Liferaft Shenanigans

Saturday November 11, 2017

This afternoon Sparr brought two of his self-inflating, 50-person liferafts to the park...as one does.

We have 4 more of these canisters for sale—get 'em while supplies last!

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/boa/d/50-person-self-inflating/6375983402.html

-----

Sparr vs The Man, San Francisco Park Ranger edition, volume 1

Today I got three citations from a SF Park Ranger at Mission Dolores Park while I was there letting people play with some self-inflating life rafts. There was a hullabaloo about my lack of ID at one point, and SFPD got called, but that got sorted out when I retrieved my wallet.

The three citations as issued:

7.17 Failure to obtain permit
4.13 Failure to obey order
3.12 Structure w/o permit

3.12 is definitely bogus; that's "CAMPING PROHIBITED" and describes structures you can inhabit or camp in.

4.13 sounded legit at first, since I didn't immediately deflate the rafts when asked to. However, upon reading the park code, I see that "REFUSAL TO OBEY LAWFUL ORDER" specifically calls out lawful orders given pursuant to 4.14, and 4.14 specifically and only calls out the prohibition on fighting, loud and unreasonable noise, and the use of offensive words.

7.17 is where things get fuzzy. Failure to obtain a permit is definitely an infraction. The list of activities requiring a permit is long, about 25 items. They didn't bother to specify, so I'm left to guess:

"7.03 (j) Participate in a picnic, dance or other social gathering involving 25 or more persons." I didn't invite/bring that many people; can I be held responsible for random park-goers joining our revelry?

"7.03 (t) Station or erect any table, scaffold, stage, platform, rostrum, tower, stand, bandstand, building, fence, wall, monument, dome or other structure." This one is the closest. I could understand an argument that the rafts constitute a "platform".

So, it looks like I'll be going to court about this. I aim to prevail on the two bogus citations, and learn more about the maybe-legit one if they decide it's legit. I see another half dozen visits to the hall of justice in my future. Wish me luck!

Видео Liferaft Shenanigans канала Victoria & Sparr Shenanigans