Before I began the outline for Suki I, I set down some rules for the environment the characters would be living in. Being set in the USA just a few years in the future, I decided that the country would be no more legally homogeneous than it is now. That ties into something I have noticed across the country, when people get used to their local laws they seem to think that they are the same everyplace. Certain laws anyway, which has run people into problems for decades, even centuries when it comes to Eastern vs. Western property rights rules.
In this case, a simple towing of a vehicle that happened a few days before this post:
Nothing particularly exciting there, on the face. The land owner has designated certain parking spots reserved for this-or-that. The land owner has made an arrangement with a wrecker company to monitor parking and remove vehicles that are parked without permission on the land.
Now imagine that adjoining jurisdictions, Washington, DC and most of Maryland, have different rules, where parking in areas like the one this vehicle was towed from being mostly controlled by the government and must be marked in a certain manner. Just for fun, imagine that the tow trucks in these areas are government trucks, not contractors, so being towed is less of a risk. When the drivers from that environment arrive in Virginia and just grab a spot because they think they can get away with it with maybe a ticket, they get a rude awakening when they discover their vehicle has been privately towed and is going to require a substantial payment to retrieve.
The above example is too minor for the short novels that I write, so there is a mention of a demonstration in Suki's neighborhood over someone from DC or MD losing their home for destroying a Virginian's property with their under-insured vehicle and bad driving habits.
The video above was taken from across the street from Chipotle, 2231 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202.
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