The mortar is turning to sand

Here is a story about how a Seattle woman went for a walk last Saturday evening in Myrtle Edwards Park and wound up being raped and beaten for an hour. Eventually a passerby heard the noise and came to her aid, and the perpetrator was captured.

I have an idea: Let's frequently ask the taxpayers to fork over more money to build more new parks, and not spend a single penny on the security of the parks we already have. Wait, that's what Seattle already does.

I visit Seattle parks probably more often than most. I frequently transit Myrtle Edwards on my bicycle. I have never seen a Seattle police officer in a park. Not ever. Our parks are given over to bums. Myrtle Edwards is a vast campground of unsavory characters, Seattle's most valued citizens, the vagrants.

Seattle responds to security problems in its parks in a passive-agressive way, not by confronting the problem. Drug dealers in Regrade Park? Turn it into a dog off-leash park. Too many bums living in lower Kinnear Park? Turn it into a dog off-leash park. Sexual activity in the stalls in park restrooms? Take the doors off the stalls. Illicit activity in park picnic shelters? Tear down the walls of the shelters.

We can't turn EVERY park into a dog park. We can't totally dismantle our parks. But Seattle sure is trying. Seattle will do ANYthing rather than confront and deal with the antisocial and criminal elements who degrade and destroy the city.

And if the cops do do their job and roust the criminals, they are attacked by the newspapers and the lotus-eaters in our government.

This is unsustainable. Civilization is optional; if we don't want it, and don't protect it, we won't have it.

Posted: Tue - August 14, 2007 at 02:54 PM

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The mortar is turning to sand

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