Rocco Salvemini used to watch the basketball junkies run all over the public courts on the west side of his native Hoboken, and when they missed a shot, he would laugh. Clank. Heh heh heh.
He’s lucky he didn’t get socked courtside.
Now 22, Salvemini lets out a giggle sometimes when he slides $42 parking tickets onto the windshields of that mile-square city’s many parking offenders. Ka-ching. Heh heh heh.
But Salvemini is not delighting in the misery of others, as his mother, Mary Rose Salvemini, has had to explain to angry drivers in the parking-bereft town.
Salvemini, who is autistic, laughs when he is nervous. Sometimes he also laughs when offenders argue over tickets because – he says – “They know they’re wrong.” These things are black and white in his mind, so what is the argument about?
He doesn’t delight in doling out penalties, but he said that he enjoys a job well done, which is how he sees every ticket he issues: Success.
As far as the laughing, he means no disrespect.
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His condition aside, Salvemini is a normal 22-year-old who enjoys visiting his girlfriend in Washington Heights, hitting the arcades in Time Square, and playing around with the two large Akita dogs in his family’s home on Jefferson Street.
Order in disorder
Salvemini is a high-functioning young man who at an early age was found to be on the autism spectrum.
Autism is a disorder that can impair social interactions and communication skills, but it manifests itself differently in each person. Salvemini’s diagnosis: Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, or PPDNOS.
That means he exhibits some – but not all – of the signs of classic autism.
He is sensitive to his surroundings, but not over sensitive like many autistic persons. Salvemini shows signs of gullibility and clumsiness; he has trouble holding eye contact; and his brain processes language at a slower rate than the average person.
In some instances, these individuals also demonstrate savant-like attributes. Salvemini has a mass of license plate numbers filed in his head from walking the streets.
But his steel-trap memory is a blessing and a curse. Salvemini said he has too much information stored up there, and he can’t shake memories that he would rather forget.
Trouble finding him
He had his share of problems growing up.
Mary Rose said that kids would convince Salvemini to pay for their food and other things, or just take money from him. She even found that some local merchants would shortchange him on transactions. It was times like these were she would intervene.
She’s still on-call and has, from time to time, had to meet Salvemini on the job to provide assistance.
One of Salvemini’s verbal ticks almost got him in trouble recently. For one of the first times, Salvemini held down the fort while his family was away for a weekend. But when Mary Rose called the house to check in, the police answered.
“He has a nervous tick of checking his cell phone,” she said, “and someone called the cops because they thought he had a gun.”
Under normal circumstances, the situation would be cleared up within minutes of the police arriving, but in high-pressure situations, autistic persons can display the same signs as guilty felons: fidgeting, reaching into pockets, avoiding eye contact, or leaving the scene. If police aren’t knowledgeable about this, the person could get himself or herself hurt.
Can’t be bribed
When he started walking his beat in 2006, Salvemini would be greeted tremendously well by merchants. He says that some offered him free lunch, and some females would turn on the charm.
At first, Salvemini thought the ladies were showing a genuine interest in him and the pizza slingers were just being nice, but they were expecting preferential treatment, and Salvemini couldn’t read into their motives.
Once he attached parking tickets to their double-parked cars, their kindness disappeared.
His mother explained to him that these people expected Salvemini to overlook their parking offenses, but as Mary Rose puts it, “He can’t be bribed.”
Salvemini doesn’t bend the rules; he once gave his father a ticket. His job has become easier now that parking regulations have been more clearly written under the new mayoral administration.
In the past, he had problems with understanding and enforcing selective parking regulations – too much gray, not enough black and white.
Watching Salvemini ticket a car, his routines seem odd. He circles around the vehicle checks the plate, circles back around. These are obsessive compulsions which he has little control over.
He will not cross the street unless the light is green and he is very careful to not step on anything that may have unsafe footing, like manhole covers.
Salvemini said he thinks people on the street are more likely to harass him for writing a ticket not because he has autism, but because he writes more tickets than his peers.
He has had a few minor physical altercations and many verbal spats; one man punched Salvemini in the arm and later apologized during a court proceeding.
When it comes to disputes on the street, Salvemini always calls in the supervisor and sometimes the police, and both have his back.
Parking and Transportation Director Ian Sacs said, “Rocco’s position at the parking utility is a perfect fit because we have a clear set of rules and he excels at enforcing them.”
Sacs said the city is currently hiring parking enforcement officers and encouraged individuals like Salvemini, who may have trouble finding a job that fits their abilities, to apply at City Hall.
Salvemini’s passionate about one thing: He thinks parking enforcement officers should be protected like police officers and train conductors. Assault on an officer of the law results in a felony, while assault on a parking officer results in a misdemeanor.
Dealing with harassment
The Salvemini family has been navigating some turbulent times. In one exchange between Mary Rose and Rocco, Rocco referred to himself as a “retard.”
Mary Rose was upset that he would use the term, but angry because she knew he had heard it somewhere; maybe on the street or maybe at work.
She said she found comments on a local blog berating Salvemini as being a “retard” and ridiculing his routines and quirks – even after the commenter admitted that he or she knew Salvemini was mentally impaired. Mary Rose contacted the website administrator to have the comment removed.
She hopes a little bit of knowledge can suppress the hatred and harassment.
Salvemini hopes that his story can clear up some of the misinformation and misunderstanding, “for other people who are autistic and [for people who] think [the autistic person is] psycho or on drugs.”
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.