It’s time to hold up the paint pen and screwdriver.
I’ve been biking round city for about three months fixing deliberately defaced license plates, peeling off tape that’s obscuring a quantity or letter, and eradicating unlawful covers — and garnered a number of media consideration for my (apparently) life-threatening exploits: Gothamist, NY1, the New York Occasions and even the vaunted New Yorker have discovered my marketing campaign to rein in reckless drivers worthy of consideration.
But from Metropolis Corridor and at 1 Police Plaza? Crickets.
And that’s embarrassing — for the mayor and the police commissioner. Since my first “felony mischief” video on Nov. 15, I’ve now caught 59 cops, firefighters and different legislation enforcement personnel doctoring their plate to keep away from velocity or toll cameras (right here’s an inventory of all of the miscreants with hyperlinks to my movies). The NYPD has lengthy mentioned it disciplines officers who misuse their department-issued placard or deface their plates, however the company declined to remark after I despatched it an inventory of defaced plates I caught (I’ve submitted a Freedom of Info Regulation request for the disciplinary data — see FOIL-2023-056-01709 — so we’ll see what occurs).
I additionally reached out to Metropolis Corridor — which, frankly, ought to be issuing me a proclamation — however didn’t hear again but.
Maybe everybody in Officialdom hopes this challenge will simply return underneath the carpet.
However I couldn’t let it. At Streetsblog, we’ve clearly been masking vehicular malfeasance by public officers for years, however it wasn’t till lawyer Adam White was arrested (and charged with “felony mischief”) for repairing an deliberately broken plate that our motion for security merged with social media to create a made-for-Twitter juggernaut (plus, the catchy theme tune I wrote for Jimmy and the Jaywalkers didn’t harm, both).
Like all nice concepts, this one began with one thing dumb: I figured if Adam White might get arrested and charged with “felony mischief” for actually doing the other of inflicting harm to somebody’s property, I ought to most likely fan out throughout city and attempt to get arrested, too! And perhaps extra folks would do it, after which, as Arlo Guthrie mentioned, we’d have a motion. (It’s in the end unclear if White and I’ve dedicated any crimes — I used to be by no means arrested and his case was dropped by the Brooklyn District Lawyer. However Streetsblog freelancer Joseph Tedeschi, who’s a lawyer, did some analysis and located loads of authorized eagles who suppose it is against the law to take issues into one’s personal palms, regardless that license plates are positively state property, not the automobile proprietor’s property.)
My earliest posts tagged the native precinct the place I used to be committing the alleged crime, in hopes that somebody would both arrest me or, higher nonetheless, come out and do my job for me:
CRIMINAL MISCHIEF doesn’t take a weekend off. The @NYPD78Pct must arrest this mischief maker on Prospect Park West — and quick, earlier than he mischiefs once more! (Context: https://t.co/OW9MXZeOCa) pic.twitter.com/x5xZEdNWqX
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) November 26, 2022
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This hearse was one in every of my favorites (and features a uncommon aural look by Jimmy):
Hey ?@NYPD72Pct? we have now some CRIMINAL MISCHIEF happening on Fourth Ave! Arrest? pic.twitter.com/E93mgvSYRS
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) November 19, 2022
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Everyone knows what occurred subsequent, although maybe solely Elon Musk’s algorithm author can clarify why the general public began lapping up movies of an outdated man biking round with a paint pen and a screwdriver meting out justice that town’s legislation enforcement officers didn’t care about (and certain by no means will, given what number of of them are committing the crime!).
After that got here the large fishes: the various many individuals in legislation enforcement whom I’ve caught defacing their plates. There was that point I caught a former NYPD hostage negotiator (now working for the Manhattan District Lawyer) who had used tape to show a letter “E” right into a letter “F”:
One final INCREDIBLE episode of CRIMINAL MISCHIEF right now, that includes an ex- @NYPDDetectives negotiator now working for (and getting a placard from!) @ManhattanDA Alvin Bragg. This man SO DISCRETELY coated his plate that you simply virtually wish to tip your hat (besides that he’s a perp). pic.twitter.com/nGOHUhB9w7
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) January 7, 2023
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That man ended up being fired!
