As a thousand worshipers gathered for a once-a-year celebration at a Fair Haven church, cops showed up after midnight and ticketed their cars.
The ticketing sweep took place last night outside St. Rose of Lima Catholic church on Blatchley Avenue, according to Father James Manship, the pastor of the church.
Manship blasted the police department for carrying out a sneak-attack on those who had made their way through a torrential downpour to celebrate the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The feast day is one of the most important celebrations of the whole year, Manship said. For some people with rigorous work schedules, it’s the one of the only days in the whole year that they make it to church. Worshipers gathered for an 11 p.m. Mass, followed by the traditional singing of the ma√±anitas, then tamales and atole. The festivities lasted until 2:30 a.m, he said.
Some parishioners had to work early the next day, so they grabbed a tamale and left — only to find out that they had been stuck with a $30 parking ticket for double-parking on Blatchley Avenue. Cops came by after midnight, he said.
“There was no warning,” said Manship. The tickets came as an “insult,” he said. The fine hit hard for those who are struggling to make ends meet. He didn’t know how many cars were ticketed. Police said they wouldn’t get full numbers for a week.
Manship said his worshipers have been double-parking on Blatchley Avenue for years, but police have not told him to stop the practice. Lt. Luiz Casanova, the district manager, even came by earlier that evening to send his greetings on the church’s special day.
Manship’s church community is mostly Latino, made up of many recent immigrants. Manship said his church has tried to encourage immigrants to become part of the community, to look out for each other, and to trust law enforcement. To that end, he and other leaders partnered with the city in passing the immigrant-friendly ID card and a general police order prohibiting police from demanding immigration papers from those who call 911.
Lately, he has been frustrated by what he sees as a lack of police protection. One parishioner remains paralyzed after being shot at Poplar and Saltonstall in August; another was shot while driving away from his house in a car.
“This stuff is just going on and on, and the people are stopping calling police because they’re not getting any response to the violence,” Manship said.
“We’re really trying hard to do our part to keep our community safe,” he said. “Yet the police department really isn’t giving us the resources we need.”
The ticketing sweep, he said, further alienates his church-goers from police.
Manship said he recognizes that double-parking is a violation: “Yeah, they’re breaking the law,” he said, “but there’s a proportionality” — far worse crimes are going unaddressed, he argued. He said the new enforcement style is a far cry from community policing.
Reached on his cell phone in New York City, Police Chief James Lewis said he was unaware of the incident. He declined to respond to Manship’s comments.
Jessica Mayorga, City Hall’s spokeswoman, said the city wouldn’t have information on the tickets until next week.
“If people are double-parked, that’s obviously cause for violation,” she said.
“We’ve stepped up traffic enforcement significantly,” she said, so people may be receiving tickets when they didn’t in the past. She said the midnight ticketing would not have been carried out by the city’s traffic unit, because they don’t do that type of enforcement at that hour. She declined to discuss the matter further until she got more information about what had happened.
Click below to see Thomas MacMillan’s slide show of last year’s celebration at the church.