From Newsgroup: rec.bicycles.misc

On 27 Jan 2022, RichA <rander3127@gmail.com> posted some news:ssu8ir$nhk1$2@news.freedyn.de:

Snag wrote

When the libs are getting nervous

The driver, who racked up more than $2,000 in traffic fines in NYC alone,
was not charged with any crime, despite the mayor's vow to crack down on "ghost cars."

In a perfect world, youAd think the NYPD would have it out for drivers who illegally obscure their license plates. After all, New York City Mayor
Eric Adams recently called for a crackdown on so-called oghost cars.o But
if you know anything about the NYPD, you wonAt be surprised to hear that a cyclist who pulled a piece of plastic off an illegally obscured license
plate ended up being arrested, while the offending driver was let go.

Hell Gate reports that cyclist Adam White, who is also a lawyer, saw the
piece of plastic covering a letter of the license plate on this Chevy
Suburban and pulled it off. Generally speaking, you should leave other peopleAs cars alone. But when they illegally cover their license plate so
they can avoid tolls, evade red-light cameras and speed cameras, and
generally put others at risk, we say go for it.


oI do think itAs a very important issue,o White told Hell Gate. oDrivers
need to be held accountable.o

One small mistake White made, though, is that he didnAt realize the driver
was still in the car. He said, oThe guy in the driverAs seat jumps out,
comes out really fast, starts yelling at me: aIAm gonna call the cops!A aGreat,A I said. aCall the cops!o

White had the pictures on his phone of the blatantly illegal license plate cover, the driver was there holding the piece of plastic, and yet, when
law enforcement showed up, they decided to arrest White and let the driver
go.

Allegedly, he had committed the crime of ocriminal mischief,o which
involves orecklessly damaging property over $250.o Yeah, sure. WeAll see
if that charge sticks, but it seems unlikely.

The identity of the driver has yet to be revealed, but White previously
caught the driver with the same illegally obscured plate back in August.


Run the plate, and it appears the driver got tired of being ticketed, so
they came up with this one neat trick to get away with breaking the law in 2021 u by breaking yet another law. But apparently, that particular law doesnAt apply to them since the NYPD let them go.


Although at least theyAve paid most of their fines.


As you can imagine, White is not happy about the way this went down. oItAs wrong, itAs so wrong, to have the cops arrest a citizen for this,o he
said. oIt emboldens this sort of illegal act. TheyAre basically conspiring with drivers to obstruct their platesa ItAs basically saying itAs
perfectly fine. It makes my blood boil.o

It would be great if the NYPD actually took this kind of thing seriously.
But letAs just say weAre not holding our breath.

<https://jalopnik.com/nypd-arrests-cyclist-lets-driver-go-ghost-car- 1849785539>

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