Does it Look Like I Need Air In My Tire

I Dunno. I was leaving my office earlier today and I thought my car looked a little differant. Do I need some air in my tires. Somethings just not right. Oh Yeah! There's a boot on my car! Now that doesn't belong there. But that's only my opinion. According to the Canton Police Department this is precisely where a stinkin' boot belongs. But I Know what you're thinking. "Greg, If you don't pay your tickets, they will boot your car, it's not there fault. You can't get mad at them." WATCH ME.

I do understand that school of thought and I will spell it all out for you right here. Why don't you take a walk with me and we will go back to what the root of this problem is:

I get parking tickets. All of the parking around my office is two hour parking, just like any other downtown district. And I forget about the timing. So I deserve to get the tickets. And I know that. So I have planned to pay the tickets. But bear in mind, I am a freelance artist. I dont have a steady stream of money coming in. I have to do a project and then I can get paid. But projects aren't steady and even when they are, payment isn't steady. I have one outstanding invoice that is out right now and should have been paid some three months ago. That's what the real world looks like, not so pretty all the time. So I fully planned on paying my tickets, no biggy. I'm just waiting to get paid. The Canton Police Department leaves this little envelope on my car with a note in it that says if the tickets aren't paid they will immobilize my car (i figured i had at least a 30 day window). A threat that I didn't really beleave. Which was my own fault. If theres one thing I should know by now is that the City of Canton Police Department has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO. This tub of goo police officer comes around every day, every two hours with clockwork accuracy. I wish this cop caught me doing somethign illegal. I would just run away from him. Theres no way captain donut could catch me. I would actually run backwards part of the way just to taunt him. So he obviously isn't a real cop. More of a glorified meter maid. He just doesn't have to wear the meter maid outfit. He get's to wear the big boy police uniform. Two words: Meter Maid. I digress.

The Police Department here is almost a joke. If it weren't for the the real law inforcement agencies (GBI, FBI, ATF) combined with a rather excellent Cherokee County Sheriffs Department, the city of Canton would be out of control. It already is to a large extent. I have never in my live been to a place where narcotics were so rampant and easy to get. Heck, in the past year we've had two elected officials arrested for drugs. I mean. rediculous. So our CPD has nothing better to do than issue tickets. The big boys of law enforcement just won't let them do real law enforcement. They put their hands on the foreheads of the CPD and the CPD just keep swinging and missing like a little boy trying to hit his big brother. So I was way out of line not taking their threat seriously, my bad.

I hope that doesn't come off as a confession to you though because it's not, although I acknowledge needing to pay my tickets, I just dont feel like these are warented. Why? Because it's downtown Canton for crying out loud. It's not some huge bustling metropolis. Heck, its not a small bustling metropolis. There is almost NO retail stores areound here. Nobody here needs two hour parking. The two hour parking limit is a joke. All the businesses around here are pretty much lawyers offices and they spend most of their time with their clients across the street at the courhouse, not in their offices. So the city of Canton puts in this two hour parking limit so that we can feel more like a crowd attracting, retail district, because that's what we want it to be. "Come See Historic Downtown Canton". No, you come to see "historic downtown Canton" if you screwed up and you need a lawyer or an accountant to get you out of tax trouble. You dont come here for shopping and eating. So to make a long story longer, I think that the two hour parking is bologne. That's right, I said bologne, and I meant it.

Oh and remeber how I said that the officer comes around with clockwork accuracy, thats not even sarcasm. I wish it was. I parked one day and set the alarm on my phone for two hours. I went to work. The alarm went off a short two hours later. well I get up to go move my car and figure I have just a bit of time to make a restroom trip. I do exactly that. Flush. So I procede to getting downstairs and moving my car. I had a ticket on my car. That means this joker had to right down my license plate as soon as I parked and timed his menial life so perfectly that he could get back around exactly 2 hours and 1 minute later. I mean, for cryin out loud. Rediculous.

It was only a $25 fee (which means even the CPD thinks it's rediculous, anywhere else in the world and it would have been $60 -$600 to get the boot off.) But they know it's stupid. We all do.

Oh, and by the way. I was totally parked legally when they booted my car. That picture you see there is all day parking.