----- Original Message ----- From: energyteacher To: university city list Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 11:59 AM Subject: [UC] tickets for litter?
I know there has been some discussion on the list about bogus tickets for litter being received months after the supposed offense. How have people handled them? I've got a hearing early in April and I'm wondering how to handle it. Any help or advice is appreciated. I was forced to take another continuance by the city, so I'm still waiting my trial outcome. Please refer to the April 11, 2007, UC Review article. In that report and addressing your immediate problem; Streets Deputy Commissioner, Carlton Williams, is shown lying about the delivery of the tickets. As the city official in charge, he claims that they leave these on the spot unless they cannot reach your door and mail slot! I complained to the mayor and this Commissioner Williams told me directly that the Dept of Administrative Adjudication sends us the tickets in one week when his officers can't reach our doors. He knows nothin about the 4 month delay 'cause it ain't his job! That's right, everyday for years, the 2 city departments are compelling citizens to hearings and then court, but it ain't the bosses job, sitting behind a PO box with a one -way telephone line, to understand the process! Look at your tickets. Do these have at least 2 different handwriting styles? This will support your claim that the tickets arrived approximately 4 months after the date and were not left at your house like Williams' claims. How could these tickets be given on the spot when obviously these have been handled, for years, by more than one individual? All three of mine have at least two different handwriting styles. My tickets don't give any clue about any real violation. Restating the city code does not give any of us an opportunity to know what we are accused of doing wrong. "Premises must be clean and litter free" is so subjective that it means nothing, is incredibly intimidating, and of course, is impossible to defend against. It also means that enforcement officers have no need to come to your house!!!!!!!!! It is a fact that these local officers are taking addresses provided via phone by UCD executives. Has anyone ever seen these trash police patrolling the streets in the numbers that would be necessary to generate so many tickets as our neighborhood has received???? Would Campus Apts continue to violate trash rules for blocks and blocks, presumably for years, if trash police were patrolling the neighborhood and equally enforcing the laws???? The neighbors I've spoken with are frustrated, intimidated, and angry about this assault against their home. They have the same feelings about the city's contempt, when passing out these tickets for UCD, while giving UCD board members a free pass to violate all sanitation rules. (Important note, whether you are going to an adjudication hearing or before a municipal court judge like me, the Dept of Finance has nothing more to offer the judge than what is written on your ticket.) You are simply being intimidated to pay because it is not yet worth your time. They don't have pictures of some wind blown candy wrapper that may have settled in front of your house 4 months in the past. Don't worry about that possibility! This city-wide and neighborhood problem is serious and should not be accepted. I hope you don't just pay them. Remember, at some point these tickets can come daily or weekly! A local dissenter and activist against Penn's agenda was dragged into court like me several years ago. The message to him was clear! This entire process overwhelmingly assumes your guilt and that is why this entire process is a fundamental violation of our constitutional right to due process. Theoretically, municipal governments are required to observe our theoretical rights as US citizens as much as the federal government. In the past, forcing a citizen before a judge without a specific accusation, without the opportunity to confront their accuser, and without the option of confronting evidence would have seemed absurd in the US. In this trash process, you are guilty first and can only state what you know to be true; "i didn't break any rules; I am innocent." Whatever you do, do not waste your time going to Jannie Blackwell. I have tried to get a meeting with her for an entire group of citizen volunteers to speak with her about this problem. For nine months, I have gone repeatedly to the office, made phone calls, and e-mails essentially begging the staff to allow we citizens the right to petition our elected representative about our grievances. The staff don't even have the professionalism to respond and are obviously in support of this harrassment. (Her office monitors this listserv so I'm not going to bother forwarding this message to the unbelievably unprofessional staff. Honestly, I believe a federal class action suit asserting that the people of Philadelphia are being deprived of our civil rights is necessary) (Take pictures of your house. I was told the nasty man at the adjudication hearing I had in 2003 has been replaced. I was told that some of the people behind the scenes back then were arrested in a previous scandal. I was told that the adjudicator is someone more responsible. If you are going to municipal court, Gerri Leno is just another jerk and she will attempt to intimidate you. Talk to the judge and ignore her. Hopefully you won't go through the hell to which I am being subjected.) Sorry for the late response, I was out of town. If you have any specific issues or questions, please feel free to contact me. I'd like my enormous waste of time over this to gain some value. Good luck! Glenn . Lorna Sophia {{(*_*)}} Think About What You Think About www.TheLawofAttractionTeacher.com Launching March 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.8/1340 - Release Date: 3/23/2008 6:50 PM