Last week I was walking along a street in Manhattan on the way to the dentist (more on that whole experience another time).

It was a beautiful day (Thursday) in stark contrast to the day before which had been overcast and slightly chilly for a July day. Well, as people in the city are, there were a bunch of people just out in front of their stores, watching the day progress.

I was on a side street not one of the Avenues. As I neared the corner of 2nd Avenue, I could see two of the white capped traffic officers making their way up along the cars parked on the side of the street I was on.

The street I was walking along is one of those Manhattan streets which has alternate side of the street parking in mid block and meters up towards the avenue. So, people were just out there staring at the traffic agents as the agents looked over the cars and figured out who to give tickets to.

It used to be these traffic people wore brown uniforms and I always equated them to the fascists of World War 2, something which was easy to do because of the agents boorish behavior.

I can acknowledge being a traffic agent is a thankless job. Their main goal in life is issuing summonses. Consequently, their dealings with the public rarely border on fun.

It had gotten so bad in NYC a few years back they changed the traffic agents uniforms so they more closely resembled those of police officers and the city also enacted legislation making traffic agents “peace officers” so, the attacks which grew out of adversarial encounters with the public took on a more serious tone as viewed by the courts (I believe it’s a felony now).

As I got closer one of the agents broke off to walk further up the block and his companion set about preparing to write a summons. There was a wagon parked at a meter, the meter had expired and had become a target for the traffic agent. A guy was standing in the doorway of his store, taking it all in idly.

I walked over to the meter, dug through my pockets, found and put a quarter in. I don’t know if I stopped the agent from writing the ticket or not. I did hear his exclamation of astonishment as I walked away but I didn’t hang around. He hadn’t started writing the ticket as far as I could tell and there were witnesses that the meter had money in it. I”m sure he was annoyed.

But, in as plain language as I can put it - f**k him!

I hate those guys, there’s just no other way to put it. A few weeks back I met a friend in the city for lunch, put my money in one of the muni meters, paid for parking until 3 pm and got to my car two minutes after the time had expired to see an agent just finishing writing a nice $65 ticket and placing it on my windshield.

If that quarter saved someone $65 it was well worth it. There’s no way the city can justify giving out tickets like that to people - it’s only another way for them to milk money from people. When you think about it, anyone who is well off and has a nice car garages it, they’re not parking it at a meter. That leaves the rapidly vanishing middle class to bear the burden of expired meters.

I’m not sorry and my most fervent hope is it screwed the agent from making his quota - I just wish more people would dig out a quarter instead of watching these guys write these extortionist tickets.