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Friday, August 10, 2007

Parking Tickets and Crack Dealin’

posted by on August 10 at 12:30 PM

Stranger contributor Trent Moorman emails…

Here’s a video of a parking cop in the International District. He comes by every day at 5:55 and writes tickets. Even if you’re only 3 minutes late on the meter sticker, you’re getting ticket. Meanwhile, there’s a park across the street where crack dealers sell drugs, in plain view.

You get a ticket for being 3 minutes expired, while the crack dealer operates hassle-free.

I had my camera handy when he came by yesterday. While he was scrounging for his next car to ticket, I asked him why he doesn’t do anything about the crack dealer fifteen yards away. He told me he’s not allowed to do anything about the crack dealer. He said he’s not a sworn officer, and he doesn’t have a gun. He can only radio it in. But wouldn’t radio it in. He suggested that I call 911. I told him he was the one with “Seattle Police” on his shoulder patch, but he shrugged, rode off, and continued to write tickets. The crack dealer continued as well.

RSS icon Comments

1

Later, he'll be sure to go home and beat his wife for all of the stress he has on his shoulders.

Posted by Mr. Poe | August 10, 2007 12:34 PM
2

a camera in every hand is the only way to police the police not doing policing.

on the other hand there have been a shitload of foot cops at third and pike lately, so good up on them.

Posted by seattle98104 | August 10, 2007 12:35 PM
3

Yay SPD!

Posted by Carollani | August 10, 2007 12:35 PM
4

It sounds like The Stranger’s platform is finely influencing local crime policy. Hard on drivers, soft on drugs…

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | August 10, 2007 12:40 PM
5

That guy's job is to generate revinue for the city, not catch crooks.

Pathetic.

Posted by Pathetic | August 10, 2007 12:41 PM
6

I don't think meter maids have ever been known to arrest drug dealers.

Posted by Tiffany | August 10, 2007 12:42 PM
7

Oh yeah… limiting gun possession.

Way to go Stranger!!!

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | August 10, 2007 12:43 PM
8

@4

It's crack. Not pot. Crack takes care of crack users. Crack dealers might shoot you. Crackheads might flip out on you.

They're not trying to rid Seattle of crime. They're trying to display an image that they are, though. What easier way to do that than write parking tickets and bust harmless potheads and pot dealers?

Posted by Mr. Poe | August 10, 2007 12:47 PM
9

Just remember, in Soviet America, complaining is the mark of those who hate the Politburo.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 10, 2007 12:48 PM
10

I see the juxtaposition here, but he's parking enforcement. Maybe Seattle should trim that department and beef up vice or sidewalk patrol, but hassling the meter maid is like when people come running into my office (I do graphic design) in a panic because the servers are down... because I know, like, computers and junk.

Posted by Dougsf | August 10, 2007 12:59 PM
11

How does the city spend that parking ticket revenue? If so, I'm perfectly happy with the SPD paying a guy to write parking tickets if it funds real law enforcement while keeping down taxes. Take issue with the cops cracking down on prostitutes and pot users instead of real criminals, those groups don't generate revenue.

Posted by keshmeshi | August 10, 2007 1:03 PM
12

He's NOT A COP. He has a uniform because he works for the Police Department, but he's parking enforcement, which is lower than secretary on the law enforcement food chain.

If you see illegal activity, call the cops. If they come, the dealers will scatter. Busting dealers in a park with a charge that'll stick is actually pretty hard to do.

Posted by Fnarf | August 10, 2007 1:04 PM
13

It's nice to see parking enforcement using bicycles.

Posted by DOUG. | August 10, 2007 1:07 PM
14

Dougsf, a better analogy goes like this: You, graphic designer, are walking through your company's data center on your way to go design some graphics. Next to you, smoke is billowing out of a server. A client of your company who happens to be heading to a meeting down the hall sees this scene and asks if you're going to do anything about the server. You say, "I'm just a graphic designer. I don't carry screwdrivers. Maybe you should call our tech support line."

