DEAR ABBY: Per your recent request for examples of acts of kindness:
A Washington, D.C., man recently cleaned up and repainted a rusting and neglected police call box in front of his house. He was arrested for defacing government property!
A woman in the Midwest put a quarter in the parking meter of a total stranger. She was arrested for violating her town's parking laws.
A store owner on eastern Long Island put a sign in his window advertising the sale of pumpkins grown in his garden. He was arrested for violating some obscure zoning ordinance, and since his case has generated publicity, police and local officials have engaged in a campaign of harassment against him.
A public-spirited Chicago man who purchased an electric car to fight pollution is now engaged in a legal battle against the state motor vehicle officials, who claim that electric cars can't pass the required emissions test because they don't produce any emissions.
Who was it who said, "No good deed goes unpunished"? -- P.M. IN HICKSVILLE, N.Y.
DEAR P.M.: According to Brewer's Quotations, "No good deed goes unpunished" is attributed to Oscar Wilde.
I agree that on the face of it, the reactions of the authorities appear unjust. However, before I render a judgment, I would have to know more of the details.