Unwritten Law?

At Lowering the Bar, San Francisco lawyer Kevin Underhill writes of a sign installer who, while installing signs that limited the time one could park in a certain area, received a ticket for parking in that area longer than the time limit.

Mr. Underhill takes a moment or two to sketch the legal arguments in the case, in which the sign installer appealed his citation to a municipal judge and lost. He suggests that a particular municipal code in Santa Barbara, where this scofflaw was taught that the law should not be scoffed at even though it wasn't yet written down, shows that the sign installer was probably in the right.

He also says this kind of silliness is "often short-circuited, or should be, by common sense." I'd find it hard to disagree. The officer may dispose of his or her own time as he or she sees fit. But while in uniform, that time is supposed to be set aside for the service and protection of Santa Barbara citizens, who part with some of their property to remunerate the officer for doing so. You'd have to stretch the concept of "service and protection" to Ralph Dibney proportions to include this bit of silliness -- meaning someone owes someone some money, but it ain't the guy who got the ticket.