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Edited on Fri Oct-08-04 01:19 PM by hlthe2b
I live close to a large park which has (in past decade) experienced a murder or two, rapes, muggings, etc. For years now, the large number of dog owners nearby have simply rebelled against the moronic dog policies that allow virtually no legal off-leash areas. I've seen as many as 30 dogs with their owners at a time during the afterwork "happy hour", enjoying each others company and always keeping the dogs nearby, in voice control, and well-behaved. The effect has also been a dramatic reduction in violent crime and theft.
Yet, while city police have continued to ignore the teen boys being lured into cars and bushes during early morning and late evening for sexual exploitation, and the overt drug deals, the city "dog gestapo" sends its stormtroopers out in vans to drive across the park at night to stop this horrific crime wave of dog owners and their unleashed dogs. Nearly running over the poor homeless sleeping within its perimeters, while literally destroying both the park's turf and hidden sprinkler systems, they send their most power-driven, undereducated, and arrogant "would-be cops" out to ticket with additional "victims compensation fees" and administrative fees compounding the already ridiculous. They even ticket those with leashed dogs who happened to be nearby--tellling them they must take their case to court to contest or be arrested. (Don't believe it? This was how I got my second ticket and while I wanted to go to court and fight, I could not get the time off (having just started another job), so I had to just suck it up and pay}. While I have yet to understand who the "victims" might be that necessitate these compensation fees, this is among the questions one does not dare ask. Just as inquiring where one might legally go at 5:30 pm during winter months when the few legal offleash parks opened as "pilot projects" are closed or why these few pilot project parks are constantly closed due to concerns over damage to turf after the briefest of rain/snow showers.
Questions--any questions are considered to be escalating threats to the "officer" or at a minimum, evidence of noncooperation which is duly noted on the ticket for court review. My first ticket occurred just before 6 AM on a dark, wintery Sunday morning, when I deigned allow my dog off leash briefly in the vacant lot adjacent to a nearby elementary school. Shocked to be approached at such an ealy hour by a large male in a white van, at a time when streets were empty of traffic and no one was around, I would likely have reflexively used pepper spray had I had it handy. As it was, I yelled at him to "stay away from me," (my exact quote) prior to realizing who he was. For this, I earned a notation of "subject used threatening language" on my ticket, preempting any real motivation for me to go to contest the ticket in court, for fear that additional charges might have been levied.
A side note to those who might wish to argue the city's reasoning on these tactics: While I acknowledge that (regrettably) not all dog owners are as responsible as those I describe and it is certainly necessary to deal with those who do not police, train, and clean up after their dog, there are compromise solutions to all of this that would avoid such nazi tactics. I favor very large fines be levied to those who don't clean up. I also think that restricting off leash activity to specific "off-hour times" in parks so as to prevent those who wish no contact with dogs to enjoy the park in their own way makes sense. Further, not all parks are large enough to safely accomodate dogs off leash, so as to avoid risk from traffic or other similar issues.
However, for those who fear offleash areas adversely impact communities, I want to point out that there have been a number of studies recently documenting that availability of nearby dog parks now joins the presence of restaurants, shopping, and artistic and cultural amenities as the leading predictors of improving property values and neighborhood desirability.
Ok, end of soapbox...
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