Posted by Phil M | August 10, 2007 1:09 PM
15

Come on, Fnarf. Stranger contributor Trent Moorman and an SPD parking enforcement officer both witness some illegal behavior. Are you saying that alerting the police department to this behavior is more Trent's responsibility than that of the SPD guy?

Posted by Phil M | August 10, 2007 1:17 PM
16

@12

"Busting dealers in a park with a charge that'll stick is actually pretty hard to do."

Yeah. You'd have a witness, or something. The cop might have to wait 10-20 minutes (Good Lord!) for the next 'transaction' to take place. And he'll have to see it with his own eyes, so he'd have to watch the dealer for 10-20 minutes (Fuck that!).

The only rational way to handle a crack dealer situation, in a park, is to plow through the park with your sirens blasting. Which makes it hard to get a charge that'll stick.

Damn crack dealers.

The city should just stick one of those 'Drug Free Zone' signs in the park. That'll do it.

Posted by Mr. Poe | August 10, 2007 1:17 PM
17

I thought the point was he didn't even want to radio it in, which he said he could do.

Posted by Gloria | August 10, 2007 1:25 PM
18

How about we let poor black people exist in the park if they want, and throw scumbag repeat lawbreaker Trent Moorman in federal prison and throw away the key?

Posted by jamier | August 10, 2007 1:34 PM
19

Weren't you all at the Stranger the same people freaking out when cops allegedly lied about the details of a dope bust in more or less the same neighborhood?

How many ways do you want it? Cops aggressively going after dealers or not?

Posted by Westside forever | August 10, 2007 1:45 PM
20

Maybe he's radioed the SPD about the crackheads during the past, and found it didn't accomplish anything because the SPD's too busy picking on black people or something to bother coming out, so he knows not to bother.

Posted by Gomez | August 10, 2007 1:46 PM
21

I've done that guy's job before... but at least I called in the shit I saw happening so the real cops could handle it. It sounds like he's pretty disillusioned about how the police handle crime. I sure was... Better to keep his head down, write as many tickets as possible, and get promoted so he doesn't have to be the jackass personally warring with parking violators. Yes, he's a parking nazi. Yes, he's doing exactly what he gets paid for. No, he does not get paid to deal with crackheads.

Posted by Katelyn | August 10, 2007 2:00 PM
22

Busting drug dealers is expensive and ineffectual (as has been eloquently explained on numerous occasions by Dominic Holden and other Stranger writers).

Parking tickets are a revenue generator for the city.

Drug crime enforcement clogs up our legal system and overcrowds our prisons. A vast majority of parking ticket recipients write a check to the city and it is done.

I'm playing devil's advocate a bit here, and I certainly see the hypocrisy in citing people for minor violations while felonies are taking place a few feet away, but you can't have it both ways, people!

Posted by Mahtli69 | August 10, 2007 2:05 PM
23

@19: seriously? you think the only way to be agressive against crime is to lie and plant evidence? you cannot separate the two?

Posted by infrequent | August 10, 2007 2:20 PM
24

@14, 22:

Right on. About a million people a day walk by those crackdealers and don't get hurt. I see no problem with this scenario.

Posted by NaFun | August 10, 2007 2:30 PM
25

the only thing that will save occidental park is a new building (with condos for yuppies with the SPD on speed dial) on the empty lot to the east, & restoring VEHICLE traffic from jackson to yesler.

yeah that's right: vehicles have their uses , bitches.

Posted by maxsolomon | August 10, 2007 2:38 PM
26

#14 - Touche.

Then again, while smoke billowing from servers is something that shouldn't happen, it isn't something that happens all the time. I see you're point, but that's more akin to a 'the park is on fire! - I'm not a fireman' scenario.

Either way, somewhere in the middle these metaphors meet, and parking tickets still suck, and crack dealing sucks even more.

Posted by Dougsf | August 10, 2007 2:43 PM
27

Crack rules, shut up everybody.

Posted by crackhead | August 10, 2007 2:48 PM
28

Dougsf: Agreed.

Additionally, this is all predicated on the idea that someone *needs* to call the police in that situation. I'm not crazy about crack-smoking in the park, but putting people in jail is not the way I want to deal with it. Maybe we should give 'em parking tickets.

