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Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

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Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#111

Post by magpi3 »

tzs wrote: post #77

> That’s the Philly euphemism for what is formally known as “relocation towing” — when the police department, Philadelphia Parking Authority, or a private towing company moves vehicles from legal parking spots for special events, construction or emergencies. > Problem is, the city doesn’t have a modern, reliable way to track the vehicles’ new locations, leaving owners wandering the streets for days or weeks, looking…

They could just enter the license plate and an intersection into a simple database so the PPA could look it up when asked. Using Google Forms would be an adequate solution. It's just not worth their time.

EDIT: or even a picture of their license plate would capture the GPS coordinates in the image file itself. It would be so incredibly simple to at least capture the data.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#112

Post by maxfurman »

mindslight wrote: post #87
gshulegaard wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone relatively new to Philly, I am not at all surprised by the need for relocation towing. In the immediate Philadelphia metro area, but outside center city parking is extremely sparse. It's not uncommon for me to help squeeze neighbors into barely large enough parallel parking spots (by waving them in) at midnight. Some of these folks live more than 6 blocks away and purportedly were looking for parking after…

Was this comment written by GPT-3, or is it just contrarian for contrarianism's sake? Posted signs stating parking restrictions is the standard way of communicating parking restrictions, temporary or permanent. The notice window doesn't even have to be that long, although it's nice for it to be so that people can plan ahead. For example, in Boston it is illegal to stay parked in the same spot for more than 72 hours,…

In Philly, residents can get permits to park near their home for an unlimited time. So you could leave for a week's vacation and have your car "courtesy towed" from right outside your house by the time you got back even with 72 hours notice.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#113

Post by pcl »

elliekelly wrote: post #82
pcl wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago, I was pulled over while driving a rental car that had been reported stolen by an earlier renter a few weeks prior. I'm certainly glad that the officers in Atlanta approached the situation professionally and without any cuffs involved.

Was it a Hertz car, by any chance? Because I believe they are currently being sued for doing that thousands of times.

No. And the rental agency seemed pretty blameless in the whole situation. A previous renter had reported the car stolen, but then found the car not long after. It turns out that anyone can report a car stolen, but only the owner can report it un-stolen, and I'm guessing the previous renter somehow forgot to mention the whole affair to the rental agency.

The rental agency ended up giving me a free rental and a credit for another free day or something on a future rental.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#114

Post by ryukafalz »

ceejayoz wrote: post #106
thewebcount wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the city supposed to know my cell phone number or email? I don't generally give them out. I give out my landline whenever I have to give out a phone number. And heck, there are plenty of people in a big city like Philly that don't have a cell phone, too. (And yes, some of them have cars, believe it or not.) Plus cell phones break, emails get sent to spam, etc. Putting a sign up at the place where you are likel…

> How is the city supposed to know my cell phone number or email? My email's on file with the DMV; I get emails when my plates are due for renewal. Local law enforcement likely has access to that database.

And even if they don’t, the DMV could set up an API for local parking authorities that’s basically “send an email to the owner of this license plate”.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#116

Post by eyelidlessness »

sokoloff wrote: post #103
eyelidlessness wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After I posted my comment above, I had to calm myself because I had a spike of anxiety remembering the details of my own experiences with police aggression, and the memory takes me far away from my body into a place of distilled fear. I’m remembering more as I type this. I think the word you’re looking for is “comprehend”. I do comprehend why police act aggressively without cause or warning. I don’t think it’s benign…

I’ve been detained, pushed down onto the trunk of the cruiser, handcuffed behind my back, patted down, put in the back, backup called, investigated, and released on the scene. The cop had a fairly reasonable reason to do what they did that turned out to be based on a false premise [I "matched the description" but wasn't the guy], I complied, and 15-20 minutes of my life was wasted. Was it awesome? Nope. Do I get that…

Please stop and ask yourself if you’re engaging in a harmful way, or if you could be more considerate about how other people experience police confrontations. My anxiety is through the roof from this interaction. I’m reliving physical and psychological trauma I don’t often revisit, including being bludgeoned while trying to get people to safety away from police and having guns drawn on me for asking about the safety of others.

I’m far from the most vulnerable to police abuse. If it’s affected me this much, I have no reason to doubt how much it’s affected people who are more vulnerable. If having my relatively mild experience so callously dismissed feels like being left on my own to suffer whatever trauma I remember, I can’t imagine how it feels for people who experience police violence alone.

No. I don’t give the police the benefit of the doubt. And you won’t convince me to by dismissing my relatively minor traumatic experience and expecting me to extend that dismissal to people who have much worse experiences.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#117

Post by rascul »

latchkey wrote: post #105

I've been fighting my city over bullshit $50-$110 parking tickets that are intended to curb homeless people living in their cars. That's right, kicking people when they are down. So far, I've won 4 of the tickets and a 5th is pending the process. The thing is that you have to pay the ticket, then fight it once (they automatically vote against you), then you appeal it, where they take a closer look at things, and then…

You have to pay before fighting it? That seems odd to me. The few tickets I received (Maryland and Mississippi) I had the option to pay or to go to court to fight it.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#118

Post by rascul »

_jal wrote: post #74
seibelj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get paid a fixed salary and can’t make a penny more until your union-negotiated contract says you can (more years of labor). You basically can’t get fired. Your job never changes and you can’t improve your job. You do the same thing day in and day out waiting for retirement. So you can screw with some people, maybe get a bribe to help them. It isn’t unreasonable to see why government employees are unhelpful - the…

> maybe get a bribe to help them Can you point to any bribery for common, "retail" interactions with local governments? Outside the south? I'm actually curious, I didn't think most of the country was that far gone yet.

Why outside the south? Is there something special about the south so that the police take more or less bribes or something?

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#119

Post by latchkey »

rascul wrote: post #117
latchkey wrote: post #105

I've been fighting my city over bullshit $50-$110 parking tickets that are intended to curb homeless people living in their cars. That's right, kicking people when they are down. So far, I've won 4 of the tickets and a 5th is pending the process. The thing is that you have to pay the ticket, then fight it once (they automatically vote against you), then you appeal it, where they take a closer look at things, and then…

You have to pay before fighting it? That seems odd to me. The few tickets I received (Maryland and Mississippi) I had the option to pay or to go to court to fight it.

Yea, that's the messed up bit. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, this puts a huge dent in your cash flow. I'm convinced this is intentional.

Re: Philly pays $30K to two 'courtesy' tow victims, but class-action suit continues

#120

Post by soulofmischief »

lolinder wrote: post #30

> That’s the Philly euphemism for what is formally known as “relocation towing” — when the police department, Philadelphia Parking Authority, or a private towing company moves vehicles from legal parking spots for special events, construction or emergencies. I can see needing to move a vehicle in an emergency, but for special events and construction this shouldn't be needed in most cases. The city knows months in adv…

This happened to me last year on my own property in my own parking space, and my landlord refused to tell me for weeks and weeks who towed my car, and then refused to pay the fee.

I want to sue (towing fees became larger than what I put into the car) but I have no idea how to proceed? I don't have a family to depend on for this kind of advice. The market has been so insane since that I still haven't purchased a new car.

Open to any advice about how to not let these bastards win. My car was straight stolen from my parking spot, with everything inside.

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