Funeral cars in Islington earlier this week were ticketed when they pulled over to mourn the death of a 16-year-old murder victim from the community, Ben Kinsella. The young boy was stabbed repeatedly in the early morning hours of June 29. He was taken to a local hospital, but he died soon after.
At the scene of the murder, friends and family members created a shrine to the young boy. Mourners flocked to the area for weeks after the incident to pay their respects to the Kinsella family. But while they had their funeral cars parked nearby, Islington traffic wardens were passing out tickets.
One woman stopped to pay her respects as she was confronted by a traffic warden. “He said that I couldn’t park on a double-yellow,” she explained. But according to her, his response was, “I don’t care what shrine it is, you can’t be parked on a double-yellow.” She is appealing her ticket as many other area residents with similar citations are doing.
One neighbor who lived close to the shrine noticed that traffic wardens were almost keeping watch of the shrine so they could pounce on drivers as soon as they parked. “To me,” she said, “they were young cashing in on the death of a young man.”
The latest news about the situation is that these traffic citations will not be enforced. But it raises an important question: Funeral cars or not, should people be allowed to park against the rules to pay their respects at a site of mourning? I mean, we see these shrines set up all over the highway here in the United States. Should mourners be allowed to pull over and pay their respects even though it could risk their safety and the safety of other drivers? What do you think?