Posted by Phil M | August 10, 2007 2:53 PM
29
A client of your company who happens to be heading to a meeting down the hall sees this scene and asks if you're going to do anything about the server.

The thing is, none of us are clients of our government. Our government is a body of people who are hired, by us, to do very specific tasks. So you wouldn't ask a secretary at City Hall to try and put out a fire; you wouldn't ask a cop to do vital statistics research; you wouldn't ask a teacher to drive a garbage truck. Partly this is because these secondary tasks are not part of these peoples' job descriptions, but it's also because we specifically don't want public servants acting outside their briefs. We do not want police officers taking over the responsibilities of judges.

Outside of his brief -- handing out parking tickets -- a meter maid is no more a cop than a secretary or a teacher. You wouldn't expect one of the IT people employed by SPD to make a special effort to stop crack dealers, would you?

At the end of the day, the responsibility for our society rests on us. You want to stop the crack dealers? Call it in yourself.

Posted by Judah | August 10, 2007 3:15 PM
30

I gotta admit, I’m fairly nonplussed by this exposé—trying to imagine what benefit we reap by snitching on street dealers. Reducing sales? Curbing drug abuse? Curtailing violent crime? There’s no evidence any of those things will happen. But busting nonviolent drug offenders does have some proven effects: More police and court and jail resources are used, a public-health problem is pushed further underground, and people go to jail. Oh, and about those people going to jail… Seattle has one of the most pronounced racial disparities in drug enforcement among American cities.

Seattle Police records show that 62 percent of the people they arrested for serious drug charges were black and 19 percent are were white. That's even though critics say studies repeatedly show that whites deliver most of the serious drugs in Seattle.

For example, at Second and Pike, where drug dealers are more likely to be black or Latino, researchers found more than 400 drug arrests in during the study period. But on Capitol Hill, where drug dealers are more likely to be white, there were just 25 arrests.

I share Trent’s disdain for crack heads. Who doesn’t? But all big cities have open-air drug markets. They can never be eradicated. Ever. Which isn't to say we should turn a blind eye; quite the opposite. In lieu of federal drug-law reforms, the best way to deal with them is to keep the markets contained, policed for violence, and serviced by public health programs to mitigate the problems associate with drug abuse. It’s less expensive than playing some futile cat-and-mouse game with our limited enforcement resources, and it’s more humane than sending an endless stream of African-American men to jail. Maybe the parking enforcement officer realizes that issuing parking tickets actually serves the city some good, but arresting the crack head 15' away is a fool's errand.

Posted by Dominic Holden | August 10, 2007 3:18 PM
31

"the best way to deal with them is to keep the markets contained, policed for violence, and serviced by public health programs to mitigate the problems associate with drug abuse."

Dominic is right on here. Far from "ideal", but I live right in the middle of one of my cities "contained" areas and deal with the side effects that others drug abuse reaps on the nieghborhood, but I still agree.

Posted by Dougsf | August 10, 2007 3:39 PM
32

"You wouldn't expect one of the IT people employed by SPD to make a special effort to stop crack dealers, would you?" Well, no, but it's for the sort of reasons Dominic described.

"You wouldn't expect one of the IT people employed by SPD to make a special effort to stop purse-snatchers who are happily snatching away just yards away from those busy SPD IT people, would you?" Yes, if that special effort is to pick up the phone and call someone at SPD whose job it is to take action.

Setting aside the issues of whether we should be arresting adults for drug posession (I think we should not), and whether drug posession should be a crime (I think it should not), it is ridiculous for an SPD parking enforcement officer to tell a citizen that it's not the officer's job to do something -- like call one of his co-workers at the police department -- about a crime the two of them have witnessed.

Posted by Phil M | August 10, 2007 3:41 PM
33

Anyone who hasn't seen The Wire, do so post-haste and be enlightened.

Posted by laterite | August 10, 2007 3:47 PM
34

Dominic, I'm non-plussed by your being non-plussed. I side with Trent. I can't tell you how many bullshit parking tickets I've gotten in the last 2 years - being parked inches over the line, being minutes late on the parking meter while the parking cop just waited there.

