The attached video has gone viral on social media on Tuesday.
The viewer will see a vehicle blocking a fire hydrant, and an NYPD tow truck hooking up cables to tow the vehicle away.
The man can be heard telling his video audience that it is a “chutzpah” that the NYPD is enforcing no parking by fire hydrants by towing the vehicle.
YWN notes that according to Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, if someone parks in a handicapped parking space and davens Shacharis, is “oiver” a “mitzvah ha’baah b’iaveira”.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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28 Responses
Stop it already with Rabbi kanievski please let the poor old man sit and learn like he likes to and stop quoting himfor every stupidity
The narrator in this clip is a fool. The City has the right to tow a car from any space where it is an obstacle to normal, safe living.
Now for the opposing view. The City has many times more than the needed hydrants. In decades past, the ability to utilize a hydrant to fight a fire was very dependent on how close it was to the fire. Ready access to an unblocked pump was needed to hook up the truck to the pump. And the more hydrants there were, the easier it was to bring the water to the fire. That is no longer true. Pumper trucks do not need to be that close to the fire or the pump. The hoses are longer and adequate. The engine doing pumping compensates many times over for whatever pressure is diminished because of distance. The 15 feet to either side of the pump is obsolete as a need. Thus the law establishing that should be challenged in court where it should be found unnecessary imposition on drivers.
Lastly, fire departments seeking access to a pump can easily and legally break through the windows of the vehicle parked there to run the hoses. There would be no liability for this either.
There continue to be many hydrants around NYC that are useless for fighting fires, as they have no pipes connecting them to water. Guiliani began his administration by removing some 3000 of these hydrants. FDNY knows where these are. They remain in place for ticketing purposes to help balance the city budget. We all have our moral issues with such practice. When we finished being angry and frustrated with such things, we’re stuck following the laws. With Democrats in office, every dime we earn is treated by the city as potential deposits to their accounts. If they cannot tax us more, they will fine us to death, while making it harder to remain within the confines of the law. Don’t like it? Vote Republican, and daven for that to work.
It’s a chutzpah to park there in the first place.
Embarrassing
Sad!
And YeshivaWorldNews is all too excited to share it! They love this stuff and revel in the comments that it causes. Any chance they have to fine קלונם של ישראל they jump at it!
Ya OK, And what does Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky say about your endless Loshon Horah and spreading of hatred among jews and towards jews?
the nypd did a greet job .
No parking at a fire hydrant is a money-making scam. This law should have been abolished a long time ago. Has nothing to do with fighting a fire.
SCAM EXPOSED: YWN was created by missionaries and anti semites with one goal to insure mashiach will never arrive chas vshalam. Sadly so far they are successful at spreading hate between us and causing sinas chinam.
to jerkoq12.
spoken like a real jerk
@jerkoq12 Are you saying that a fire hydrant has nothing to do with fighting fires?
I don’t get the whole pro/con thing among the commenters. There are rules, the owner broke them, the owner will suffer the consequences. What’s at issue here?
And I really don’t understand the narrators outrage. Does he know that the car owner had some special license to park there?
love trump, they greeted him?
The article says: “YWN notes that according to Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, if someone parks in a handicapped parking space and davens Shacharis, is “oiver” a “mitzvah ha’baah b’iaveira”.” Could you please provide the source of where this is quoted? I followed the link, and I did not see a quote of Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky saying the words it’s a “mitzvah ha’baah b’iaveira.” What I did see in a previous article is:
“Rav Kanievsky Shlita is quoted as saying “certainly he did not act properly. Such a person, who steals a parking space in order to daven must recite a תפילה נדבה in place of his first tefilla.” ”
If one is to interpret what HaRav Kanievsky Shlita meant is different then the quote, I suggest a source of who it is that would make that interpretation be noted.
a $ 115 ticket is more than enough
towing is way over the top
if you do park at pumps occasionally and u got to take the risk if you get ticketed once in 25 times you park there so its $5 a pop
there is no danger to anyone by parking at a pump before you scream look at the fdny stats i did
the chance of a fire exactly at that address when you are parked is .000001 with more zeros
now if everyone did it, it would be a problem but since they dont it isnt
[Note to moderator, please replace the previous comment with the following, as I clarify here that the quote in a previous article is talking about a designated handicapped space (not a fire hydrant:)
The article says: “YWN notes that according to Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, if someone parks in a handicapped parking space and davens Shacharis, is “oiver” a “mitzvah ha’baah b’iaveira”.” Could you please provide the source of where this is quoted? I followed the link, and I did not see a quote of Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky saying the words it’s a “mitzvah ha’baah b’iaveira.” What I did see in a previous article, with the subject being a designated handicapped parking space. is:
“Rav Kanievsky Shlita is quoted as saying “certainly he did not act properly. Such a person, who steals a parking space in order to daven must recite a תפילה נדבה in place of his first tefilla.” ”
If one is to interpret what HaRav Kanievsky Shlita meant is different then the quote, I suggest a source of who it is that would make that interpretation be noted.
