NYPD Extortion Racket.

NYPD Traffic Division came and towed my bike last week. Yeah the bike was on the sidewalk, but that's not why they took it. That's why they were allowed to take it. I've been parking my bike on the sidewalk for years. I try to be considerate about it. I park it in a way that will have the least possible affect on the pedestrian foot traffic. Never block doors or entranceways to businesses or establishments. Don't pull it up if there are people present. It wasn't bothering anyone, but they came and took my bike.

Why. Why would they come and take my bike? Why would they go to the trouble of calling in a special unit to cut my $100 chain, and grab my bike? Why indeed! It was for the money. They came and grabbed my bike because there was another $185 they could add to the city budget.

"Oh, but Mister Biker man, you shouldn't have been parking on the sidewalk, that's illegal."

Shut-up you! Have you never in your whole life exceeded the speed limit? Or jaywalked? If you've ever driven around with a burnt out taillight, you've broken the law, and let he who is without sin cast the first stone. But I digress, this is all beside the point.

The point is, tow trucks and impound lots are a state sponsored extortion racket. If goomba the ginzo came along and grabbed your shit, and said you could only get it back if you paid him $200, he could be arrested for extortion. If he went around doing this to a whole bunch of people, he'd be looking at racketeering. There are only two justifiable reasons to tow, and they are:

If a vehicle is interfering with the flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic - it needs to be removed.

If a vehicle is abandoned - it needs to be removed.

The Hobbs Act defines "extortion" as "the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right."

Traffic Enforcement is just how the government euphemistically describes one of it's many extortion rackets.