Crack is much worse than pot. It's silly to try to compare them and say "the kind, gentle, and quiet crack dealer."

I think Trent's disdain is for bullshit parking tickets. And he's frustrated because there's a crack dealer that's there, all the time.

Dominic, I guarantee if you got a ticket for being minutes over on the meter (and like me, have paid hundreds of dollars in bullshit parking tickets) and there was a crack dealer across the street dealing away, you might be a little frustrated.

Your all cool and smug and non-plussed here, but something tells me if you saw that crack dealer there every day you would be pissed.

Don't pull the race card here.

The parking cop should have radio'd it in, right?. The crack dealer should be busted, he wasn't. People shouldn't get parking tickets for being 5 minutes late on a meter. (But they will, I know, that's the law.)

Posted by come on, Dominic | August 10, 2007 4:12 PM
35
it is ridiculous for an SPD parking enforcement officer to tell a citizen that it's not the officer's job to do something -- like call one of his co-workers at the police department -- about a crime the two of them have witnessed.

No more ridiculous than it is for the guy standing there with the cameraphone to insist the meter maid call it in. That's my point. The "responsibility" of the meter maid in that situation is the same responsibility everyone has in that situation.

Posted by Judah | August 10, 2007 4:21 PM
36

33: agreed. The Wire solves everything.

Posted by cnine | August 10, 2007 4:21 PM
37

Judah, the guy's got "Seattle Police" on his arm. He's got a walkie talkie hooked right into the police precinct.

Since when is everyone so pro crack dealers?

Trent is sick of getting parking tickets. He sees a disparity between being 3 minutes over on the meter and the guy who sells crack in the open every day.

We should make drugs legal and make the dealers pay tax on their sales. That would be money for the government and their big desks. Then maybe they wouldn't have to write so many bullshit parking tickets.

I remember when non of the streets in the international district had meters.

Posted by BUTT | August 10, 2007 4:40 PM
38

Why is every one assuming the crack dealer was black? We don't know what color the crack dealer was.

The one thing we know is that the person was dealing crack. But that seems to be ok with everyone here.

"How about we let poor black people exist in the park if they want, and throw scumbag repeat lawbreaker Trent Moorman in federal prison and throw away the key?" - jamier

I think it's the crack dealer that's the scumbag. Jamier, baby, you got it all wrong. The person was selling fucking crack, not candy bars. Why hate on Trent here. Are you high on crack, Jamier, I think so.

Posted by Elaine | August 10, 2007 5:07 PM
39

Come on, @34.

You’re comparing crack with marijuana, which I never did, so your argument already makes no sense. The rest of your argument is flawed, too; you’re conflating two unrelated issues. Overzealous parking enforcement – kind of a drag – with the random application of drug policy – one of the most wasteful, ineffective, and inhumane law enforcement campaigns in American history.

So what I hear you saying is, “Yeah, to avoid parking tickets, people should snitch on anyone suspected of committing a consensual crime, sending them to the slammer. That sounds fair to me.”

Maybe you should try that next time you’re pulled over for speeding on Aurora. “But officer, go arrest that hooker over there. She’s guilty of a crime with a more severe penalty and she’s contributing to moral decay!”

That’s bullshit. If cops took those kind of orders, they would never write any parking tickets or speeding tickets or conduct basic patrols, because busting drug dealers in the city is like shooting fish in a barrel. If we spent all our enforcement resources on drugs, the usage rates would remain unchanged--all while wasting the resources we have to focus on violent and dangerous crime.

So what if the parking officer had called in a squad car… what do you want the responders would do? Hold an undercover stake-out on the guy? Begin churning the poor sap through an already-overburdened criminal justice system while another dealer takes his place on the same corner? No. The officer’s job is to write tickets and gain the city some revenue. He obviously used his discretion to decide that busting the crack cretin is a waste of time.

Mind you, this scenario would be different if someone was being murdered or raped across the street. But they weren’t. We're talking about a dime-a-dozen crack dealer near Third and Yesler. (Yes, crack dealers are scary and gross. No, I’m not pro crack nor pro crack dealer.)

