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religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.”
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Racketeering on campus: The stupidity of Parking "Services"
By Jacob Lovell
Guest Writer
jlove 11 7 @ my.westga .edu
As anyone who has
gotten a ticket from Parking
“Services” (a name that
is perhaps as ridiculous
as “Internal Revenue
Service”) knows, the simple
mistake of forgetting to put
your hangtag back on your
mirror after a weekend visit
home can cost you dearly.
Not only are you hit for
$55 ($35 for “Parking in
restricted student zone
areas”, S2O for “Non
registered vehicle/hangtag
not properly displayed”), a
hold will be thrown against
your school account,
forcing you to deal with
it before registering for
classes.
The odd thing in
this scenario is that, as
they know your license
plate number and that it
belongs to you, a student
(as proven by the fact that
they can apply it against
your school account), they
also know full well where
you can and cannot park.
This is precisely why, after
appealing, it is standard
procedure that the $35
“restricted student zone”
fine is dropped, leaving
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you with only the S2O
for “hangtag not properly
displayed”. Why would
they have the $35 fee in
the first place if you were
parked in the correct area,
except to snag the poor saps
that don't appeal quickly
enough?
This leads to a second
question: With the ability
to tell whether or not
you’re a student, via a
handheld device that spits
out tickets and ties them to
your account, why would
the S2O fee exist, either?
Two reasons: Firstly,
having all the hangtags
uniformly displayed is for
the convenience of the
ticketing “officers”. The
fine exists so that you have
incentive to make their job
even easier, having only to
look in one place to tell if
you're a rule breaker. Since
I have to keep my tag on my
dash (my rearview doesn’t
support hanging things),
it’s pretty inconveniencing
to me to have to remember
to put the tag up every time
I go for a ride, too.
The other reason, of
course, is to keep non
students and everyone else
who hasn't paid for a space
from parking on campus.
This is precisely why the
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fine has two reasons for
being issued, the first being
“non-registered vehicle”.
There is a problem
with this, though, and
that problem illuminates
a broader issue with the
entire Parking “Services”
racket. Next time you’re
unfortunate enough to be
visited by the Parking Fairy,
take a look on the back of
your citation. Printed there
is an interesting line, to the
effect of “Visitors are not
required to pay fines.”
Who, then, is required
to pay parking fines, and
what good do citations do?
Clearly,citationsdo not
discourage illegal parking
by dishonest students or
those who are not students
at all. As just discussed,
anyone who is not a student
(or staff, or faculty) does
not have to pay a fine.
Further, if a student, when
acquiring his or her hangtag,
“accidentally” puts an
incorrect license plate on
the registration form, there
would be no way to trace
back his or her car if it is
parked incorrectly without
the hangtag displayed. The
overmasters at Parking
“Services” have cleverly
come up with an immense
fine for just such an
Opinion H
accident - SIOO for “falsely
registering a vehicle” -
but enforcement of such
a fine would require the
cross checking of hangtag
numbers with license plates
on every car that is parked
otherwise legally.
I question whether
that citation would ever be
issued to anyone with any
sense, as such a task, to be
performed by people too
lazy to get a real job, would
require cross-checking
hundreds of nondescript
cars on a daily basis.
Further, I know of
commuter students who do
precisely this, and on days
where they cannot find _a_
parking spot, they simply
put their tags in their glove
boxes and park wherever
they damn well please.
Even if this rule were
enforced, simply never
getting a hangtag would
keep you from ever getting
a ticket you’re liable for.
With all of this in
mind, 1 can come to only
one conclusion: Virtually
all of the people affected by
the $35/S2O combo citation
are students parking where
they ought to be parked.
Furthermore, since the only
way that this ticket can be
enforced is through holding
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of registration, only honest
students who plan on
continuing their education
here at UWG - the kind of
students that this university
should be encouraging
- are affected by tickets at
all.
What kind of
backward system is this?
The honest students who
are where they should be
are punished, and everyone
else is totally let off!
This is reminiscent
of mafia “protection” in
that nothing is offered,
with only retribution
for not paying up being
supplied. When’s the last
__xime Parking “Services”
provided you a service?
Have they ever: Towed a
car that didn't belong in
a space so that you could
have it to get to your next
class quickly? Helped
you find a space? Used
their little carts to quickly
taxi you to your class after
having to park so far from
it? Provided adequate
parking, especially for
commuters, or has parking,
in fact, decreased?
1 also wonder why
Parking “Services”
switched from stickers to
hangtags. Stickers, once
used for parking here at
UWG, are superior to
hangtags as they cannot
be easily taken down and
forgotten to be replaced.
Don’t suppose it was to see
a rise in revenue resulting
from saps like me who
forget to put their hangtags
back up after going home
for the weekend, do you?
Considering their track
record. I’m certain of their
motivations. If we had
internal, rear-windshield
stickers, this kind of
mistake wouldn’t happen,
and the bums that ‘work’
there would have an even
easier job seeing our tags.
This department is a
bad joke. In addition to
providing no service at
all. Parking “Services”
punishes good students
and lets everyone else off'
the hook. The employees
are encouraged to commit
cowardly, faceless acts
of vandalism by way of
stuffing paper under your
wipers, and the money
goes to pay for their useless
employees instead of actual
service rendered. I look
forward to the day when
it is revamped or outright
abolished.
I encourage everyone
to protest its existence in
whatever way possible.