You'll see a beige minivan and a white Prius in the photo. Both are misusing placards and using "official vehicles" as take-home cars. Worst of all, both are parking in a crosswalk without fear of being ticketed or towed.

The Prius is from the NYC Dept. of Small Business Services. At least it's a Prius, and at least the placard matches the plate. The minivan, as I just noted in the earlier post, is from CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which ironically enough is supposed to educate people in the field of law enforcement.

I've been posting about this corner for nearly two years now.

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/15307
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12780
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734

The beige minivan represents a jackpot of chronic placard and official car abuse. Let's tick through the problems.

1) Parking in a crosswalk AND striped no-parking zone (for 12 hours a night).
2) Abuse of an "Official" Vehicle (as plated) for personal purposes - parking at home after business hours.
3) Abuse of placard to be used by someone engaged in "agency business."
4) Misuse of incorrect placard -- placard is for a different vehicle. The motorist decided to switch to the minivan this evening, but based on the given plate info is still using the placard for a black Impala shown in earlier posting (see links below).

Will NYPD ever enforce even the most obvious of these chronic violations? At a minimum, a car left overnight in a crosswalk should be towed, whether it has a placard or not.

I've been reporting on this for years now.

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12780
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734

These folks really know how to abuse public space in Long Island City.

These guys must have just taken the van out for a joy ride. They sure weren't doing any work.

Dawdling down the street, they were in no hurry to respond to anything. But they weren't about to get their butts out in the cold to write a ticket when the perp was another dirty cop.

There's no way they could possibly have missed the fact this car was parked way out into the crosswalk. Way WAY more than any civilian would have been allowed without getting hit with a summons (or two or three...)

They just won't take responsibility for writing a ticket to another cop because THEY DON'T HAVE THE GUTS to stand up to a dirty cop. So yet again, one more dirty cop gets a free pass from the Dirty Five-Two.

If they could just get their butts out of the car to DO THEIR JOB, maybe people in the neighborhood would think they were heroes. But it's just too obvious that some of these guys care more about their "perks" (that is to say breaking the law when they find it convenient) instead of keeping us safe, while the rest of them are just too lazy or too scared to stand up for what's right.

Shame on all of them!

[edited by moderator]

another one

This guy loves to park in the crosswalk

More than a year after I first started posting this placard-abusing John Jay College employee taking home an official vehicle and then using it to block a crosswalk for hours on end, things are actually getting worse. He or she has been joined by a second person doing the exact same thing. This second person is from the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

The southeast corner of E. 158th Street and Walton Avenue, which is striped for pedestrian use only, is pretty much taken over by City employees parking their government-issued cars overnight.

Previous updates in this series:
Oct. 20, 2009: First post on John Jay placard abuser
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734

March 28, 2010: Post notes that official vehicles are supposed to be used for "official duties"
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261

May 4, 2010: Twice the abuse: John Jay College driver temporarily shifts to a minivan, but keeps abusing the placard for the Impala.
http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12780

I thought the Mayor was cracking down on this. When will this b.s. ever be enforced?

We haven't seen this guy before. It's yet one more dirty cop frequenting the Dirty Five-Two. This corrupt precinct welcomes one and all of the dirty cops in the NYPD to come park illegally. No worries about somebody enforcing the law up here!

Parked in the crosswalk? Routine in the Dirty Five-Two.

Parked too close to the fire hydrant? Hey, what's the Dirty Five-Two care if yet another building burns to the ground? It's been over a year since the Halloween Fire took out half of Bainbridge Avenue.

Using a placard that wasn't even issued to the vehicle that's using it? You won't see the Dirty Five-Two do anything about it.

You see, if you want to break the law, all you have to do is advertise that it's your job to enforce the law. They have no shame - they have no problem at all showing everybody that they're the ones breaking the laws they're paid to enforce.

This driver was using somebody else's placard to park illegally in a crosswalk. This is pretty common here.

This vehicle has blocked the walkway to fit their car in as tight as possible.
Obviously everyone else receives a ticket but this one continues to park on top of other cars at the corners.

Another dirty cop blocking a crosswalk in the Dirty Five-Two.

