This afternoon as I rounded the Square and turned onto Dean Street by the Opera House, there was a shiny, blue Honda FIT with Illinois license X64 0320 parked in the first parking space on Dean. No problem with that, except the car was facing the wrong way on Dean Street.
The driver had to have driven across the center line against the flow of traffic and dangerously near the corner, in order to park with the driver’s door against the curb. This put the front of the car very near the crosswalk.
How would the driver leave? Did the driver think he was in England? Would the driver turn left and go around the Square the wrong way? Would the driver get involved in an accident when pulling away from the curb, if a car turning off the Square rounded the corner? Would the driver make a sweeping right turn to go around the Square in the correct direction? Would the driver stop for the stop sign by Angelo’s?
Having all these questions in mind, I telephoned Woodstock P.D. and asked for an officer to come and ticket the car. At the least, the car was parked in violation of state law by parking with the driver’s door next to the curb on a two-way street.
Within about five minutes Woodstock’s unmarked car rolled up, and the officer stopped and appeared to begin writing a ticket. Shortly after that, a young woman walked to the car and entered. I called to the officer that the driver was entering the car.
She started up, drove out of the parking spot and proceeded to turn right across the oncoming turn lane to head east on Van Buren, in the correct direction of travel around the Square. The officer did not attempt to stop her, and I inquired whether he intended to ticket her, as I had requested of the dispatcher. He replied that she worked in the Opera House.
“Gee, is that supposed to make a difference?” I wondered to myself.
I said that I hoped he would ticket her, while two or three cars pulled around the stopped police car. He pulled away, and I’ve been wondering all evening whether he caught up with her and wrote her a couple of tickets – one for parking unlawfully and the other for driving on the wrong side of the road.
It’s interesting that a young woman employee of the Opera House, who committed two moving violations and a parking violation, didn’t even get stopped before she could drive out of the officer’s sight.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
17 comments:
Does anyone really say "Gee" to themselves?
Only the crazy who have nothing else to worry about. the police are hated when the give tickets and hated when they give breaks.
No, I don't believe the police are hated when they give tickets. They may be disliked when they issue tickets for reasons other than the specific violation. When enforcement is uneven, when moving violations are passed up, when equipment violations are ticketed in spite of evidence of a frequent, recurring equipment failure that was always promptly repaired, when a light was out for only 20 minutes, then that action may be suspect. When a break is given by not even stopping the violator immediately and letting her drive out of sight, is this right? Because she is recognized as an Opera House employee? When the response was due to a citizen's complaint?
Mommy, Mommy, there picking on me.......
20 minutes 20 hours twenty days. 100% compliance is 100% compliance despite "evidence" to the contrary (your protestations?)
Be careful. You used the wrong "they're" and the grammar police will spank you.
Thanks for the tip on the grammatical error. I re-read the article and don't find the error. Will you please indicate where you found the error? Thanks.
Of course you didn't. This is about those who are always right correcting those who are always wrong. The error was in the comment "Mommy, mommy, There picking on me. Your friend from Tulsa should have found it.
I don't correct typos, grammatical errors and punctuation of readers who are kind enough to post comments here. Nor do I comment on them. Sometimes a person will write a word or contraction and, after posting, review it and see that their brain heard the thought/word one way and their fingers wrote it another. No option here exists to edit a comment, once it has been posted. I hope to stimulate, motivate, encourage comments, not stifle them. Someone once said, "It is a strange and narrow-minded man who can spell a word only one way." (or something to that effect)
The Police are here to protect those of us that obey the law, not to protect the ones that blatently violate it. As someone who is on the square most every day, it upsets me when they do nothing to the people who park in the crsswalk or handicap spot to run to the Chase Bank ATM machine.
No, I think Hizzoner Richard M. Daley got it right way back in the late sixties. Look it up.
Oh boy, I get to correct myself before one of you does! It was Richard J. Daley.
And what was it that Mayor Richard J. Daley got right way back in the late 1960s?
To anon (7:41PM): re the illegal crosswalk and handicap zone parkers, how about doing two things?
1. Call the PD (338-2131) and ask the officer for the "beat" that includes the Square (Beat 22) to respond and ticket the vehicle. Provide the location, make, model, color and license plate. Then watch and see what happens when the officer arrives. If he sees the violation and doesn't issue a ticket, email rlowen@woodstockil.gov
2. Post the vehicle description and license plate here on www.WoodstockAdvocate.com
There used to be an officer on foot on the Square, and there may even now be a CSO (Community Service Officer) on the Square. Call the PD and discuss the problems with him. Ask that tickets be issued; no warnings.
Let us know what happens.
Too busy to look it up? Mayor Daley said that "The policeman was not there to preserve disorder. He was there to create disorder.
Oops, forgot my end quotes. Spankings again from the grammar police.
I just love spankings... ooooh, stop!
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