Should I not pull the race card? Should you stop using such a tired cliché? Discussing drug enforcement and its impact on racial minorities is part and parcel. The drug war is an institutionalized proxy for racism. Plain and simple. Argue the earth’s flatness if you want…

And last, you wrote this: “Something tells me if you saw that crack dealer there every day you would be pissed.”

Um, I live on a busy street corner in the CD. I see crack deals out my bedroom window from morning to night. But I’m not going to call the cops a thousand times a day like some nervous NIMBY. We live in a big city. We need to mitigate the problems created drug abuse not exacerbate them with reactionary whining and selfish rationalizations.

Posted by Dominic Holden | August 10, 2007 6:22 PM
40

Trent isn't snitching on anyone. He's pissed off about bullshit parking tickets. There's a crack dealer across the street that he sees every day. He sees a guy with 'Seattle Police' on his uniform ride his bike by the drug dealer everyday and not do a damn thing about it. But Trent gets a parking ticket for being 3 minutes over on the parking meter. I can understand his frustration.

There is no expose.

Dominic, you don't think crack is a big problem? What do you think is a big problem? You don't think crack leads to rape and other real bad shit? I bet if you saw someone being raped, you wouldn't do anything about it.

So according to you, crack is ok, and bullshit parking tickets are ok.

You say since we live in a city, crack is ok. I disagree.

I live in a Central District neighborhood. I'm trying to raise my kid. The drug dealers down the street fight, shoot their guns, deal crack, and leave trash all over the place. I call the cops on them weekly. The cops don't do anything about it. I don't feel good about my kid playing outside. I don't feel like my kid is safe.

I've started to think the cops are paid off. It's the only way to make sense out of it.

Cops and government officials are so corrupt, that's what frustates me.

Posted by El Mont | August 10, 2007 8:11 PM
41

There is a crazy WHITE crackhead in my building, disturbing us all. Go figure!

Posted by black person | August 10, 2007 9:43 PM
42

Ok, let's see:

Drug law enforcement: Ineffective (doesn't reduce demand, trafficking), racist (indisputable, for those of you who will stop spewing your White House Office of Drug Control Policy bullshit and actually read a study or two), wasteful (very expensive to prosecute and jail these offenders.)

Parking enforcement: Not wasteful (city makes more in revenue than it spends on enforcement), fair & more likely race blind (rules are posted in advance, enforcement is in busiest areas, not based on race, can't tell race of most drivers by looking at their cars), etc.

Finally, El Mont, you may be the dumbest fuck I've encountered on Slog in the last several months. Let's recount some points:

-You bitch about getting a ticket for going three minutes over. You don't get to go to the store, pay for 6 apples, and take a 7th for free. You don't get to go to a bar, pay for 6 drinks, and take a 7th for free. So why the fuck should you get to take something you didn't pay for when you're parking? Sure, bummer for you, but the rules are there to be enforced. You knew what they were. And there are reasons for them (revenue making, encouraging shopping at businesses, etc.). The city grants you the privilege of occupying public rights of way with your stationary vehicle (many see this as a wasteful use of space) and lets you know ahead of time the rules for doing so. You don't have a right to park as long as you'd like.

"You don't think crack leads to rape and other real bad shit? I bet if you saw someone being raped, you wouldn't do anything about it."

This is the dumbest thing I've read on slog lately. Crack leads to rape? Where's your stats, brother? Do you know anything about crack, what it does physiologically? Do you think it leads to sex-crazed black dudes roaming the street looking for white women to fuck? Do you know the difference between causation and correlation? Are you equating the sale of a drug--an economic exchange between consenting individuals--with the forceful sexual assault of one individual by another? Why don't you do yourself a favor and google "crack and sexual assault" and "alcohol and sexual assault" and see what you get. (For kicks, you may want to look into the "fetal alcohol syndrome" and "crack babies"--one of those isn't a real phenomenon (guess which!)). And finally, you want to crack down on "lead-to" behaviors? Congratulations, it looks like you're ready to take a seat with Rudy Giuliani, Mark Sidran, and all the other crypto-racist fucks who want to make rules to lock up the poor, brown, & black for hanging around sidewalks, peddling small amounts of dope, and just generally being not fun to look at! Better that than address root problems.

