Here’s another one from the “Things I Had to Learn the Hard Way” file: Authority figures have a tendency to abuse that authority.
The city added a thousand-dollar insult to an already painful injury when it demanded that a Brooklyn cyclist pay for damage to the police car that struck and sent him flying.
“I think it’s preposterous,” said Justin Johnsen, 31, who received the $1,263.01 bill from the city last month for the Nov. 5 accident on Flushing Avenue that left him with deep cuts that required stitches…
“They should be sending an apology letter instead of a bill,” fumed lawyer Daniel Flanzig, who took the case pro bono after learning that the city was threatening to sue Johnsen if he didn’t cough up the cash…
Although the two cops in the car — including the driver, Sgt. Conrad DePinto, — were “pretty friendly” to him after the crash, they were “not apologetic at all,” Johnsen said.
I know a little something about that. The guy who hit me with a State Department SUV three years ago, one Mike McGuinn, was nice enough to call the number on the business card I gave him — the Daily Caller offices — as I lay in the street with a shattered knee. I guess he thought that was his way of making it up to me. Although he probably regretted that act of “kindness.” If his cellphone number hadn’t been on our switchboard, and Tucker hadn’t called him back the next day to get more information, we still might not know who hit me and where he worked. McGuinn never identified himself to me at the scene, and the cops didn’t tell me who did it either. Even as they were handing me that phony jaywalking ticket.*
Anyway, back to New York City’s corruption. This isn’t the first time the NYPD has done this kind of crap, and I get the feeling it won’t be the last. Just check out that exact figure: $1,263.01. There’s no such thing as “take a penny, leave a penny” when it comes to any form of government. They want every damn cent they can squeeze out of you. Especially when you inconvenience them by daring to go about your day in a lawful manner.
Welcome to the future.
(Hat tip: Susan Patrick)
*Speaking of which, there was a new development on that recently, but I’m too exhausted to get into it. Suffice it to say that I’m stuck somewhere between the government’s ineptitude and its ability to diffuse blame until it disappears completely. “Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence,” the old saying goes. Until three years ago last February 3, I never realized how well the two can abet each other.