Junior Connor McGivney claims he was arrested for doing a favor for a stranger. He was arrested, two weeks ago, for paying someone else's parking meter fee.
McGivney had planned to get to class early April 12 to leave time to study before a quiz. He barely made it on time.
That morning, McGivney and his girlfriend were walking down the right side of Amstel Avenue toward South College Avenue. About half way down the street, McGivney noticed a Newark Parking Division truck driving slowly behind him. He also noticed an expired meter.
"And I'm like, 'oh shit, I'm gonna save this person from getting a ticket,' " McGivney said. "Be a nice guy, you know."
As McGivney dropped a quarter in the meter, the truck behind him gunned the engine and screeched to a stop.
"This lady cop comes running up behind me yelling, 'What's your name? What's your name?' "
The officer refused to tell him what he did wrong, he said, so he refused to tell her his name. When the officer threatened to call backup, McGivney turned and walked away.
At the Smith Overpass bus stop, McGivney crossed paths with police again.
"Two cop cars came screeching in and parked all cock-eyed on the street like they're going to a bank robbery," he said.
McGivney still had no idea what he did wrong. When the officer asked for his name without stating his charge, McGivney resisted.
"So he asked me my name and I said 'No, what's your name?' " McGivney sarcastically replied before names were exchanged.
When Corporal David Kerr issued McGivney a citation for "interfering with a parking enforcement officer," he refused to sign it.
"I was being a jerk, just because if I were like a 30 year-old-guy walking down the street, they totally wouldn't have flipped out at me like that," McGivney said. "It's ridiculous. It just shows that they don't care about the well-being of the citizens of Newark. They're just out to make the kids afraid of them.
"What if it was his car, you know? He probably would have thanked me."
McGivney pleaded not guilty to the charge. His court date is pending.
To say McGivney was just doing someone a favor might be giving him too much credit.
For all I know, he was, as is suspected by the officer, just teasing her. Not surprisingly, the police officers involved in the case deny some of the more extraordinary parts of McGivney's story, including the tire screeching, yelling and "cock-eyed parking" of police vehicles.
But even if McGivney wasn't wronged by the police, the city code may leave all of us at risk of becoming victims of our own good nature.
Lt. Susan Poley, director of the parking division of the Newark Police Department, told me it is illegal to put money in an expired parking meter while an officer is writing a ticket for that car. That, she said, is interfering with the officer's job.
The violation is outlined in Article III Section 20 of the Newark Municipal Code. It reads:
"No person shall interfere with or hinder any police officer or any duly authorized parking enforcement officer in the performance of traffic law enforcement."
Some uncertainty clouds the issue of whether the officer was, in fact, in the act of writing a ticket when McGivney put money in the meter. McGivney says the officer was in her truck and the officer says she was standing outside it.
But according to Poley, this detail is irrelevant. It is illegal, she said, to pay another person's meter fee.
How does picking up the parking tab for someone else hinder a parking officer from completing her job? With the code written in the open-ended way it is, almost anything could be deemed interference.
Vaguely defined laws frighten me. Maybe they make me uncomfortable because I am a writer. I like language to be clear. And, as a citizen, I like rules that have specifically defined parameters. Giving a parking officer the power to arbitrarily decide what is or isn't interfering with her job just doesn't work for me - especially if paying another person's meter fee is considered interference.
I have enough trouble paying my own meter fees. But until I see a law that explicitly states that it is illegal to drop a quarter in someone else's parking meter, I will pay any meter fee I want to.
But next time I run out of the coffee shop to throw a quarter in the meter for a friend, I'll put him on look-out for the meter maid.
--------------------- Pat Walters is a news features editor for The Review. Please send comments to walters@udel.edu
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our feed
Contact us through email
Be the first to comment on this article!