Would you take a $10 parking ticket to court?

[Belsnickel]

This isn't something from the news, but it is something going on local to me and the person involved is someone I've known for roughly 20 years. I'm leaving the name of the city out for privacy reasons.

Quote:So on Aug 24th, I sent something to started reaching out to Police Department and folks on the City Council about a "parking kerfluffle" that happened earlier that day. I sent out things kinda like this.

"I wanted to reach out because of the interaction I had with Police Department's Parking Authority. I was volunteering with a local nonprofit, so I parked downtown. I saw the officer walk down the street with her chalk, chalking all the tires.

I wasn't trying to be incredulous but I might have been trying to be defiant - I walked to my car and rubbed the chalk off the tire of my car. The officer came up to me (without a mask) screaming at me. YOU CAN'T DO, I COULD WRITE YOU UP, WHAT YOU'RE DOING IS ILLEGAL, I"LL STAND HERE THE NEXT TWO HOURS AND WATCH YOUR CAR, I KNOW WHAT YOUR CAR LOOKS LIKE AND I'M GOING TO KEEP AN EYE OUT.

I had my hands up in front of me to try to show this officer that I didn't want to be confrontational. A woman across the street was pulling her phone out - it looked like she was going to film the interaction. I apologized but asked the officer what exactly was illegal about me wiping chalk off the tire of my car. I've had interactions with law enforcement before, but I had never seen an officer so willing to raise her voice and threaten me. I joked with my family "I'm glad she didn't have a gun," but now I'm thinking that maybe it shouldn't be so much of a joke.

I'm sorry for trying to make mountains of molehills, but I wanted to bring up how the officer never told me what was illegal about what I had done. I called the SPD complaint number to try to get clarification and finally was able to speak with the Lt that oversees the parking enforcement. I relayed what happened to him and he mentioned that as far as he knows, there isn't any specific thing I could have been written up for.

He also acknowledged that what they are doing, chalking tires, has been deemed unconstitutional by the Federal 6th Circuit Court, but unless there was a challenge in the 4th Circuit Court they would continue to do what they're doing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_v._City_of_Saginaw

Parking is free in the parking garages and in the metered lots, but the city is still paying folks to patrol streets for cars parked longer than two hours and condoning legally dubious behavior. Because of today, I feel less safe parking downtown. There shouldn't have to be a series of appealed court cases making its way to Richmond for us to reexamine parking downtown."
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I ended up going to a City Council to make a stink about it and urged them in a united effort to make parking available for all.
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On Sept 2, I was volunteering downtown and had my car parked for 30 minutes. When I got back, there was a ticket on my car saying I was parked for over 2 hours. I ended up going to the police station and filled out a form contesting the ticket....today I got their response. "Not considered favorably." I got a letter saying I have to pay $10 or go to court. The ticket said they chalked my tires at 9:40 am, but I didn't leave the house until 9:50 am. I was in a Zoom meeting from 10:00 am to 11:10 am, sitting on the porch with my car parked in a driveway. We didn't get downtown until 11:15 am. The ticket was written at 11:40 am and I didn't see it until 11:45 am.

Mountains out of Molehills, some folks say just say pay the $10. But it's not just $10. It's $10 next month and it was $10 last month and it was $10 the month before that. And it's not just my $10, there are all sorts of folks who are getting nickled and dimed going downtown.
Even if it is $10, I am not interested in setting a precedent of admitting guilt for something I didn't do. I'm a law-abiding citizen, I'm innocent, and I look forward to my day in court.

I am WAY WEARIER of parking in Downtown .

So, would you take this situation to court? Do you think he was possibly targeted by the police department after his initial "kerfuffle"?

This guy is a year younger than me and I worked with him at our local Scout camp. He has been a libertarian for as long as I have known him, so that will explain his viewpoints.