Existing laws need to be enforced and residents should be urged
to report trouble
The most recent proposal by city staff to limit drinking at Christmas Hill and Las Animas parks is slightly less bad than the previous proposal – but it is still pretty bad.
The good aspect is that the “permit required” proviso is gone. The bad aspect is that now the proposal states that alcoholic beverages can only be consumed between 4 and 8pm. Perhaps city staff believes that alcohol is more concentrated at noon than in the evening?
City staff cites as their reason that they hope to drive vagrants and gang members from the park.
If vagrants and gang members are behaving in socially acceptable ways, they have every right to associate in a public park. If they are behaving in socially unacceptable ways, such as being drunk in public or disorderly, they should be arrested.
Perhaps instead of another new law, what Gilroy needs is an increased park patrol. We have cool folding bicycles for our police officers and horses, why not use those effectively in the parks to curb problems?
It is asinine to believe that imposing a new ordinance is going to magically make homeless people and gangsters evaporate. Any ordinance will have to be enforced. The only difference between enforcing the existing ordinances and enforcing the proposed ordinance is that the proposed ordinance will make it a crime to have a beer with your lunch on Wednesday, or a wine and cheese luncheon picnic on Tuesday.
Take the experience reported by Gilroy Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax. She told councilmen that Monday morning, shortly after 9am, she spotted 19 people drinking alcohol at Las Animas Veterans Park as she dropped her child off at camp.
The Dispatch article did not mention whether Ms. Andrade-Wax called the police. If she had, they would have been perfectly justified in arresting the crowd. If she did not, then how is a new ordinance going to make her any more likely to pick up the phone?
Having a safe city is the result of a partnership between the residents and the police. If residents are too apathetic or too lily-livered to report crime, the police effort is stymied. And if the police refuse to enforce the law, the residents will give up reporting crime.
We hope that the parks and recreation commission and city staff will abandon this proposal. If not, the City Council should vote no on it when it comes up again in September and, at the same time, make it clear that enforcement should be stepped up. Residents should report unacceptable behavior – perhaps the city could embark on a public relations campaign to push that effort. Why not put signs in problem areas urging people to call police with the phone numbers? The parks belong to the people, not the vagrants or the bullies. Working together, we can take them back. states that alcoholic beverages can only be consumed between 4 and 8pm. Perhaps city staff believes that alcohol is more concentrated at noon than in the evening?
City staff cites as their reason that they hope to drive vagrants and gang members from the park.
If vagrants and gang members are behaving in socially acceptable ways, they have every right to associate in a public park. If they are behaving in socially unacceptable ways, such as being drunk in public or disorderly, they should be arrested.
Perhaps instead of another new law, what Gilroy needs is an increased park patrol. We have cool folding bicycles for our police officers and horses, why not use those effectively in the parks to curb problems?
It is asinine to believe that imposing a new ordinance is going to magically make homeless people and gangsters evaporate. Any ordinance will have to be enforced. The only difference between enforcing the existing ordinances and enforcing the proposed ordinance is that the proposed ordinance will make it a crime to have a beer with your lunch on Wednesday, or a wine and cheese luncheon picnic on Tuesday.
Take the experience reported by Gilroy Community Services Director Susan Andrade-Wax. She told councilmen that Monday morning, shortly after 9am, she spotted 19 people drinking alcohol at Las Animas Veterans Park as she dropped her child off at camp.
The article did not mention whether Ms. Andrade-Wax called the police. If she had, they would have been perfectly justified in arresting the crowd. If she did not, then how is a new ordinance going to make her any more likely to pick up the phone?
Having a safe city is the result of a partnership between the residents and the police. If residents are too apathetic or too lily-livered to report crime, the police effort is stymied. And if the police refuse to enforce the law, the residents will give up reporting crime.
We hope that the parks and recreation commission and city staff will abandon this proposal. If not, the City Council should vote no on it when it comes up again in September and, at the same time, make it clear that enforcement should be stepped up. Residents should report unacceptable behavior – perhaps the city could embark on a public relations campaign to push that effort. Why not put signs in problem areas urging people to call police with the phone numbers? The parks belong to the people, not the vagrants or the bullies. Let’s take them back.