Then there was the time I used my screwdriver to take away unlawful covers from a supposed Sanitation Division worker’s automobile and from a court docket officer’s automobile:
As we speak I noticed a man with BOTH plates coated, plus an NYPD sticker and an EXPIRED (and possibly pretend) @NYCSanitation placard AND an expired inspection sticker — so I did what anybody would do: commit CRIMINAL MISCHIEF! pic.twitter.com/5R35ySoj3u
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) December 31, 2022
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Let’s shut out the day with some severe CRIMINAL MISCHIEF on Schermerhorn St. in @NYPD84Pct, the place right now we discovered a @NYSCourtsNews officer who stopped getting tickets a 12 months in the past — maybe when he put in this unlawful plate cowl? Effectively, I helped him out, massive time. pic.twitter.com/MzV8WggwKC
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) January 6, 2023
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And who might neglect the enjoyable I had simply repainting the defaced digits from this Fifth Precinct cop’s automobile?
Earlier than we kick off the week, how about some superior CRIMINAL MISCHIEF towards a cop from @NYPD5Pct who ought to be implementing the legislation not breaking it. Effectively, now he’s secure as a result of I repainted his plate for him. You’re welcome, @nypdpc Sewell — now there’s 1 much less cop to self-discipline. pic.twitter.com/5sZ0D8meB0
— Gersh Kuntzman (@GershKuntzman) January 9, 2023
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Nobody video tells the total story, however taken collectively, the movies reveal a sample of low-level corruption that continues just because so little is finished to cease it.
In 2021, the NYPD issued simply 7,781 tickets between Jan. 1 and Oct. 30 for masking, defacing or sullying a plate in order that it couldn’t be learn. Final 12 months over the identical interval, that quantity dropped to six,209 tickets, or a 20-percent decline. That decline is particularly alarming on condition that the variety of folks defacing plates appears to be on the rise.
In line with a seminal report by Reuven Blau in The Metropolis, Division of Transportation velocity cameras usually couldn’t examine 1 % of the license plates that handed them by. However beginning in late 2019 — when the variety of velocity digicam programs expanded for the primary time — and once more in mid-2020 when the variety of digicam programs reached 750, the variety of plates that have been unreadable jumped to just about 5 %. (The Metropolis’s numbers have been full by the top of 2021; the Division of Transportation has not offered Streetsblog with the up to date numbers, regardless of quite a few requests.)
If 5 % of autos can’t be caught on school-zone velocity cameras, that’s a reasonably severe security menace — particularly contemplating that the cameras solely challenge a ticket if a driver exceeds the velocity restrict by 11 miles per hour or extra.
It’s additionally numerous misplaced income: From Aug. 1 to the top of 2022, town issued 3,088,171 velocity digicam tickets. If simply 4 % of offenders’ plates can’t be learn, that may imply one other 123,500 tickets weren’t issued. At $50 a pop, town misplaced near $6.2 million, simply over these 5 months. For the entire 12 months, it’s practically 230,000 unable-to-be-issued tickets, or $11.5 million.
Just like the DOT, the MTA mentioned that about 1 % of its toll transactions have been foiled by unreadable plates up to now. As Streetsblog reported, a Freedom of Info request by journalist Steven Bodzin revealed that cameras failed to select up 118,464 license plates out of 9,286,640 toll transactions between March and September 2018 as a result of they have been both unintentionally or deliberately obscured.
But when the MTA has skilled the identical enhance in unreadable plates because the DOT has, the company is dropping much more than the scores of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in toll income it was dropping again then. That’s income that maintains the transit system.
So, sure, I repaint or uncover unreadable plates. I do it unapologetically.
And every thing was going pretty properly. Till this week, when right-wing influencer and QAnon adherent Lauren Witzke posted on Telegram that I used to be a dweeb (responsible as charged) who ought to be bullied for what I’m doing (wait, wut now?).
