Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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This is what happens when one confuses "random" with "profound."

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Citizen Car Boot

Slow the suspicious.
  (+1, -3)
(+1, -3)
  [vote for,
against]

Car boots make it hard to drive. Generally they are applied only by traffic officals. But what if you see a suspicious car? You wonder why it is parked where it is. What can you do? Wait and challenge the driver(s) when he or she emerges? Call the police - only to have the drivers leave in the interim? Fret and wring your hands? Not good solutions.

I propose the Citizen Boot. Concerned citizens would pay $100 to have such a boot, which they could carry in their trunk or keep in the house. The boot would be coded. On seeing a suspicious parked car, the citizen can apply the boot. On the boot is a number that the driver can call to summon the police and have the boot removed. The driver must explain to the police why he or she was in the neighborhood. If the police like the explanation and all is well, the driver is given $50 (of the $100) for compensation for lost time. The citizen receives a report from the police, and may pay another $100 to receive another boot.

If a given citizen is overzealous in applying boots, boot privileges will be revoked. If a driver trolls about in hopes of gaining a boot and the $50, that will be clear after 3 or 4 visits by the police to the same car.

bungston, Jul 24 2006

Anglegrinder Man http://images.googl...en%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
More work for him [Zimmy, Jul 25 2006]

[link]






       Car Boot = Wheel clamp   

       Trunk = Car boot
7ennyn, Jul 24 2006
  

       I will just carry my own boot about with me, and apply it whenever I park to defer suspicion.
normzone, Jul 24 2006
  

       Citizen Norm, you do not have a key to take it back off. Or if you do, you gotta give it back.   

       I would like to point out that the Citizen Boot is especially useful to discipline people who illegally park while they run in, then run back out and get away.
bungston, Jul 24 2006
  

       Well, then I will start paying people 25 dollars to let me get their car booted.
daseva, Jul 24 2006
  

       wouldn't work where I live.... we have very little law and very little order - they tried the clamping system, but folk just cut them off with bolt cutters - we also have no parking meters - they tried them too, but their heads kept getting chopped off with angle grinders. They do sell a lot of baseball bats here, but no-one plays any baseball.
xenzag, Jul 24 2006
  

       Car boot = Trunk
Denver boot = wheel clamp
"Apply boot to car" = leave boot-shaped impression in some dentable portion of automobile metalwork. Usually leaves owner quite irate. Usually costs more than $50 to remedy.
Canadian boot: vehicle that floats on water
Freefall, Jul 24 2006
  

       No, no, bung. You're not clamping me.
wagster, Jul 24 2006
  

       We need a bad idea boot.
MoreCowbell, Jul 25 2006
  

       [marked-for-idea-boot]
MoreCowbell, Jul 25 2006
  

       [xenzag] that sounds awfully painful.
BunsenHoneydew, Jul 31 2006
  
      
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