SCOFFLAWS

Part of a series of stories I wrote while living in Wisconsin in the 80s

When you look at the hard times farmers are having and the layoffs people are suffering, doesn’t it just make your blood boil to see corporate executives who are too stingy to pay their traffic ticket fines?

I saw in NEWSWEEK that there’s a sting operation in Chicago to nab the city’s “most egregious corporate scofflaws.”  I looked that up and it means remarkably bad traffic law violators.  Some of those corporate executives owe $200 parking ticket fines. 

I must confess that I have stretched my luck a little, too, when it comes to traffic violations.  Like the time I made a U-turn at a major intersection in Milwaukee in front of a policeman.  I told him, in my best Southern drawl, that you could do that in North Carolina.  And you can.  I almost got away with it in Wisconsin, too!

But come on.  How long does it take to write a $2.00 check for a parking ticket?  [I did say this was written in 1987.]  These scofflaws need to be held accountable.  It’s us regular citizens who are taking up the slack for them.

The city of Chicago has put an extra punch into their sting operation on corporate scofflaws.  They’re going to send in their income tax auditors. 

Bzzzzz……..Sting!