The people who pay taxes in this precinct get ticketed if they don't move their cars on time (early, actually, but whose clock is the judge going to believe). Meanwhile, the people they pay park wherever they want, no matter how dangerous and inconvenient to the people they swore to serve and protect.

Once again, some are breaking the law, the others are letting them do it. And none of them are honestly earning their living.

So when I got to the subway this morning, there was a dirty wannabe cop blocking the wheelchair ramp on the corner.

(For additional detail, the crossing is at an angle, and the vehicle fully blocked the crossing, even though the picture from a single perspective only shows it encroaching "a little" on the actual handicap ramp.)

Of course, the Dirty Five-Two lets him get away with it.

Really, as long as you pay homage to the NYPD, it looks like the Dirty Five-Two will let you park anywhere you want.

There was no official placard in the windshield (not that it would have been any more legal). Instead, there was an NYPD patch and a Civilian Handbook from the NYPD.

It is scary if this is the type of person who wants to become a cop - some guy who can't be bothered to walk a block or two to get a legal, safe parking space.

This joker should be put on a Do Not Hire list! Right after they ticket and tow his car, that is!!!

John Jay College exists to teach aspiring police officers and prosecutors how to enforce the law. Presumably there are a number of courses that emphasize why it is important for all members of society to uphold the law. Ironically, one member of the college community believes that the importance of upholding the law applies only to those who lack the privileged status of a government-issued parking permit on a government-issued car.

The agency business permit displayed on the dashboard of this minivan has the license plate of the black four-door Chevy Impala that is usually parked here.

(See previous posts:

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/12261

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734 )

This minivan also has official plates, so my guess is the Impala is in the shop and its owner borrowed another John Jay car to drive home for the night. Because the thought of actually riding the D train, which goes right from John Jay College to this location, must be unbearable.

The agency business permit being abused in this case is supposed to be used for no more than three hours, and only for business purposes. Cars with official plates are supposed to be used by government officials "in the course of their official duties." But this car is usually parked all night and on weekends in a no-parking zone. I'll give its driver a small amount of credit for trying to avoid blocking the crosswalk as much as possible while still parking illegally.

So here we have what I suspect is a violation of the use of an official car, a placard use violation, and the wrong placard in the wrong car. Will any of this ever be enforced? Of course not. Therefore, DOT needs to raise the striped no-parking area into a sidewalk extension/bulb-out. The only way to truly prevent parking abuse is to make it physically impossible.

Note the Mercedes to the left that is also violating the no-parking zone. (This was during a Yankee game.) The driver was in the car at the time this photo was taken, so presumably he'd move if asked. Not that that makes it any better.

Blocking crosswalk in the middle of the street

Since we last checked in ( http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/10734 ) on this apparent plate abuser / placard abuser from John Jay College, nothing has happened except he or she has updated his or her placard after the old one expired on Feb. 1, 2010.

PLACARD VIOLATION:

This is an Agency Business Parking Permit that is to be used for no more than 3-hours at a time while on official agency business. Yet, the car is parked overnight most nights and all day on weekends in a residential neighborhood 100 blocks north of the campus.

PLATE VIOLATION:

This person is using a car that has official plates. According to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles ( http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/mv653.pdf ): "A vehicle assigned Official plates must be owned or controlled by a political subdivision and operated by its employees, or specifically designated agents thereof, in the course of their official duties."

It seems unlikely that this car is being used for official duties, violating both the reason for having official plates and the Agency Business Parking Permit. However, there is the possibility that this is legit. Besides parked next to a number of apartment buildings, the car is also being parked across the street from the Bronx County Courthouse. Is there is some reason why a person from John Jay College would need to have a car parked across the street from the Bronx County Courthouse during nights and weekends? It is not inconceivable. If that is the case, I will stand corrected and withdraw this allegation of misuse of placard and plates. Only the UncivilServants FOIL request can help answer that question.

A FINAL NOTE OF IRONY:

John Jay College trains students to become law enforcement personnel. It is a little ironic that a member of that school is apparently failing to uphold the law in his or her own personal life. This pretty much speaks to the larger problem here, no?

I probably wouldn't care that much about this situation if the car wasn't always parked in the crosswalk.

wrong plate, wrong precinct, wrong idea