Moderators Note: Watch the video on that page. In full.
Depends where this story took place
In many places they don’t tow for blocking hydrants
To all those trashing YWN for this article, I would point out the following. While I don’t myself use social media in the “viral” manner referenced in the article, the fact that such has (allegedly) gone “viral” – potentially to the whole world – is indeed very important for every Jew to know. It is important to know how such things affects the perception of Jews in the world’s eyes. It is important to know what enormous desecration of G-d’s name (and hatred engendered against Jews) such things promote. And for anyone who has any knowledge of, or contact with, has a great and onerous responsibility to stop such sickening behaviour and inform the perpetrator of the magnitude of their offence.
613NewUser001:
If Rav Chaim declares the previous tefillah invalid, there must be a basis to it. That basis is that it was a mitzvah ha’ba’ah ba’aveirah.
Listen up: Fire hydrants are an important part – maybe a crucial part – of our public safety infrastructure. If you don’t want your car towed, don’t park in front of them. In this case, the chutzpah is on the other foot.
Be thankful for the times you could have been towed but weren’t, and be especially thankful that no one was hurt by your disregard of sensible public rules of safety.
“little I know is right”: it’s a little. Are you a trained pump operator? Do you know the loses/foot of hose?
The only truly non-functional pumps, other than the occasional breakage, are from the old high-pressure system in Manhattan used for the now defunct “super pumper” system.
As for the 15 foot rule, that’s because the fire engines need room to maneuver close to the pump.
And, lastly, while they CAN break windows or whatever, that does slow down access to the pump.
The bottom line is that blocking a hydrant is illegal and puts lives at risk: don’t do it.
I think that the video was prepared as a spoof. I can’t believe that any thinking person would park at a pump or condone it especially in their own neighborhood. It is inexcusable. In fire fighting seconds count and any delay can lead to loss of life or additional property damage.
The City should double the existing fine and increase towing of cars parked at pumps to put an end to it.
News flash: the laws do, in fact, apply to you!
@georgeg
I agree with you. very well said.
I think that it is very important for our community to understand the power of social media, there is a lack of understanding of the effect it can have, and to how things can become viral in seconds and your actions can be viewed by millions of people in a matter of minutes.
It is not for bad reasons that we are not aware of its power, we can be proud of it that a big percentage of our community does not use social media at all. but still, it is a good thing to make people aware of it.
Note: that does not mean that we should fuel the fire when a video goes viral and spread it further. when someone makes a mistake its RETZECHA to spread it further and enjoy and laugh while drinking the blood of him and his family!
As mentioned above, the fire hydrant 15 foot rule is long outdated and only left in place to make $ for the city. Drivers are spit upon in this city by an administration who travels every where by car, and with special privilege, while telling everyone else to use bikes and mass transit and charging zillions of dollars for tolls and doing nothing to provide parking for citizens who are being ripped off with high taxes. Also, if you ever watched them tow a car, you see total disregard for the hard earned money of the car owner in the way they destroy the car. Government gets away with these things that would be considered criminal if done by anyone else. This includes using our tax money for redistribution of wealth instead of using it to fix our roads and provide parking for the law abiding citizens that are paying the taxes. Vote the bumbs out and vote in republicans. Enough with the nonsense.
“…….Retzecha to spread it further and enjoy and laugh while drinking the blood of him and his family…”
Absolutely. This plague is rampant even in our community and it’s time to focus shiyurim, warnings, musser , columns on this. A person’s life , family, reputation can change or be destroyed forever in an instant because of this viral mageifah.
Time to tow away all double parked cars, as well as all bicycles going thru a red light or wrong way on a 1 way street, as well as cars speeding thru a light which just turned red.
Sadly, many people in the frum community have a sense of entitlement and feel that the laws don’t apply to them. Guess what – the laws DO apply to you. If you think there’s a problem with this particular law (no parking by a hydrant), then work with your legislative representatives to get the law changed.