Contents: Taradiddle #4 | Letter to the City of San Diego | The Saga Continues | Request Denied
Re: Taradiddle #4
Awarded 21 October 2000
by The Inmate
Jesus had a number of people who knew him that no one would exactly classify as his friends. This can be corroborated by the fact that they crucified him, which has a tendency to ruin your chances of a pleasant afternoon. There are various reasons why The Establishment did not like Jesus, but I would like to cite just one: he was a practical man. He possessed that most uncommon of qualities: common sense. For instance, let's say it's the Sabbath and you're not supposed to eat, but let's say you're really hungry, maybe you've got low-blood sugar, maybe you've been traveling for many days, but you know it is against your religious law to eat. So you go to Jesus and ask, "What should I do here?" "Eat!" he says. "For God's sake eat! You were not made for the law, the law was made for you. Eat!"
Or take the case of Gulliver. There he is sleeping peacefully one night when he is awoken only to find out the palatial palace of The Establishment in Lilliput is burning and will burn to the ground probably killing its puny inhabitants unless something is done soon. Now Gulliver is also a practical man and thinking very quickly he calmly pulls his John Thomas into the open and extinguishes the fire with a warm, yellow liquid that has an admittedly, unpleasant odor. He does, however, save the lives of his tiny neighbors. What thanks does he get? This is the first thing cited against him as proof that he should be killed or blinded. You see, it seems that he broke a law about urinating in or around the palace of the king.
Law, rules, regulations or whatever you want the call them, sometimes come into existence for good reasons. The tricky part, apparently, is figuring out when the law crosses the boundary of its original reason for becoming a law. This past Friday I was double-parked while making a delivery. It was in an area of downtown San Diego that has little traffic. I have received dozens of parking tickets during my tenure at Cheetah Express, but this one seemed to me to be the most absurd. I was at the front door of the house, the lights on my van were flashing and the parking meter officer could easily see me standing at the door. I thanked him for the ticket, really, I did. It was a satiric thank you, but since I used the actual words, "Thank you," I'll bet he felt warm fuzzies for the next hour or so. I will freely admit that I broke the law. My guess is that the original intent of the double-parking law(a good law in many cases) was to keep people from blocking other people in for extended periods of time. Because I could see the cars I was temporarily blocking in and because I was only going to be there a few minutes this would never have happened. In that sense, I obeyed the law.
So, Taradiddle #4 goes to the City of San Diego, Parking Division and to Officer Saucedo. The Parking Division gets it for not training their parking meter officers in such a way that something like this would never happen and Officer Saucedo gets it for not using common sense. In the future maybe Officer Saucedo should ask himself two simple questions: I wonder what Jesus would do? I wonder what Gulliver would do?
Unlike other Taradiddle awards this one will be retracted if upon receiving the letter I am going to write to them The City of San Diego cancels the 40 dollar fine that Cheetah Express is now obligated to pay. I will post the letter and any responses I get.
©2000 The Corporate Asylum . . . www.corporateasylum.com
Raul Garcia
City of San Diego
Principal Traffic Engineering Aide
Traffic Engineering Division
1010 2nd Ave., Ste. 900
San Diego, CA 92112-9038Re: Citation SD820015188, issued 10/20/2000, at 9:20 a.m by Officer Saucedo
Mr. Garcia,
For more than 14 years I have delivered packages in downtown San Diego for Cheetah Express. I have never, in those 14 years, written a letter concerning any of the numerous parking tickets I have received and that my employer consequently had to pay. However, the most recent ticket I received( Citation SD820015188) has prompted me to write.
The details are simple. I was double-parked in the 1600 block of 9th avenue, not a busy street at 9:20 a.m in the morning. My flashers were on. I had a delivery to an apartment building. I was unable to get in and proceeded to leave a drop card notifying the tenant that we had a delivery for them. I was on the front porch and was in full view of the street the entire time I was out of the van. While I was writing up the drop card I heard the fateful sound of the computer printing out my ticket. Being a seasoned parking ticket recipient I know that once that thing starts printing(at least this is what I've been told) there is no turning back. I watched Officer Saucedo put the ticket on my windshield. I waved to him and thanked him with a substantial amount of sarcasm.
Cheetah Express, through the efforts of The Assistant To Inmate, has made a strong effort in the past months to deal with the parking problem. All downtown couriers have been issued parking meter cards and we use them whenever possible. To digress briefly, I'd like to commend the city of San Diego for making many of the passenger zones also loading zones. This has been particularly helpful on 5th Avenue. On a personal level, I work hard to park legally. As just one example I often park in the loading zone in the 1100 block of Front Street and walk to all my deliveries within a 2 to 3 block radius. There are, however, times when parking legally is not possible unless I have my jogging shoes on and decide to work a lot of overtime(something my employer is not thrilled about). But when I have to park illegally I use common sense. I would never double-park on B Street or on Broadway or on Market in the central area of downtown. I never park in handicapped zones or fire zones. If I have to park illegally I try to make sure it is for only one or at the most two deliveries. I am not contesting tickets of this type: where I am clearly away from the van, I am not in sight, etc. They are frustrating because all I'm trying to do is my job in an efficient manner, but such is life in a bureaucratic society. However, the ticket from Officer Saucedo was absurd.
