Citizens Enforce the Law
In a bit of news that could be considered “off the wall”, a resident of New York City going by the moniker of Jimmy Justice has taken it upon himself to catch New York City police officers and other city officials breaking the law while on the clock. His unusual vigilante methods? A video camera and popular video website YouTube. According to Mr. Justice, he’s been recording the illegal acts of city officials for roughly two years now, and likes to focus a lot of his time on catching NYPD in the act of traffic violations like parking near fire hydrants and in no-standing zones.
He said he started filming them because," New York City employs a system of predatory ticketing." "Traffic cops scour the streets looking for petty violations to write summonses. It is apparent that City Hall is not interested in public safety but rather using traffic law to raise revenue. I wanted to turn the tables on those who write the summonses, and I hoped to inspire some discretion in the manner that they ticket civilians."
Justice said he is not intimidated by law enforcement officials when he films them. "I know that I am allowed to take video in a public place, so I cannot be intimidated."
Mr. Justice claims that his tactics are actually working, and that city government officials are looking into some of the incidents that he has filmed. He says, "They have already investigated some of the officers who were caught abusing their authority in my videos. More importantly, the city has started to crack down on scofflaws who use their city issued parking placards improperly by parking illegally while running personal errands."
All of Jimmy Justice’s videos can be viewed on his
.
