Top New Hampshire court sides with parking-meter 'Robin Hooders'

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - New Hampshire's highest court on Tuesday largely sided with a group of activists known as "Robin Hooders," finding that a city's efforts to crack down on their practice of feeding strangers' parking meters violated their free speech rights.

The activists have regularly fed parking meters in downtown Keene, a small city in southwestern New Hampshire, and placed cards on windshields with a picture of Robin Hood stating: “Your meter expired! However, we saved you from the king's tariff!"

The merry band has also followed and at times confronted the parking enforcement officers, all the while recording their activities.

In 2013, the city of Keene sought to impose a buffer zone preventing the activists from interacting with or recording the officers on the grounds that they were creating a hostile work environment and thereby interfering with its contract with the employees.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/top-hampshire-court-sides-parking-meter-robin-hooders-154658477.html

[7962]

1. Thats wonderful!

I dont know about a "free speech" issue, but there's no way it should be illegal to put money in a meter regardless of who is parked next to it.

[appal_jack]

2. Well, many courts in the US pretty much equate money and speech.

Since no Court Justice asked my leave before unleashing Citizens United, I 'll just choose to enjoy this rare occasion when the money=speech rationale helps the 'Robin Hood'ers.

k&r,

-app

[7962]

3. I dont agree withe THAT one for sure!

To me money does not equal speech because all persons should have equal free speech protection. So you shouldnt have more "speech" just because you have more money than I do
I wonder if an "equal protection" argument would have carried any weight in the CU case?

[jmowreader]

4. Have you seen what they do?

What they do to the meter maids during their "Robin Hooding" trips:

And sometimes they intentionally get parking tickets so they can do this:

Sovereign citizens like the "free staters" need to get fucking stuffed.

[7962]

6. Oh jeeze. What a douchebag. I might have to take it all back. Dammit!!

Why do people have to be that way??? Why couldnt you just walk up and put a coin in the damn meter? I've seen other cases where thats all that was being done and thats what I thought this was.
Heck, the cop couldve written him a ticket for disturbing the peace!!

[christx30]

7. I think the idea is to make their jobs difficult,

so they quit. No one does the parking enforcement, then no one gets a ticket.

[jmowreader]

8. Exactly...

Since "Free Keene" came on the scene a few years ago, I have been told the turnover at City Hall is exceptionally high. There's only so much shit one person should rightfully be required to endure, and those little douchebags give you that much every time you go on patrol. They also LOVE to do crap like run unregistered cars with "Shire Society" license plates, so they can be taken to court and claim the judge can't do anything to them because he doesn't have "jurisdiction."

[7962]

23. But when does it rise to the level of harrassment?

A 'ticketable" offense? I would say yelling at someone with a bullhorn and following them around honking a horn would certainly qualify

[davidpdx]

10. What a bunch a pricks

[davidpdx]

11. I agree, what a bunch of pricks

Essentially they are sitting there wasting the judge's time.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

14. Dumb asshole really thinks he's smart - but has no understanding

Anyone that parks in a stall with a meter, tacitly agrees to abide by the rules governing parking at the meter. To harass the workers trying to do their job should be criminal. If you want to change the laws or regulation. you need to work at the top of the pyramid, not the bottom.

Abusive, ignorant fucks!

BTW: Plugging people's meters is OK by me, but not the harassment.

[jeff47]

5. "Confront" vastly understates what they do to the parking officers.

If you ever need to illustrate white privilege, just show the videos from this group. And note that none of them have been shot yet.

[Demeter]

9. Keene's always more off-center than the rest of the state

which means perpendicular to normal...

[Vinca]

12. Good. I don't know why Keene was making such a fuss about this.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

15. Watch the videos.

[Vinca]

17. I live in the area so I'm aware of the situation.

If the city had just ignored the meter feeding those doing it would have tired of it and it would have gone away. Either way, Keene is getting its parking fees.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

18. Are you absolutely sure about that?

[Vinca]

19. I'm not absolutely sure of anything.

But if they'd left them alone to feed their quarters into the meters for a few weeks, chances are the "perps" would run out of interest or run out of money and give it up. There would have been no harassment of town employees if they'd just let the people feed the meters. Keene was still getting their money after all, although I do appreciate the fact small towns love expired meters so they can nail you with a much bigger fine.

[Arkana]

13. Why wouldn't they? Feeding meters isn't illegal.

[jmowreader]

16. Feeding meters was never the problem

If you read this article:

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/06/09/split-ruling-on-keene-nh-parking-meter-robin-hoods/

you'll see Free Keene actually LOST this case.

The city wants to be paid for parking. They care not where the payment comes from - if someone wants to get a ten-pound sack of quarters and plug meters all day long, that's fine with them. These "free staters" (they are trying to turn Keene into a "voluntaryist society" by running off the government - google Mohammad Farrah Aidid if you want to see how well THAT shit turns out) also run around abusing the meter maids, and this they DO care about.

The city wrote an ordinance that put a buffer zone between the Free Staters and the meter maids. A lower court overturned it on First Amendment grounds; the city appealed and the supreme court vacated the overturning and sent it back to the lower court because all the facts of the case were not taken into account.

I would support a 20-foot buffer zone, which balances the rights of the Robin Hooders to plug parking meters with the rights of the meter maids not to be harassed for doing their jobs in a peaceful manner.

[philosslayer]

20. This is unfortunate, and i'm surprised some here are supporting it.

Here's the impact:

-- People who are legitimately abusing parking privileges are being bailed out, and are getting out of fines that they should be paying. This reduces revenue that a city needs in order to run.

-- Parking Enforcement Officers are harassed, and less effective on their jobs because these yahoos follow them around, feeding meters. Ultimately, if the Robin Hooders kept it up, Parking Enforcement Officers would no longer be necessary, which would reduce the number of jobs.

Less revenue for the city, and fewer jobs. Whats not to love?

[FrodosPet]

21. If they REALLY are upset by parking meters, there's the "Cool Hand Luke" solution

[Fozzledick]

22. Just to put things in perspective

This is about the two-hour, 50 cent per hour meters on Main Street right in front of stores in the central business district.

There's a long term (10 hour) parking lot one block away where the meters are 20 cents per hour.

This lawsuit has less to do with feeding the meters per se than with stalking and harassing the meter readers while they do their job.