Monday, October 31, 2005

Want To Reduce Crime In Your Community?

Then designate some of your more dangerous parks as an “off leash” area for dogs.

This has been used in various communities, including in Seattle.

It works. It is like implementing a Block Watch program. Criminals don’t want their hangouts patrolled by citizens, especially citizens with dogs. The citizens start demanding that the parks departments clean up the discarded needles and condoms, move out the bums (no, I’m not politically correct… I won’t call them “homeless”… they are bums), increase police patrols (which the cities don’t do because there are folks that benefit politically by ignoring certain types of crimes… because they are corrupt), and invest in new amenities. The dog owners also start pitching in to clean up these parks and making them safe again. The community benefits all the way around.

Animal control doesn’t like it, because bureaucracies don’t like losing power. Neither do the parks department bureaucrats. Take a look at what is happening in Chicago. People are demanding more off leash areas, and the city officials are fighting it.

There isn’t enough off leash space for dogs in most metropolitan and suburban cities. Allowing dogs off leash in dangerous areas, and after dark in all parks, say from 10 pm to 5 am, would benefit most communities.

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