She was on her way to get a cup of coffee around 6:30 in the morning when the offense occurred. A Sanitation Agent saw her, pursued her, demanded identification and threatened her with a steeper fine and incarceration if she didn't comply. A Sanitation Agent? Wow! I didn't even know there was such a thing.
Granted New York trash containers are not to be used for household or business refuse and are so labeled, including the fact there will be a fine. Considering how often there are garbage strikes and the stuff piles up like mountains smelling like anything but, you'd think a small bag of newspapers wouldn't be an offense that deserves a ticket. But then, it is New York. Heck, she could have just dumped them! Who knows, maybe they don't have recycling in her neighborhood. Or maybe at 83 she gets a little fuzzy, saw the bag of papers as she was leaving home and decided to take them to the trash container.
What amazes me even more, however, is that Sanitation Department has a "platoon of enforcement officers" enforcing litter basket laws! To take it a step further they even do "detective work on trash suspected of being illegal"! What a job! Sifting through trash merely 'suspected' of being illegal in hopes of finding a name or address? I wonder what it pays!
I haven't been in the residential sections of New York for some time, but I find it difficult to believe the offenses are so bad the Sanitation Department needs an enforcement agency of it's own.
I think it's a segment of a department funded by the tax payers that should maybe be trashed!
1 comment:
Not a bad idea, Mari.
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