Please read our Letter of Intent
- by: Baltimore Scofflaws Facebook Group
- recipient: USA citizens
Would you like to support the Baltimore Scofflaws in their fight to end the usurious regulations the City of Baltimore is defending?
Read our Letter of Intent (see letter link below our logo), and realize that this is your signature on our Declaration of Independence. Once we have collected as many signatures as we can, we will print this letter, with your signatures, and mail them to the Baltimore City Council members, the Mayor's Office, the Maryland Attorney General, or anyone else you think deserves to hear our voice. After supporting our cause, forward this petition to anyone you think would be interested in our social experiment by e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. We will not be disenfranchised through isolation and intimidation by the government or a national law firm. This is our chance to show City Hall that we are not alone in our outrage, and the numbers we can mobilize by organizing through the Internet.
To Whom It May Concern:
We would like to petition your support by informing you of a burgeoning social movement. The members of the Baltimore Scofflaws seek a fair settlement with the City of Baltimore to clear our names of violations apparently many years old, in some cases totaling thousands of dollars. We would also appreciate any attempt on your part to champion an end to the usurious regulations City Hall seeks to justify by hiring a private law firm to solve its own disorganization. A brief examination of our plight quickly reveals the gross neglect and moral injustice we feel has been perpetrated.
This March, 80,000 people received notice from Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, LLP, a law firm representing the City of Baltimore, that we were responsible for 183,000 parking violations valued at $132 million dollars. Many within our group were completely unaware that any violations had been accruing $16/month in delinquency fees, in some cases, for six years without prior notification. In response, some of our members have sought justice via traditional means, namely requesting a court date. However, as the city has the ability to deny trial without explanation, we have been forced to organize and protest the system to which we have been subjected.
While organizing our group, we have discovered that Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, as well as the City of Baltimore, may have violated numerous aspects of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). A debt collector, in this case the City of Baltimore, must remedy the debt in a timely manner. If the city needed to hire a private law firm to address our alleged debt, than these actions should have been taken within six months of our delinquency, and not following three to six years of fee accruement. Consequently, the "debt" the city seeks to collect does not represent a lawful means of financing the city, as their procrastination and uncapped fee structure created the exorbitant sum. Secondly, as defined by the FDCPA, representatives of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson have made threatening phone calls that state false or misleading representations of action by suggesting any car we currently own, regardless of its legal status with the state, could be booted or impounded. Additionally, as outlined by the FDCPA, we were not apprised within our original letter from Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson that our alleged debt could be disputed in writing within thirty-days of our initial contact.
Within the dubious guidelines the city has set forth, one year of procrastination concerning 183,000 violations would garner the city an obscene profit of $35,136,000. Conveniently, this would represent more than half of the expected $60 million dollar deficit facing City Hall in 2010. Mayor Dixon%u2019s administration has publicly stated our apparent transgressions represent a viable source of revenue to mitigate this shortfall. Yet, complete compliance with their program would result in a $72 million dollar profit at our expense during this economic crisis. Sadly, creating $35 million dollars of revenue is not a daunting task, when your fee schedule concerning a $27 ticket approximates a one-year APR of 652%.
Consequently, we ask you to join us in achieving our two primary goals. First, for Baltimore to join the ranks of New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Birmingham, Greensboro, Lubbock, Fort Wayne, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Denver, Albany, Raleigh, Atlanta, Orlando and numerous other counties and municipalities that have offered ticket amnesty programs to rectify similar predicaments. We do not doubt the right of the city to exact fines and fees. However, we urge City Hall to exact their authority in the responsible manner the aforementioned cities have chosen.
Secondly, we ask that you use your influence to draft responsible legislation that would effectively close the loophole our city currently possesses to unduly tax its citizens. If the MVA cannot find itself beyond reproach due to the recent allegations of fake parking tickets and recycled license plates, then the populace that stands to suffer from its disorganization should be afforded the benefit of a limited fine structure. Sadly, from the logical standpoint of revenue creation, it is not in the short term interest of our government to end its current practices. Yet, philosophically, we hope you agree that a just government engenders a just populace. Many of our law-abiding, tax-paying members who previously lived in the city have left due to their frustration with the disorganization and unjust regulations this administration has supported.
