[Fwd: Squeegee Kids Victory]
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@arcos.org)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 11:40:26 -0400
April 15, 1998
> SQUEEGEE KIDS SAVOR VICTORY By RICK BELL
> Calgary Sun
> Squeegee kids rule!
> Nancy Crevier, pal Mark, Kelly the Goth girl and Jody the
> windshield washer, are all high- fives, big smiles and well-worn
> squeegees raised in triumph.
> No doubt they will soon be playing Skinny Puppy CDs and video
> games and telling others of the big day.
> You see, Nancy, the 18-year-old squeegee kid, took her fight to
> our traffic courtrooms yesterday. And won.
> Nancy washes windshields at the corner of 17 Ave. and 14 St.
> S.W., one of the longest lights in the city.
> Nancy is polite and well-spoken and even a bit shy.
> Though Nancy's garb and hairdo would not qualify as western
> wear, she's no threat to this Bliss-on-the-Bow.
> While you're parked at the red, Nancy will wash your windshield.
> If you wave Nancy off, she will go away.
> If you are a tightwad and won't give her some spare change, she
> will not kick in your headlights.
> If you want to give money, you can.
> Nancy tried to get a business licence from the city. They told her
> to buzz off.
> Nancy tried to get a chance to speak to city council. She was
> shut down.
> Then on one fine February day, the cops, acting on a memo from
> within their department, slap Nancy with a ticket for soliciting
> business without a licence.
> So here we all are, down at the Rocky Mountain Plaza.
> There's Gentleman Jim Hittel, the hard-working city prosecutor.
> Our Jim's racked up an impressive record going after ripoff artists
> and devil-may-care polluters.
> Hell, he once took on Kazik Kielb, the city's most famous trash
> collector.
> But there will be no war story this time.
> Then there's Jason Walker, the constable who gave Nancy the
> ticket.
> This constable from the never-a-dull-moment downtown district is
> taken away from breaking up brawls, dousing domestic disputes
> and tracking down thieves.
> If he'd been off-duty today, his court time would have cost us
> eight hours of additional pay.
> The straight-talking constable testifies Nancy confronted no one,
> wrecked nothing and demanded no money.
> But Nancy did not have a business licence. So he had to give the
> violation ticket.
> Charlie Pester of POINTTS defends Nancy, stepping up to the
> plate like Mark McGwire slugging another homer out of the park.
> The ipso factos and prima facies fly round the courtroom over the
> meaning of soliciting under the law.
> There is even talk of whether hookers solicit when they lift their
> dresses and open their blouses.
> Catherine Skene, the traffic court commissioner, looks poised and
> most judicial through it all.
> There is insufficient evidence that Nancy is soliciting business.
> The charge is dismissed.
> As Nancy and her buddies pose for pictures and onlookers give
> thumbs-up salutes and Const. Walker returns to the real battle of
> the streets, Charlie and me plan a victory orange juice at the Club
> Cafe.
> We can still hear Nancy's parting words.
> "I beat the system but I think they overdid it. I felt like I was a
> criminal," says Nancy, pledging to return to washing windshields.
> It's then a comedian within earshot suggests the city's tall
> foreheads might form a special squeegee task force.
> We all laugh. Then I think. Don't give them any ideas.
--
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Graeme Bacque
<http://web.arcos.org/gbacque>
(#2226799 on ICQ)
++Question and challenge *all* human 'authority'++
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