"I live in a Central District neighborhood. I'm trying to raise my kid."

I pity the kid. I hope he won't end up a credulous, muddle-minded, slow-witted NIMBY fuck like his/her dad.

Posted by Y'all spent too much time listening to Nancy Reagan | August 11, 2007 9:21 AM
43

Dear # 42 - Dominic?

It is you who are a slow-witted fuck. You are stupid because you let your anger get in the way of your thoughts.

Take your little 'studies' and your all knowing, stuck up, one sided facts, and shove them up your ass.

Yeah, I'm trying to raise my kid, the best I can. There are crack dealers/drug dealers who make my street unsafe. I want them gone. The police don't do shit about it. Fuck you. Maybe if they would patrol a little more and give out bullshit parking tickets less, the drug dealers would go away.

Oh wait, busting drug dealers is bad for the system, right? It's pointless to bust drug dealers. Busting drug dealers doesn't make the city money. Fuck you. Sorry if I want drug dealers off my street. I guess I'm just a dumbass, right?

How about I google 'college degree' and 'lazy ass-hole' and see if you come up? I work hard trying to raise my family right.

Yes, crack, and the culture of crack involve rape, and robbery, violence, and all kinds of crime. What planet do you live on? Planet 'Fuckhead Know-it-all?'

"The city grants you the privilege of occupying public rights of way with your stationary vehicle (many see this as a wasteful use of space) and lets you know ahead of time the rules for doing so."

The city doesn't grant me the privilege of anything. They are ripping me off. There shouldn't be meters in these places anyway. 5 years ago, there weren't. Then all the sudden, the government needs more money and decides to put meters on every street possible.

Yeah, where does the money go? It doesn't seem to go toward fighting drugs or policing neighborhoods.

No, NIMBY #42, you are the dumbest fuck I've read on Slog lately. The apples and the 7th one for free, is beside the point. As far as the parking goes, I don't think there should be meters these places. Am I muddle-minded for thinking that? I don't think so. Am I muddle-minded for wanting the crack dealers away from my kid? Apparently so.

I agree with whoever said make the drugs legal. Put a huge tax on them. The government would get their money and maybe the dealers wouldn't have to hide in parks and neighborhood streets to sell. It would be legit and they could have crack-cafe's. The government could regulate it and get some sort of handle on it.

Otherwise what is viable solution? Give me a study for that. What would happen if the drugs were made legal?


Posted by El Mont | August 11, 2007 10:41 AM
44

Wow! It takes a lotta balls to work that hard.

Posted by Mud Baby | August 11, 2007 11:43 AM
45

El Mont, I didn't post number #42 (I actually post under my own name). But I wasn't going to reply -- until now -- because you claimed I made statements that I obviously didn't and also wrote this:

"I bet if you saw someone being raped, you wouldn't do anything about it."

At this point you're just hurling ad hominem attacks against me and making bizarre equivocations, then making those attacks on other commenters both directly and by proxy. I believe you're what's called a troll. Goodbye.

Posted by Dominic Holden | August 11, 2007 12:09 PM
46

Ad hominem attacks? Dominic, you were the one that came in saying the dude was snitching and being racist. Or if you didn't say it exactly you stongly implied it.

And I didn't say #42 was you, I asked if it was. There were some similar points.

If I sound angry, I am. Sorry. Woke up the crack heads again this morning. Called the cops, again, and they don't do shit.

Dominic, you are good at getting out of the argument. I'm not trolling anything. I think you are full of shit and you know you are full of shit, so you bail. What's with the high school debate team attitude?

You want my name? "Caring Parent" how's that? Google that.

Posted by El Mont | August 11, 2007 12:40 PM
47

I agree with the OP. We need to crack down on drug dealers, and lighten up on traffic/environmental considerations.

It's a war on drugs, people. We'll never win unless we get the meter maids in on the act.

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