THE LONG ARM

Laxity on the part of the University in providing adequate parking facilities for student's cars has resulted in swelling the coffers of the East Cambridge District Court. Yesterday 22 owners of cars were fined five dollars apiece for overnight parking without lights and in the next few weeks police promise that many more offenders will be summoned and fined.

Students suspect that the villian of the piece is attached to the Brattle Street Police Station, when actually the trouble is much nearer home. Aside from the expense and time wasted in court by students waiting to plead guilty, in inertia of University officials has given the local police a black eye which they do not deserve. Repeatedly it has been suggested both in these columns and by the police that the tracts of land surrounding the Business School and New Biological Institute be utilized for parking spaces.

Now it is revealed that neglect of the whole unfortunate business has in addition caused a technical miscarriage of justice. Students who return the tags placed on their cars are summoned to court and fined, but the larger number who have been tagged as much as seven or eight times and do not report to the Station with them, have escaped punishment. Largely because of the difficulty in looking up plates in the Registrar's office and sifting out the excuses of owners who maintain that someone, since forgotten, borrowed the car the night it was tagged, police have been unable to send summonses to men who have not brought in their tags. To avoid this injustice they started the practice this week of towing cars away after four warnings.

At practically no cost the University could grade the field behind the Business School and extend the privileges of the enlarged space to members of the College. Such a parking lot would be more convenient for residents of the Houses than many garages and would reduce expenses on cars that do not need the protection of a closed garage Parking drives are an intolerable nuisance to everyone except the College authorities.