As Americans, we forge a social contract with the government each time we bestow upon its members the responsibility of our rights, livelihood, and well-being in the form of a ballot. We feel this contract as been abused and violated, to the point where the city views its citizens as sources of income, rather than partners in the American experiment. In the end, we hope it is your desire to count yourself among those who made a difference.
Sincerely,
The Baltimore Scofflaws
Sign PetitionSign PetitionWe would like to petition your support by informing you of a burgeoning social movement. The members of the Baltimore Scofflaws seek a fair settlement with the City of Baltimore to clear our names of violations apparently many years old, in some cases totaling thousands of dollars. We would also appreciate any attempt on your part to champion an end to the usurious regulations City Hall seeks to justify by hiring a private law firm to solve its own disorganization. A brief examination of our plight quickly reveals the gross neglect and moral injustice we feel has been perpetrated.
This March, 80,000 people received notice from Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, LLP, a law firm representing the City of Baltimore, that we were responsible for 183,000 parking violations valued at $132 million dollars. Many within our group were completely unaware that any violations had been accruing $16/month in delinquency fees, in some cases, for six years without prior notification. In response, some of our members have sought justice via traditional means, namely requesting a court date. However, as the city has the ability to deny trial without explanation, we have been forced to organize and protest the system to which we have been subjected.
While organizing our group, we have discovered that Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, as well as the City of Baltimore, may have violated numerous aspects of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). A debt collector, in this case the City of Baltimore, must remedy the debt in a timely manner. If the city needed to hire a private law firm to address our alleged debt, than these actions should have been taken within six months of our delinquency, and not following three to six years of fee accruement. Consequently, the "debt" the city seeks to collect does not represent a lawful means of financing the city, as their procrastination and uncapped fee structure created the exorbitant sum. Secondly, as defined by the FDCPA, representatives of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson have made threatening phone calls that state false or misleading representations of action by suggesting any car we currently own, regardless of its legal status with the state, could be booted or impounded. Additionally, as outlined by the FDCPA, we were not apprised within our original letter from Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson that our alleged debt could be disputed in writing within thirty-days of our initial contact.
Within the dubious guidelines the city has set forth, one year of procrastination concerning 183,000 violations would garner the city an obscene profit of $35,136,000. Conveniently, this would represent more than half of the expected $60 million dollar deficit facing City Hall in 2010. Mayor Dixon%u2019s administration has publicly stated our apparent transgressions represent a viable source of revenue to mitigate this shortfall. Yet, complete compliance with their program would result in a $72 million dollar profit at our expense during this economic crisis. Sadly, creating $35 million dollars of revenue is not a daunting task, when your fee schedule concerning a $27 ticket approximates a one-year APR of 652%.
Consequently, we ask you to join us in achieving our two primary goals. First, for Baltimore to join the ranks of New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, Birmingham, Greensboro, Lubbock, Fort Wayne, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Denver, Albany, Raleigh, Atlanta, Orlando and numerous other counties and municipalities that have offered ticket amnesty programs to rectify similar predicaments. We do not doubt the right of the city to exact fines and fees. However, we urge City Hall to exact their authority in the responsible manner the aforementioned cities have chosen.
Secondly, we ask that you use your influence to draft responsible legislation that would effectively close the loophole our city currently possesses to unduly tax its citizens. If the MVA cannot find itself beyond reproach due to the recent allegations of fake parking tickets and recycled license plates, then the populace that stands to suffer from its disorganization should be afforded the benefit of a limited fine structure. Sadly, from the logical standpoint of revenue creation, it is not in the short term interest of our government to end its current practices. Yet, philosophically, we hope you agree that a just government engenders a just populace. Many of our law-abiding, tax-paying members who previously lived in the city have left due to their frustration with the disorganization and unjust regulations this administration has supported.
As Americans, we forge a social contract with the government each time we bestow upon its members the responsibility of our rights, livelihood, and well-being in the form of a ballot. We feel this contract as been abused and violated, to the point where the city views its citizens as sources of income, rather than partners in the American experiment. In the end, we hope it is your desire to count yourself among those who made a difference.
Sincerely,
The Baltimore Scofflaws
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