Seeing this today reminded me of all the times I've been given tickets for offenses that were clearly the officer's inability to read, say, my legal, registered and paid for parking permit. And how hard it is to "protest" a ticket: you have to pay it anyway while you protest while the fines rack up. I'll never say assault is the answer, I'm just saying that something's broken, and these fresh-looking stickers on all the DPT vehicles I saw today made me think -- I know we all have a story, and it's cost us money.
No meter-maid stories of mine are blog pithy, but I wanted to take a moment to gush (love your writing) and share a link. I adore Edward Gorey and I thought this might be up your alley:
http://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/01/10/the-recently-deflowered-girl-1965-illustrated-by-edward-gorey/