charliehall: The right to jury trial is tied to rights that existed under the English common law, and administrative fines were never considered criminal and were never involved in actions under common law – meaning there never was a jury right to be preserved.
It isn’t that hard to contest a ticket but many people don’t for several reasons including it isn’t worth the trouble (easier to pay the fine), and that they are probably guilty. In all fairness, New Yorkers are infamous for all sorts of parking violations so it isn’t hard for the authorities to find people to ticket. As was the case in Ferguson, the reason most people are complaining about the police is that the police usually persecute guilty people and the guilty people (the thief who was shot in Missouri, the illegally parked New Yorkers, etc.) don’t like it.