Drew_W wrote: ↑You know, sometimes I value what you have to add to this site...and sometimes I think you're a complete a-hole. There's something called compassion and empathy...and if not that, then just a proper way of speaking to people without your supremely condescending attitude. If you're here to provide advice, then provide it, but check your snarky holier than thou attitude at the door.
One thing I have learned in my job is that people who are being accused with any offence will almost never tell the truth when they relate "their side of the story". They tell just enough of it to make themselves look like the victim and the other party look like a monster. I'm sure that you have experienced that exact situation. We all have at one time or another. The OP may have been as polite as she claims and the PEO may have been as rude as she claims, but I doubt it. When I am conducting patrols most of the time when I tell people to move their vehicle, pay for parking or whatever they happily do so immediately and I carry on without issuing a ticket. However when they don't comply it is never with a kind word and a smile on their face. It is usually a "**** off" and a sneer because they think they have some special exemption because of who they are or what they are doing. I'm sure that if the PEO was here to tell his side the OP wouldn't come off as the polite person she claimed to be and her kids were probably not crying like she said either. The absolute unbiased truth is probably somewhere in the middle. In any case the OP is not disputing the fact that she was given the opportunity to pay for parking when asked and she did not do so, instead offering up an excuse that may or may not have been true. The PEO performed his duties as he was expected to and I would, and actually have done the exact same thing he did. She has nobody to blame for her situation but herself. He didn't tag her while she was going to pay, she only agreed to pay AFTER she initially refused and he started to give the ticket. Why is the PEO the ******* in the equation when he tried to let her off the hook but instead she declined to take advantage his generosity? All the other details about the crying kid, not being able to see the PEO's eyes because he was wearing sunglasses or was talking on the cell phone is all just a distraction designed to illicit sympathy when in reality those are trivialities unrelated to the fact that she was parked illegally. I pose the same question to you that I did to the OP earlier: What makes her so special that she gets to park for free when everybody else has to pay?