Out, Damned Spot -- A Parking Place to Die For

(Image courtesy of CarBuyingTips.com)

In the late 1970s, two items among my father's office décor caught my eye: An abysmal pea green poster of a cartoon animal reading "Hail the turtle! In order to get ahead he must stick out his neck," and a joke news article with the headline "Man Killed Over Spot."

Let us never speak of the turtle again.

As for murder over a parking spot, any humor within the faux article drained away abruptly last year along with the lifeblood of Boris Albinder, when the teenager really was was stabbed to death in a fracas over a San Francisco parking spot.

The San Francisco Police Department this week announced the indictment and arrest of two more men in connection with that killing: Roeung Chhith, 21, and Vansok Chil, 27. Accused gang members Pounloeu Chea and Serith Soun, both 25, are already in custody and await a murder trial; the four allegedly attacked and beat a man when he wouldn't surrender a spot he was holding for Albinder.

Albinder got involved and that was that. At 19, his life was over almost before it began.

It's tempting to adopt an old man's mindset and infer that the transformation of a dark joke into a violent reality proves San Francisco's devolution into a baser and more brutal place over the course of a generation. Then again, the Zodiac Killer dispatched his victims over far less tangible rationales than even a parking space, so maybe that theory needs a little work.

Thank God, murder over something as trivial as a spot still turns heads. S.F. Police can't remember a similar case -- but, then again, that's only anecdotal. A Google-like search for terms like "parking spot" and "murder" is not possible with the cops' current database.

"You would think we could do that but we can't," a police official told me. "Technically, we're not as advanced as the public or press may think."

When it comes to bearing the brunt of parkers' wrath, intuitively enough, Parking Control Officers take their fair share. Last year 27 assaults were reported, following 17 in 2005. Only four assaults have taken place this year, but that includes a man firing a realistic B.B. pistol at an officer in May. That was the second shooting incident for the officer, who now wears a flack jacket.

Is it too late to adopt that old man mindset? --Joe Eskenazi