Scarlet Letters
By: Mr. Wilson on
January 13, 2006
[Ed Caudill, a 21-year North Bottoms resident and neighborhood activist] said two encounters with police — who rebuked him for calling the police so frequently — were the last straw.I see two problems there. First, and most obviously, Lincoln's police officers cannot be rebuking citizens for calling the police to report crimes. If Mr. Caudill's accusation is true, it should be investigated and the officers involved should be punished. Second, one wonders why Mr. Caudill has to call the police so often in the first place. If there really is that much crime in the neighborhood, LPD needs to step up its patrols and its enforcement of the law. Granted, the offenses committed in Mr. Caudill's neighborhood are probably mostly nuisances, not violent or dangerous crimes. But they are, nonetheless, crimes against others, and therefore they need to be squashed. On a very minor point, the notion that it takes "a gallon of gasoline and a razor blade" to remove the signs also bothers me. The police should not be damaging citizens' homes. If they're going to be causing damage, why not just spray paint a giant letter A (for "assholes live here") on the side of the house? I have other niggling concerns about the proposal, but ultimately I think it's an inefficacious solution to only a portion of the problem. Nuisance houses are a problem, but there are better and more complete solutions available. I won't settle for short-term feel-good ordinances.
Comments
See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.
So what’s next?
If they red tag “problem” houses, will they red tag problem citizens?
It’s too intrusive to me and should not be done.
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