophole or a workaround to those rights. Welcome the main ingredients for a Police State.

[OhBrother]

The cops and the plow operators don't go around measuring each block or even each street to see if it's over 2 inches. The national weather service said Waukegan had well over 2 inches. A reasonable person would conclude that the snow routes would be in effect. So you were ignorant (ignorant means lacking knowledge). Of course the cop probably shouldnt go about saying such things to people, but he wasn't lying. As for the north side street - was it part of the snow route? If not then the city can't use tickets to get people to move the cars.

[Danno]

I just read the ordinance and it is rather vague on what constitutes a 2 inch snowfall. The ordinance does not mention specific locations but just says "after a snowfall of two or more inches has occurred". Hopefully that would be somewhere in Waukegan and not Northern Minnesota. Laws have to be written so it is understandable to the reader what specifically is being prohibited. This ordinance is lacking in it's ability to do that. So really the writer of the ordinance and those who passed it without analyizing or questioning it are really the true source of the ignoranace. Anyone who has lived in this area knows it can snow a half inch on the Southeast part of Waukegan and 3 inches on the Northwest part of Waukegan or visa-versa. So if it snows 3" on "The Dicks" street up near Wadsworth and it only snows 1/2 inch on South MLK does that mean the police can issue valid tickets for snow route violations on South MLK? Of course that would be absurd and illogical. So, even though it is not specifically stated, the ordinance must be taken to actually mean 2 inches or more in the EXACT area where the violation occurs. If Joe measures 1-1/2 inches then the ticket should be invalid and the cop was wrong to issue a ticket.

But the general absurdity of this ordinance goes much further. It makes a violation of parking on a snow route when a snowfall of 2 or more inches occurs between midnight and 6am. So if there is an unpredicted surprise snowfall (which we all know can happen here) after I go to sleep at 10pm, tough luck for me. And to make matters even worse the ordinance mandates that the vehicle be towed and impounded immediately. I'd say those who wrote and passed this ill-conceived piece of garbage are the ignorant ones. Not all laws are good laws... escepially when they are created by the incompetent non-thinkers here in Waukegan.

[OhBrother]

read it again. It is not enforceable until after 6:00 in the morning after an overnite snow fall.\

Same people would raise holy hell if the city didn't plow after a 1.5" snow fall or if the plow driver blocks their illegal parked car with snow.

[Danno]

read it again. It is not enforceable until after 6:00 in the morning after an overnite snow fall.\

Same people would raise holy hell if the city didn't plow after a 1.5" snow fall or if the plow driver blocks their illegal parked car with snow.

So how does that change the absurd nature of the ordinance? I read it clearly. I may not have written it clearly. I did mention "when a snowfall of 2 or more inches occurs between midnight and 6am" which would imply that it would only be enforceable after 6am. Any lack of specifics on my part does not lessen the absolute absurdity of the very real possiblity of an erroneous weather prediction coupled with going to bed at 11pm and waking up at 7am and your vehicle is gone.

[OhBrother]

here's an idea. Buy a damn alarm clock and set it for 5:45AM if you park your car on the street and it is snowing when you go to bed. Or should we just abolish all rules.

[Danno]

here's an idea. Buy a damn alarm clock and set it for 5:45AM if you park your car on the street and it is snowing when you go to bed. Or should we just abolish all rules.

Now you are being ignorant. Abolish all rules because of one poorly written ordinance? Also, the way this poorly constructed ordinance is written it's entirely possible to go to bed at 11:00pm with it not snowing at all and wake up at 7am and your vehicle is gone. The fact that they (whoever wrote the ordinance and the aldermen who passed it) did not consider this possibility important is due to either extreme arrogance or extreme stupidity and quite possibly both.

[lewiston]

You don't issue parking tickets for a living by any chance? Oh brother indeed....