We’ve been brought up with the notion that no one is above the law, least of all the people who serve and uphold it.
But does that really happen in real life? One man from Albuquerque, New Mexico tends to disagree, at least when it comes to how city and state employees park their cars. A resident of downtown Albuquerque, Fermin Aguilar sees illegally parked cars near his home on a daily basis.
The trouble is most of the vehicles in question belong to city or state agencies. He’s become frustrated with this, especially since regular people like himself get hit with tickets immediately after parking illegally, while government employees don’t.
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To raise awareness to this problem, Aguilar gathered more than 400 photos of illegal parking jobs by city and state workers – especially city officials and law enforcement. “Parked on the crosswalks, parked on the yellow. One scenario in my video was parking in the fire lane and walking over and giving people tickets,” Aguilar says in a news report by KRQE television station.
He’s taken photos of illegally parked government cars in downtown Albuquerque for more than a year now. KRQE TV has brought the images to the attention of the Department of Municipal Development which runs the city’s parking division.
“He’s right, that’s not fair and we’re working to fix that. We’re adding measures that make it easier for our officers and city employees to park,” said Department of Municipal Development Spokesperson, Johnny Chandler. That’s an interesting statement that implies the current parking conditions for city employees are difficult – but aren’t they the same for the regular taxpayer?
Many of Aguilar’s photos were taken on Fourth Street, where the city recently added barriers to prevent law enforcement officers and other drivers from parking. According to the city, officers can park at the yellow curbs marked ‘No Parking’ only during an emergency of if they are dropping off a prisoner.