June 28, 2007
Council Chairman Vincent Gray vs. U.S. Park Police
While playing softball down by the FDR memorial this evening, my team was a little shocked when we saw a park policeman not only issue a ticket to an illegally parked beemer, but bring in a tow truck. It wasn't until the tow truck had scraped it's bed underneath the beemer that a spandex-clad DC Council Member Vincent Gray came sauntering over to talk the cop out of taking his car away.
When someone on our softball team started taking pictures of the cops talking with Vincent Gray, one of the officers was angry. He walked over to us and demanded that I open our cooler, which was closed. Since there were empty beer cans inside, he wrote me a ticket for an open container. But I was not holding an open container, and I told him the cooler was not mine. There were several other softball teams nearby also drinking, but he only bothered us because one of our teammates took pictures of them letting Councilman Gray off the hook.
Another cop later told me that the officer who gave me the ticket was not allowed to order me to open the cooler. I wish I had known that at the time!
This is just one anonymous person's version of events, of course. Chairman Gray's communications director, Denise Reed, said that what happened was the car was quickly removed from the tow truck after Gray spoke to the officer, because it had originally been loaded on to the truck only due to "an error on the part of the U.S. Park Police." A spokesperson for the U.S. Park Police declined to comment on whether that was true or not, explaining that towing cars is such a small, routine part of what the Park Police does that it wasn't worth commenting on.
UPDATE: It's worth noting, as one commenter did, that the D.C. council did in fact vote to exempt itself from all parking tickets in 2002.
Photo by dctreehugger, via the DCist Tip line
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Uh, as lame an excuse as this is, I do believe that what Gray was probably doing was explaining that a couple of years ago the City Council exempted itself from having to obey any parking laws.
So, it's not a matter of the police officer letting Gray off the hook, it's a matter of the Council, themselves, being a bunch of self-serving losers who made themselves above the law.
summary: thug cop denies photographer due process. thug cop bows to pressure from (locally) powerful pol.
the system is broken. fuck it all, we're all screwed. i'm going to go hold up a bank this afternoon, anyone with me?
only if we can drink a 40 or two on the steps of the Lincoln memorial afterward.
- the english major
Speaking of trees, anyone else see that huge tree limb fall on a few cars last night on P St. NW near 17th? Nuts.....
(i miss the old posting names. now i just have to refer to [guest - timestamp] when replying to someone)
anyway, guest 3:50 pm, thanks for pointing this out. my apology to the thug cop then. he wasn't bowing to pressure from gray, he was just following the law. but my point stands, the system is broken. i want to be exempted from a lot of things too, do i just have to get elected and then write whatever law i don't want to follow out of the books?
Fuck the DC council and fuck the police!
Can the DC City Council exempt itself from federal law? I would highly doubt it. Parking violations on federal property (including National Parks) are, in fact, violations of federal law (either statute or regulation).
Of course, federal law also gives the US Park Police the authority to enforce any laws within DC, so if that officer was enforcing a DC law, then I guess the DC Council exemption would apply.
US Park Police are a bunch of motherfuckers.
What kind of screwy world view do you have when you get upset that in two separate but related cases the police officer did exactly the job he was supposed to in enforcing the law? Gimme a break.
Do you really expect anything less from D.C., this shit is ingrained here and will only be washed out if voters choose to do it. Which will be never.
(i miss the old posting names. now i just have to refer to [guest - timestamp] when replying to someone)
Agreed. The hilarious spur of the moment names people gave themselves always made me chuckle.
Holy crap - Vincent Gray's spandex is hiked up to his nipples.
He ought to be given some sort of fine just for that.
And it's true the DC Council exempted themselves from local parking tickets, but doesn't Park Service retain parking jurisdiction at places like FDR memorial?
How is it possible to allow a local government to exempt itself from the law??? I feel like an angsty teenager: "Dad, that is SO UNFAIR!" I'm goign to go listen to some dashboard confessional now.
- the english major
Umm...the other issue which people aren't talking about on here is the ticket for the "open" container of alcohol...how is that allowed if it was in a closed cooler?
"What kind of screwy world view do you have when you get upset that in two separate but related cases the police officer did exactly the job he was supposed to in enforcing the law? Gimme a break."
guest 4:30pm, i know you're referring to me here, since i'm the one who brought this up. i was not angry at the officer for enforcing the non-law of not ticketing council members because they exempted themselves from following the law (this is hurting my head just talking about it). i was angry (and still am) at the council members for decided to place themselves above the law.
as for the open container ticket, the officer unfairly coerced the person into opening their cooler. they were stupid for not knowing their rights RE: unlawful search. it just makes me mad that a cop would do that. point is, they know search and seizure procedures up and down, and that cop knew that what he was doing was not kosher. that's abuse of one's power, and it's neither fair nor professional. that's what i'm complaining about. a lack of professionalism, which is unfortunate, but somehow unsurprising.
"Holy crap - Vincent Gray's spandex is hiked up to his nipples."
Wins hands down for the funniest comment. In fact, it should be elevated to picture caption.
I'll go back to listening to Rage Against the Machine now...
who's the guy in the back with man boobies?
As a clarification....the Gray's car was blocking half the street, making it impossible for others to pull around him w/out crossing the double yellow line, just before a curve in the road, creating a public safety hazard.
If all the councilmember had done was disobey neighborhood parking permit or street cleaning regulations, I'd think this was no big deal and that the cop wasn't right in towing him.
The City Council may be immune to parking tickets for not paying the meter, but I highly doubt the immunity they granted themselves allows for leaving their car parked smack dab in the middle of the street without getting towed. If it does, why haven't they bothered to grant themselves immunity from inconvenient laws like DUIs and crack possession, too?
Ohhhhh, what a world, what a world.
