One of the people quoted in the article says "Of course that’s a good thing, because the traffic officers just want your money," he said on Tuesday morning in Queens. "Now I have the right to park a bit more."
I suppose he still understands that he is not really supposed to park where he is parking, but it says something about his outlook.
Well, if he blocks a hydrant and the fire department needs to use it, they will grab their leakiest hose, smash his windows out, and run that hose right through the car. I've seen pictures, it's pretty sweet justice.
Is the fear of punishment the only thing that keeps people from doing criminal acts?
1. People speed and park wrongly despite both of these being illegal
2. A huge majority of people aren't assholes all the time, despite this not being illegal
3. Murders do get committed though it's illegal
4. Most stuff isn't stolen even though it is very difficult to catch someone breaking into houses
There's a book called Three Felonies A Day which posits that the average American commits three serious crimes every day despite the overwhelming majority of those folks not meaning to. https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=three+felonies+a+day The reason for this is that the laws are written broadly enough that entirely innocent acts could be construed to be strict-liability crimes that require absolute adherence; intent does not enter into the equation.
If society is not falling apart even if the average American is in fact committing three felonies a day, then it stands to reason that perhaps the law as a whole is over-written and could stand to be reduced. This new informal policing policy in New York might end up being further evidence of such problems.
Further people have found that in many cases persuasion is much more effective than compulsion. In the UK they've found that they can replace speed cameras (which issue tickets) with radar controlled signs that display smiley or frowny faces and that's much more effective at getting people to slow down. The theory goes that compulsion is a very ephemeral threat and that the police can't be everywhere at once ticketing everyone who's speeding all the time and people know it. But just asking them to slow down with no threat is more effective since it's polite.
A similar theory was used to great effect by King Frederick of Prussia to get people to eat potatoes. Decrees did nothing to make people plant them, but declaring the potato to be a royal food and nobody but the king could eat it caused people to plant it either out of spite or a desire to flout the rules. http://www.historynet.com/ask-mhq-king-frederick-ii-of-pruss...
If private parking in Manhattan is $30 and driving up on the sidewalk to park is free, the latter will happen. There is too many cars in New York for it NOT to happen. I've seen the latter happen in another country...
(That too many things are crimes is probably something I agree with; that accounting companies must only destroy documents according to retention policies and not after they find out one of their clients is a giant fraud is not something that worries me)
My point was that the book you cite is apparently a terrible resource on the issue. Which is material when you frame your statements so directly from it: even if the average American is in fact committing three felonies a day.