Yes, legally, technically, Officer Saucedo had every right to give me a ticket. Unfortunately, when laws are administered without the use of common sense they become ridiculous. I would guess that the original intent of the double-parking law was to make sure that people did not get trapped in their parking places and to insure that traffic would run smoothly and safely. That's a good law, but the intent of the law should be considered in every situation. I clearly obeyed the intent of the law for the following reasons:
1. It was not a busy street and traffic was not affected by the presence of my van.
2. My van was parked there for only 2 or 3 minutes.
3. My van and the cars I had blocked in were in clear view. If anyone needed to get out, I could have easily moved.
4. Since I was in constant view of the van the entire time, Officer Saucedo, who must have certainly seen me in my uniform standing at the entrance to the apartment, could have easily asked me to move and though I would have considered the request to be senseless, I would, nonetheless, have moved.
Officer Saucedo should have taken all this into consideration, used his common sense and kept on driving. My request is that you cancel the 40 dollar fee for this ticket. As I said earlier, I have never made this kind of request before and the sole reason I am doing so is because this particular ticket should not have been issued.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mr. Garcia upon receiving this email, emailed The Assistant To The Inmate who originally gave me his name, that he had received an email from me and asked her to have me call him, which I did. He was not in. The next day I called and he was in. Unfortunately, he is not the person I need to talk to. I need to talk to Leslie Sennet, Officer Saucedo's supervisor. Mr. Garcia also informed me that I needed to fill out the proper form to file a complaint(I'm not making this up) which he said he would mail me(I have not received it yet). I called Leslie Sennet and she was not in, though I did get to leave a message on her voicemail. Oh boy!I think I have intimated this on this site before, but I would now like to say it as plainly as I possibly can: working for a corporation can be bad, but there are two entities out there that make working for a corporation seem like an extended stay in the Garden of Eden: The Government and The Military.
I still sometimes ask myself, "Why the hell do I write these letters? It just turns into a lot of time and effort that, more than likely, will not produce results." On some level I really do, as unrealistic as I know this is, think my letter may actually result in the cancellation of this ridiculous ticket. I also write when I get angry about something that seems stupid to me. That begs the question, "Why get angry about this stuff? It's probably not going to change." Oh well, it's good fodder for The Corporate Asylum if nothing else.
4 November 2000 update
I called Leslie Sennet repeatedly without making contact. I did, however, finally get the "Parking Citation Appeal Request" form. After reading it I am fairly confident that my request will be denied. The appeal process does not take into consideration the "intent of the law." For instance, under the "Respondent's Statement" it says,
Clearly explain(print of type) why you feel this parking ticket was issued in error[bold type is in original document] and/ or attach additional . . .[etc., etc., blah, blah, blah].
I did finally talk to Leslie Sennet the supervisor of Officer Saucedo and she basically confirmed my conclusion. The City of San Diego only looks at the letter of the law. If the vehicle was parked illegally, regardless of the circumstances, the ticket was issued correctly. That's it . . . almost. Ms. Sennet informed me of one further bureaucratic road that I can attempt to drive down. I believe she called it an "adjudication process." I can either send in my appeal or appear in person and as she put it those who handle this process have the option to consider the spirit of the law--something that should have been considered on the day my ticket was issued.Leslie did present to me the time-honored argument for consistency: If we don't give you a ticket someone else who gets a ticket is going to say, "Hey why didn't you give him a ticket?" This is a weak, overrated explanation. This argument is basically for people who are given tasks in which they are not expected to think. If some idiot who had double-parked on Broadway for thirty minutes blocking cars in and disturbing traffic confronted Officer Saucedo on why he had not given me a ticket I should hope that he could defend himself admirably: "Listen buddy, he didn't block in any cars that wanted to get out, congest downtown traffic or nearly cause an accident by his presence. Here's your ticket. Have a nice day." I suppose that would be too difficult. When superiors appeal to their subordinates to follow the rules to the letter no matter what, what they are really saying is that they do not respect their subordinates enough to make good decisions. That's a kind way of saying, "They think their subordinates are stupid."
Anyway, Leslie did say she understands how I feel and deep down she's really "pulling for" me. I feel better already.
Request was denied. It's been so long I hardly know why I cared in the first place. My company paid the bill, life continues on and the Taradiddle stands.
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