So, who volunteers to send this to Mayor Fenty and the Washington Post for follow up?
Ja ja! Man boobies and Vincent's nipples.. too much, just too much.
I too was a witness to this event. What is saw and heard was a courteous and professional police officer deal with an irate power tripping councilman.
There were a few cars parked illegally in the area. By parking the cars in this particular area the width of the roadway is greatly reduced and therefore vehicles passing the illegally parked cars must cross the double yellow line. This area is on a curve and a hill which has poor visibility of opposing traffic therefore this is a traffic hazard.
The officer rode up on his bike and took out his ticket book. The owners of all the cars EXCEPT FOR THE COUNCILMAN approached the officer and asked if they could move their cars. The officer allowed them to move their cars without being ticketed. The officer then asked if anyone knew the owner of the BMW. After waiting a few minutes the officer wrote a ticket and placed it on the windshield.
About 20 minutes later the tow truck pulled up and started to hook up the BMW. The councilman ran up and started to yell at the officer. The officer kept his cool and asked the councilman to move his car because of the hazard it had created. The councilman repeatedly told the officer that he could park where ever he wanted to because he was a DC Councilman.
I heard the officer tell the councilman that he had personally warned the councilman on prior occassions about parking there. The councilman acknowledge that he had been warned and continued to tell the officer that he could park where he wanted.
The officer told the councilman that if he did not move the car the officer was going to have it towed to a safe legal space. The councilman finally realized he was going to lose and ran back to the softball field and returned with his keys and moved the car. The ticket the officer issued was still on the windshield. By the way the officer's supervisor arrived and told the councilman the same thing the officer did.
The officer was professional and courteous while standing his ground. The officer's objective was to open the roadway and he accomplished it. The councilman acted like a spoiled child who was not getting his way. As far as I am concerned the councilman showed a total and blatant disregard for public safety. Especially since he acknowledged that he was told not to park in that area before.
As far as the drinking the ticket. I know it is illegal to drink AND POSSESS alcohlic beverages on Park Service property. I watched the group nearest the incident repeatedly open up beer cans and pour them in to plastic cups. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what is in the cups and cooler.
Another officer showed up to assist with the irate councilman and as the situation was conlcuding he elected to address the obvious alcohol violations.
As far as any conversation with that incident I was too far away to hear it.
I've been at these softball games before, and although it is definitely illegal to have alcohol on the field, almost everyone does it. Most people are adult enough to keep it under control. You're just not supposed to flaunt it around the police because it forces them to write you up. I wonder if the officer cited them for taking the pictures - as was suggested - or because they continued to drink despite several officers being present.
A local government cannot exempt itself from federal tickets. From DC tickets, yes. Park Police tickets, no.
If guest 8:00 is a reliable witness, then Gray deserved not only to be towed, but also hog-tied and tossed into the reflecting pool. No wonder the cops around here are so grouchy....if I had to put up with that kind of abuse from low rent politicos with god complexes, I'd be seriously tempted to commit police brutality.
I do have to say that I've gotten ticketed by federal cops (Federal Protective Service) and it was a DC ticket. Are there special park police tickets for illegal parking at the monuments, etc?
From yet another person who was present at the scene....
The officer who was dealing with the councilman's car had been by earlier and told several softball teams to just be smart about their open containers -- he wasn't going to issue any tickets as long as no one opened a beer in front of him or left their Miller Lite box sitting out in the open (as one of the other teams had done).
Until they saw a camera flash go off, the cops didn't care one bit about the fact that a group of people were across the street drinking from plastic cups. There was no flaunting going on. No one opened beers while the cops were across the street. They just continued to hang out and watch what was going down.
It wasn't until someone started taking pictures that the one cop started to pay the slightest bit of attention to the people across the street. First he asked the person with the camera why she was taking pictures of something that had "nothing to concern her." Then he made a beeline for the cooler. He had no probable cause to ask to see what was in the cooler and his actions were purely in retaliation for the fact that a bystander was taking a picture. He didn't even ticket the person with the camera. He ticketed the person who was sitting on the cooler, despite the fact that she didn't have a cup in her hand and told him that the cooler didn't belong to her. He gave her the option of giving him her license or taking everyone else's license. So, she chose to "take one for the team."
This would be an easy ticket to fight, but it's only $25 -- not worth missing a day of work over.
The United States Park Police are able to enforce and write tickets under DC, Virginia and Maryland law as well as Federal Law. I believe in DC they generally write DC tickets unless the violation is not covered in DC Law. In those cases they will charge under Federal Law.
The Councilman may be able to have the parking ticket dismissed but he can't prevent the Officer from writing it and towing his car if it is a safety hazard.
I am curious to see if the Councilman has learned his lesson or if he is going to push it and park there again. It sounds like he just doesn't care about the safety of the public if he keeps parking in that area.
Does the exemption for parking apply to all vehicles the councilmen own and all the time? Or does it only apply to government vehicles and/or official business? The car, a BMW, does not appear to be a goverment car and I seriously doubt playing softball is official business.
Here is the statute exempting Councilmembers from certain parking restrictions...
D.C. Code § 50-2201.03
(c) Members of Congress or the Council may park their vehicles in any available curb space in the District of Columbia, when:
(1) The vehicle is used by the member of Congress or the Council on official business;
(2) The vehicle is displaying a Congressional or Council registration tag issued by the jurisdiction represented by the member; and
(3) The vehicle is not parked in violation of a loading zone, rush hour, firehouse, or fire plug limitation.
(Was Gray "on official business"?)
He was playing softball. I seriously doubt that was official business. He har regular tags on his vehicle with a dashboard placard stating he was a councilman.
I wonder how his spokesperson is going to spin his softball games as official business.