Cops’ dog raid in park is paws for concern
Department of Parks and Recreation
patrolmen ambushed
dog walkers at a Carroll Gardens
park this month to crack
down on pup owners who walk
their furballs off-leash, according
to one hapless human, who
said one minute he was walking
his dog Cassie, and the next minute
he was surrounded (“Paws in
the air! Dog walkers outraged by
Parks Department’s crackdown
on off-leash walking in Carroll
Park,” by Colin Mixson, online
March 7).
The sudden change in enforcement
is a break from what one pet
owner said was an unspoken understanding
between dog owners
and the park offi cers, who would
routinely show up and give folks
a fi ve-minute heads up to leash
their mutts and scram instead of
ticketing them.
Readers shared their dirverse
opaw-nions on the issue:
Isn’t New York City law that dogs
must be leashed? That’s to prevent
them from getting hurt and from
hurting people. There are plenty of
dog runs and there is one just a few
blocks away on Hicks Street. If a dog
bites a kid, then we all cry, ‘How did
that happen?’ Well, the city is being
proactive. We don’t live in the suburbs
or the countryside. Dogs must
be leashed. It’s the law. How an individual
feels about a law does not
give an individual the right to bypass
the law. Joe
from Carroll Gardens
It’s okay for dog owners to pick
up after their pooch. It’s not okay
to have kids play around the same
area. Unless you wash and hose it
down, there will be residue.
Disgusting, keep your defecating
animals at home! Frank
from The Slope
The message these folks are
sending is, “It’s so out of line for the
Parks offi cials to follow the rules
of the Parks Department, when all
we’re doing is breaking the rules!”
Off-leash dogs are on the rise
not just in parks, but on sidewalks.
And dog owners are regularly
SOUND OFF TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS AND COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS
fl outing MTA rules by bringing
their leashed dogs onto platforms
and trains (where they absolutely
should never be free to roam, even
on a tether).
And as far as Carroll Park goes:
this article makes it sound like the
DiMattina dog run is far away, all
the way over in Red Hook. It’s a
12-minute walk.
If you’re a dog person, and you
refuse to walk your dog for twelve
minutes to get to an off-leash park,
then you defi nitely should not be a
dog person.
To suggest that Parks has to
make room for dogs when there’s
barely enough room for people and
plants (two far more important sectors
of the community) is just ridiculous.
And no, that community
is defi nitely not very good about
cleaning up after their pooches.
Not at all.
Ultimately, it’s like this: I like
beer, but I don’t think I should be
able to drink it in the park; I like
pot, but I shouldn’t be able to smoke
it in the park; I like loud rock and
roll, but I shouldn’t be allowed to
blast it in the park; and I like dogs,
but I shouldn’t be allowed to let
them “own” any part of the park,
ever, at any hour.
There are rules. And they apply
to all of you. BJ
from Carroll Gardens
The latest thing in my area is
they bag the poop and then throw it
in the street or in a corner, rather
than finding a trash can.
If they do throw it in a trash can
they don’t bother to tie the bag.
Also, remember “curb your
dog?” Now they let them pee anywhere
— in the middle of the sidewalk,
and in people’s doorways.
So nice to leave the house and
find (two different) women letting
their dog go right in the entrance!
Ms. Me
from Bay Ridge
There’s also the Washington
Park dog run north of Fourth
Street. between Fourth and Fifth
avenues.
How dare you analogize to ICE’s
destroying people’s lives? All dog
owners need do is follow the law.
Janet from Park Slope
As a long time Brooklyn dog
owner, nothing makes me more
pissed with other dog owners more
than the “I’m too cool for this” attitude
COURIER L 50 IFE, MARCH 15–21, 2019 PS
of not following the law.
I hope this rate of enforcement
continues with steeper fines. Jim
from Cobble Hill
Scene: Entitled upper-middle
class dog owners scattering for their
lives and running for the gates of
Carroll Park while dramatic Lord of
the Rings chase music pays.
To say, “It reminded me of ICE
tactics … it was defi nitely an ambush
— it came out of nowhere.
There was no way to escape,” is a bit
over dramatic.
Seriously, comparing your #fi rstworldproblems
of entitlement to the
plight of people fl eeing their homeland
in search of something better
is to trivialize their struggle, shows
an insensitivity, and demonstrates a
lack of general knowledge about current
affairs.
To hide behind breaking the law
by co-opting a very serious immigration
situation, so you can illegally
have your dog roam free is truly sad,
Scott from Carroll Gardens
Fund early voting
To the Editor,
Starting in November 2019, New
Yorkers will have nine days of early
voting before every election. This
glorious change was long overdue
— 37 other states had already introduced
early voting to make it easier
for residents to make their voices
heard.
But for early voting to succeed,
the state must provide funding to
counties to cover start-up costs and
ensure a seamless process. I call on
elected offi cias in Albany — including
my representatives, Assemblyman
Robert Carroll and Sen. Kevin
Parker — to fund early voting in this
year’s budget.
This was a hard-fought victory.
Early voting expands access to democracy.
Let’s give it the funding it
needs.
Early voting is a necessary and
important move forward for New
York, but it cannot work without
proper funding. We need full funding
for early voting in the state budget
now! Mary Jean Babic
Park Slope
History lesson
To the Editor,
Let me get this straight, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez claims that it’s
unfair to single out Rep. Omar for
what she has said. Yet, it’s all right
for Omar to single out the Jewish
people for abuse.
How I wish Cortez had been
in my eighth-grade social studies
classes at either the former IS 320 or
IS 228. I taught in both schools for
a total of 33 years. My 8P-7 class at
320 and 8-1 class at 228 would have
run rings around Cortez. The latter
didn’t even know the three branches
of government. How on earth did she
ever pass the history Regents?
Shame on the Democratic Party
for not directly censoring Omar and
removing her from the Foreign Relations
Committee. Are they so beholden
to the ultra-leftists that they
cannot do the decent thing of condemning
her actions? Oh, yes, Alexandria,
the three branches of government
are legislative, executive,
and judicial. Now, do you understand
their specifi c functions?
Ed M. Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Crazy Bernie in BK
To the Editor,
Crazy Bernie came to Brooklyn
College on “Flatbush Street,” (the
national media couldn’t even get the
Avenue correct), to whip up support
for his communist leaning presidential
bid (“Weekend with Bernie:
Sanders returns to Bklyn for fi rst
rally of his 2020 campaign” by Colin
Mixson, online March 5).
Looking at the faces of the mushminded
students, taking in every
word as if spoken by a god, speaks
volumes about the educational system
and where the country is headed.
Bernie spouted the standard line
about the government taking care of
your every want and need. Free college,
free healthcare, and free money
for anyone not willing to work. As
he droned on about the new “green
deal” that would grind this nation to
a full halt, they kept on blindly smiling
and cheering.
I don’t understand why they are so
enthusiastic about this as if the communist/
socialist bent does take over
government, just why are they attending
college in the fi rst place? Capitalism
will have faded away, everyone
would be deemed the same in work
and stature, and the sheepskin they
worked for will not be worth the recycled
paper it is printed on. I guess
that the party of the left truly wants
the uneducated — PhDs included —
to be the sad future of this country,
dancing in lockstep to proven failed
policies of the last century.
Robert W. Lobenstein
Sheepshead Bay
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