Citizen Tickets Cop

We’ve all seen it, the cop turning without his signal, speeding without his lights or siren on, or parking in a no parking zone when there was no emergency. Some people have had enough and done something about it, like minor youtube celeb, Jimmy Justice, who goes around new York City videotaping and questioning city employees, traffic wardens, and police about their illegal parking. His actions, although entertaining, and awareness raising serve to do little other than to piss off the state actors involved. A young lawyer in Oregon has taken a different approach, using his knowledge of the law he has figured out how a citizen can issue parking tickets to police, and has already done so at least once.

As the Portland Mercury reports, Eric Bryant was sitting in a Japanese resturant when he saw a cop park under a no parking sign, then come inside, order lunch, and started watching the game on TV. When Bryant asked the officer about his choice in parking spots he acknowledge that he was parked in a no parking zone, but that there was nothing wrong with that as he was a cop. The officer then asked “If someone broke into your house, would you rather have the police be able to park in front of your house or have to park three blocks away and walk there?”

According to Bryant “If he had acknowledged and corrected his error, we could have avoided this whole thing but instead, he kept watching basketball and told me he wasn’t doing anything wrong.” This bothered Eric, so he took the next step and initiated violation proceedings against Officer Stensgaard, racking up $540 in fines for the officer for “illegal parking, illegal stopping, obeying parking restrictions on state highways, and illegal operation of an emergency vehicle or ambulance” if the officer in convicted on his court date May 23rd.

My favorite quote from Mr. Bryant: “Citizens should be concerned that he used his status as an officer of the law as justification for breaking the law,”