I think the article misstates this. They’re normally legal spots, but at the time of the special event, they’re not legal.(Usually temporary signs are placed a day or two in advance.)
> (Usually temporary signs are placed a day or two in advance.) Based on the stories here, not not sure this is happening.
Even if it is, that’s not sufficient to inform car owners to move their vehicles. Where I live, all public parking (whether you have a parking permit or park in spots which don’t require one) has a 72 hour limit. If you put up temporary No Parking signs with less than 72 hours notice, you’re guaranteeing many people will have their cars towed inappropriately.
For a reported stolen car/felony stop, it seems pretty reasonable that they'd handcuff the driver before checking the driver's license and discovering it matches the registration.
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.
Temporarily depriving somebody of their property counts, these towings are clearly theft. The actually interesting legal question revolves around who (if anybody) is liable in this situation.
Do you have a source for that? My googling suggests the opposite.
That’s what happens in my area. Signs go up a week or so in advance saying you’ll be towed if parked there past date X.
The "posted signs" thing is an unimpressive solution in 2022 imho and they should really email you or text you "hey move your car please" etc. As a thought experiment, imagine that the city government was motivated to find a car's owner for some reason, perhaps as a suspect or witness of a serious crime etc. Meaning if they have your plate number and think you're a murderer, they will definitely find you and communic…
In my city at least the weekly street cleaning requires you to move your car weekly. So signs posted a week ahead are typically not as bad. Though the police did once us my apartment buzzer to tell me to move my car, it didn’t always happen (I’ve been towed twice in my 2 decades in the city)..
Also when they tow you it’s to a lot, they don’t just dump you on some other street like in Philly.
> If I take something which doesn't belong to me, say from a store, and move it two blocks away and put it down, I would still be stealing right? No, not if you don’t intend to deprive the rightful owner of it (although good luck convincing anyone that you lacked such intent). https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/theft > Theft is the taking of another person’s personal property with the intent of depriving that person of…
Thank you for highlighting the key distinction and referencing a source with more information. > although good luck convincing anyone that you lacked such intent So it sounds like in the courtesy towing context, the city claims that it doesn't have any intent to deprive people of the use of their property, but it's behaving in a way which a reasonable person would totally anticipate would lead to people being unable…
That's what I was thinking. I'm sure a good lawyer could argue that, if they have a reasonable way of informing the owner, but they don't do so, they are in fact intending to deprive them of the vehicle.
For a reported stolen car/felony stop, it seems pretty reasonable that they'd handcuff the driver before checking the driver's license and discovering it matches the registration.
After reading the article but before reading the comments, I thought to myself, people will defend all manner of awful things, even when they’re this clear cut . Sure wish I’d been wrong. Being forcibly detained is traumatic. Especially when you know you’re being detained wrongly. I’m speaking from experience here, and as someone who has received a settlement in a wrongful arrest suit. There’s nothing reasonable abou…
On the spectrum of police behavior, this is left of zero for sure, but pretty benign and easy to understand.
> 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…
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, so the city puts up signs at least 3 days ahead of time. If a car is still parked somewhere, it has either violated the temporary restriction or the 72 hour rule. Also if a car is towed, it's towed to a city lot rather than a random street. Getting your car out of a tow lot sucks but at least it's predictable. Problem solved - there is nothing "complex" about this.
> No, the asset is being moved, not retained by the mover I don't get this argument. If I take something which doesn't belong to me, say from a store, and move it two blocks away and put it down, I would still be stealing right? Is the perpetrator required to 'retain' something for it to be theft? If I'm caught while stealing and drop the item, "I just moved it without the owners consent" probably isn't going to cove…
IANAL and haven't read the laws of Philly but it seems pretty obvious that moving your property off a public street is not considered theft.
But if a private individual did that, surely you would consider it theft? So where's the line, why's it OK for a private company but not a private individual? If I'm self employed and registered as my own company, can I do it then?
> 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…
On-street parking is an absurd concept in itself. There are no other social equivalents where you can occupy a general public-use space for free (!) for several days (!) without facing some form of consequences.
The side of the street is hardly general public-use. In most places it's explicitly for parking. And many (certainly almost all where I am, albeit not in a major city) parking lots don't enforce time limits or ensure you're there for some specific use of the space.