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That’s a good way to get your business license paperwork lost. Edit: not sure why the downvotes here. If you’re a small business owner you are trying to get th

That’s a good way to get your business license paperwork lost. Edit: not sure why the downvotes here. If you’re a small business owner you are trying to get through your day and your day gets a lot longer if you piss off casually corrupt city officials who can shut your business down by slow walking needed paperwork. This is a group that happily added 200% to your operating costs via ransoming your business license for a thinly disguised bribe. You think they won’t retaliate if you put them on the spot publicly?

gamblor956 3y ago
I think that if what you were describing was true, a federal DOJ investigation would result in a lot of people spending time in federal prison, and your friend walking away with enough money that your friend can drone all he wants from a private beach in the Bahamas while you both sip mai tais. So yes, they can retaliate against your friend. And your friend can retaliate against them and the difference is that their retaliation will cost your friend a few hours and a few hundred bucks, but your friend's retaliation will put them behind bars and destroy their careers and probably imperil their pensions. So if your story is true, contact the DOJ.
- techdmn 3y ago
  The DOJ being notificed could result in a lot of people spending time in prison. It could also result in no action. Retaliation by local officials could be limited to a few hours and a few hundred dollars of lost income. It could also be a lot worse. Based on my personal experience I certainly wouldn't bet a few hundred dollars on the former in either case.
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  Why? If the law is on the books I don't see anyone doing time
- BWStearns 3y ago
  While I normatively agree with you that that’s the way it should work, that isn’t how these things go. This kind of pseudo corruption is extremely common because it’s easy to make shitty arguments that pass first inspection (oh we need the police there for public safety, think of the children, oh a bird! look over there!). They drag it out into a years long appeals process where they grind the plaintiff down and eventually they settle for no wrongdoing and attorneys fees and change, and now you get your business license back and have a hostile local PD.
  - pseg134 3y ago
    Tell us the city or you are just talking nonsense on the internet. I can describe a 1000 plausible but untrue scenarios.
    - ricktdotorg 3y ago
      is GGGP's comment about being forced to hire PD officers as security any different than the forced requirement that film producers in Los Angeles are required to hire ex-LAPD as security, that has been going on for years? while the article i reference is from ~2008[0], as an LA resident living in Hollywood, i see examples of retired LAPD guys every week "guarding" film sets even in 2023: Such talk has angered Todd -- who estimates that he makes $100,000 a year working on film sets -- and the other 150-odd retired cops who have the required LAPD-issued permits to assist movie and TV productions. and Melissa Patack, a vice president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said a wholesale change from retired to off-duty, active LAPD officers would seriously undermine the ability of directors and producers to stay on schedule and budget. Retired officers, who are not subject to the LAPD’s strict overtime limits, can remain on set for the typical 12- to 16-hour days. Patack imagines a scenario where producers instead would have to hire multiple crews of off-duty police officers and disrupt shoots to switch them. why on earth is there a REQUIREMENT that a film set's producers hire one of retired 150 LAPD officers? based on my many viewings of these ex-LAPD guys, all they do is lounge around on their motorcycles -- not materially different behavior than a regular security person who similarly lounges around, yet is presumably paid much less than an ex-LAPD officer. it's not just the cops that are corrupt, it's the people who require you to hire them. [0] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-16-me-filmset16-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-16-me-films... edited because i messed up the formatting.
      - FireBeyond 3y ago
        > the other 150-odd retired cops who have the required LAPD-issued permits I'd love to see whether it's at all possible for someone who isn't a LEO or retired try to acquire these permits, and just how brazen they are that this is a racket for cops.
- someuser2345 3y ago
  Eh, it's easy to say that someone else should risk their business to do what's right, it's a lot harder to actually do that yourself.
Karrot_Kream 3y ago
Thanks for surfacing this. While your friend has better things to do with their time, I hope someone with the time and money to challenge this will try to run a drone photography business just to levy this lawsuit in Florida. If I lived in Florida I might be intrigued.

gamblor956 3y ago

I think that if what you were describing was true, a federal DOJ investigation would result in a lot of people spending time in federal prison, and your friend walking away with enough money that your friend can drone all he wants from a private beach in the Bahamas while you both sip mai tais. So yes, they can retaliate against your friend. And your friend can retaliate against them and the difference is that their retaliation will cost your friend a few hours and a few hundred bucks, but your friend's retaliation will put them behind bars and destroy their careers and probably imperil their pensions. So if your story is true, contact the DOJ.

techdmn 3y ago
The DOJ being notificed could result in a lot of people spending time in prison. It could also result in no action. Retaliation by local officials could be limited to a few hours and a few hundred dollars of lost income. It could also be a lot worse. Based on my personal experience I certainly wouldn't bet a few hundred dollars on the former in either case.
s1artibartfast 3y ago
Why? If the law is on the books I don't see anyone doing time
BWStearns 3y ago
While I normatively agree with you that that’s the way it should work, that isn’t how these things go. This kind of pseudo corruption is extremely common because it’s easy to make shitty arguments that pass first inspection (oh we need the police there for public safety, think of the children, oh a bird! look over there!). They drag it out into a years long appeals process where they grind the plaintiff down and eventually they settle for no wrongdoing and attorneys fees and change, and now you get your business license back and have a hostile local PD.
- pseg134 3y ago
  Tell us the city or you are just talking nonsense on the internet. I can describe a 1000 plausible but untrue scenarios.
  - ricktdotorg 3y ago
    is GGGP's comment about being forced to hire PD officers as security any different than the forced requirement that film producers in Los Angeles are required to hire ex-LAPD as security, that has been going on for years? while the article i reference is from ~2008[0], as an LA resident living in Hollywood, i see examples of retired LAPD guys every week "guarding" film sets even in 2023: Such talk has angered Todd -- who estimates that he makes $100,000 a year working on film sets -- and the other 150-odd retired cops who have the required LAPD-issued permits to assist movie and TV productions. and Melissa Patack, a vice president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said a wholesale change from retired to off-duty, active LAPD officers would seriously undermine the ability of directors and producers to stay on schedule and budget. Retired officers, who are not subject to the LAPD’s strict overtime limits, can remain on set for the typical 12- to 16-hour days. Patack imagines a scenario where producers instead would have to hire multiple crews of off-duty police officers and disrupt shoots to switch them. why on earth is there a REQUIREMENT that a film set's producers hire one of retired 150 LAPD officers? based on my many viewings of these ex-LAPD guys, all they do is lounge around on their motorcycles -- not materially different behavior than a regular security person who similarly lounges around, yet is presumably paid much less than an ex-LAPD officer. it's not just the cops that are corrupt, it's the people who require you to hire them. [0] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-16-me-filmset16-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-16-me-films... edited because i messed up the formatting.
    - FireBeyond 3y ago
      > the other 150-odd retired cops who have the required LAPD-issued permits I'd love to see whether it's at all possible for someone who isn't a LEO or retired try to acquire these permits, and just how brazen they are that this is a racket for cops.
someuser2345 3y ago
Eh, it's easy to say that someone else should risk their business to do what's right, it's a lot harder to actually do that yourself.

Karrot_Kream 3y ago

Thanks for surfacing this. While your friend has better things to do with their time, I hope someone with the time and money to challenge this will try to run a drone photography business just to levy this lawsuit in Florida. If I lived in Florida I might be intrigued.