And so started the pretty typical right-wing pile-on that includes hundreds of people that have most likely by no means as soon as engaged with the subject of avenue security, automobile harms, street violence or Imaginative and prescient Zero deciding {that a} man making an attempt to current drivers from racing by velocity zones is simply one other lib they should personal.
The irony, in fact is that “felony mischief” submit to which Witzke linked was the one the place I’d hoped to start a pivot to easily highlighting scofflaws with out truly committing “felony mischief” towards their sacred automobiles.
Clearly, Witzke has a cultured viewers:
i’d kick you so laborious within the balls they’d lastly begin working should you did this to my automobile
— TayTayLorenz (@JessieKaaaaaaa) January 24, 2023
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And the way about this one:
Oh if I seen you doing this to my automobile I’d shove that screwdriver up your balloon knot.
— . (@DerockTheGod) January 24, 2023
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The tweet above was delicate. Different threats that may be printed in a household web site included, “Present us on the doll the place the rabbi touched you,” “the Austrian painter was proper” and “It’s best to get a Glasgow smile.”
On social media, in fact, individuals are fast to threaten violence … and challenge different threats that make no sense or have been outright contradictory. However the cognitive dissonance on the Proper nonetheless amazes: Some accused me of being a Nazi, whereas others overtly hoped that the Nazis would take me out (pictures embrace jackboot lollipops and nooses). Everybody, apparently, is for legislation and order … except a Jewish liberal from New York is making an attempt to bust the lawbreakers.
Imagine me, when you’ve got a reputation that appears like a Muppet in a porno film, and also you’ve had a profession of taking controversial positions for so long as I’ve, you get used to (and, certainly, bored by) on-line mockery. However even the trolls make level (not that they’re conscious of it): there’s a very massive constituency of people who find themselves offended when their felony habits is identified and corrected.
Nonetheless, it’s a nasty unhappy that folks wish to beat up a man on a mission is to cut back the probability that folks will velocity by faculty zones with impunity, maybe hitting another person’s child. (Reminder: an individual struck by a driver going 20 miles per hour has a 90-percent likelihood of surviving, a determine that drops to only 20 % if the individual is struck by a driver going 40.)
In order that’s why it’s time for this marketing campaign to maneuver from the lively pen-and-screwdriver section to the following step: the political elite and legislation enforcement equipment of this metropolis truly getting concerned and doing one thing moderately than merely be embarrassed day in and time out by an outdated man taunting our car-driving overlords.
I’ve performed my half; my exploits have earned me the final word honor of the non-profit journalism world: Council Transportation Committee Chair Selvena Brooks-Powers has publicly introduced on Twitter that “there will likely be a listening to on obscured plates,” although she hasn’t set a date and has declined to speak to me about it, regardless of a number of requests.
Hello Carla, responding from my Council Twitter deal with. Please use this deal with for Council associated issues. There will likely be a listening to on obscured plates. Date has not been confirmed but. Hope you can be found to testify. https://t.co/Lq67FF9QHw
— CMSelvenaBrooksPowers (@CMBrooksPowers) January 18, 2023
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After the Council listening to, maybe Metropolis Corridor will truly crack down on scofflaws of their midst. Maybe the NYPD’s 77 precincts will challenge a couple of defaced plate ticket each 5 days on common. Or perhaps the Council will broaden Lincoln Restler’s Intro 501 — which seeks to permit the general public to report unlawful parking and different driver misconduct by way of 311 and get a portion of the ensuing ticket income — to incorporate cases of coated or defaced plates. Such a transfer would go a good distance in the direction of holding drivers accountable but not forcing members of the general public to danger private damage by truly repairing or re-uncovering defaced plates.
As a result of as Twitter is telling me, I’m too outdated for this shit. (Moreover, I’m singing an entire new tune now.)
Gersh Kuntzman is editor of Streetsblog. His prior “Cycle of Rage” columns are archived right here.
