It's a Wonderful Life: parking tickets in Buffalo

On my block in Buffalo, you have to park on one side of the street from Sunday to Wednesday, and the other side the rest of the week. In the handful of months I've lived here, I've gotten more than a couple citations for violating this rule, which, as I hope it goes without saying, does no good for anybody and exists to generate ticket revenue.

Last month, I was parked on the "wrong" side of the street and got two tickets in less than a day. First they left one on my windshield. Then it snowed a bunch. The diligent and scrupulous Buffalo police, not now seeing the snow-covered ticket on the windshield, went ahead and left another in the door crack.

WTF, BPD?? I was mad, but I thought I had right on my side. I photocopied both tickets, paid the first one on time, and plead innocent to the second. Today I had my hearing. I had to get up early and pay for parking by City Hall (not to mention getting lost for about 20 minutes downtown), but I was willing to accept that. This is why the hearing process exists, right? So, if silly oversights happen - like being written a second ticket by somebody who can't see that you've got one already - we can set things aright.

Nope! The woman who did my hearing smugly and coldly informed me that you can, perfectly legally, get a ticket EVERY HOUR for parking violations. "Um, I'm going to have to find you guilty." Um, I'm going to have to find you a soulless, corrupt hack. Too bad you missed your true calling as Stalin's personal secretary.

Part of me wants to protest somehow, but my beliefs in the worthwhileness of civic self-respect, of speaking truth to power, of human dignity and the spirit of fairness prevailing over the mean letter of the law, have been laid low this day.