1. 

   Cate
   

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   So I am driving down a local street, see the car in front of me (a car I have seen in Ballard many times), throw garbage out his window. Twice.
   Now should I post this persons very Innovative vanity license plate, clearly he is the Innovator, on a public forum to shame him?

   Or should I call the non-emergency number of the SPD with the time, date, license number and vehicle description of this individual - oh and I have the garbage with identifying information on it, wonder if they would want that?

   A dilemma. Maybe I should do both? What are the fines for littering from a car now?

   Posted 11 months ago #
2. 

   Alferd Packer
   

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   Is it this state that has the "Litter and It Will Hurt" campaign?

   Posted 11 months ago #
3. 

   great idea
   

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   clearly he doesn't give a hoot.

   what kind of garbage are we talking here? a cigarette butt? a big mac wrapper? an old Zip drive?

   Posted 11 months ago #
4. 

   Edog
   

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   There is this from the forum rules:

   "2. UPDATED: Tell the truth. You may not post or link to any material that could be considered libelous, defamatory or false. Do not accuse an individual who can be identified with a crime, or imply or threaten civil action. Any discussion that originates from criminal or legal accusations made on the forum, against an identifiable private individual, may be deleted."

   As for calling the police, since you are the one who saw it, are you ready to head to Municipal Court should it go that far?

   Posted 11 months ago #
5. 

   great idea
   

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   I think Cate already told us who it is. car color?

   Posted 11 months ago #
6. 

   Cate
   

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   edog - I know but Innovator clearly has too many letters to be an actual vanity plate. Must be something else.

   gi - envelopes, pink vinyl scraps, and yes, a McDonalds wrapper.

   Posted 11 months ago #
7. 

   Cate
   

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   The dreaded double post - sorry.

   Posted 11 months ago #
8. 

   boardbrown
   

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   Wow, you actually stopped your car and picked up the garbage? That's hardcore!

   I guess I'd refrane from the public humiliation option. You can never be sure where that can lead. But calling non-emergency might be the ticket. We had a particular car that would haul-ass down our street everyday, to the point of being completely reckless. We called non-emergency and a few days later he slowed way down. Cops must have had a little 'conversation' with him.

   Posted 11 months ago #
9. 

   Edog
   

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   Cate - I did not think you had outed the person, but were looking for ideas to guide you. Still now I'm dying to know the tags, you can't present a mystery like that without peaking my interest.

   Posted 11 months ago #
10. 

    BuffaloHawk
    

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    I wonder if the litter bug reads the forum and if watching right now how they are reacting to this thread.

    Anyone remember back in the day when people would dump an entire ashtray in the parking lot.

    Posted 11 months ago #
11. 

    great idea
    

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    boardbrown has the right call--let the spd talk to him.
    maybe they could send over a native american officer and have him knock on the door w/ a tear in his eye.

    Posted 11 months ago #
12. 

    Cate
    

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    edog - Nahh, too much time to go to municipal court but if it is the person with the name on the envelopes they show up here periodically and will probably see it. Ballard really is a small town you know.

    gi- Does Seattle even have any Native American officers? We should, it might be safer to be a wood carver in Seattle, but do we?

    Posted 11 months ago #
13. 

    Mondoman
    

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    Definitely report it to the police. People throwing trash onto the streets and sidewalks is a pet peeve of mine, even more peeving than pets pooping without scoopers at hand.

    Posted 11 months ago #
14. 

    Edog
    

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    I mean, if the officer issued a citation based on your statement alone, and the person fought it in court. Granted thst seems like the extreme to me. I would think you would have to move mountain and earth just to get the police to visit the guy.

    Posted 11 months ago #
15. 

    onederfullone
    

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    What we need is a few drunk officers stumbling around. If we were really progressive, we would pay them in beer too.

    Call non-emergency, report the vehicle. Or, just make it a forum topic.

    Posted 11 months ago #
16. 

    BuffaloHawk
    

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    lets hire the Hell's Angels and pay them with beer. We can even bring them in for the festivals and let them sit on the stage

    Posted 11 months ago #
17. 

    ballardmike
    

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    Karma is a bitch...

    Posted 11 months ago #
18. 

    Cate
    

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    onederfullone - perhaps I am reading to much into your post but are you implying that Native American police officers would be more likely to be drunk? I think more of you than that. I hope that I am just being overly sensitive to the need for a police force that represents a broad cross-section of society.

    Posted 11 months ago #
19. 

    onederfullone
    

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    I suppose, if you are a racist, that you could infer drunk is typical of Native Americans.

    I see stumbling drunk as appealing to a much broader segment of the populous, especially in Ballard.

    Glad you would prefer to think highly of me, cate.

    Posted 11 months ago #
20. 

    great idea
    

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    I, for one, would not have given you the benefit of the doubt.

    Posted 11 months ago #
21. 

    phoo
    

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    Report him. Hit him in the pocketbook where it counts.

    Posted 11 months ago #
22. 

    biophile87
    

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    Cate, sad to say that budget cuts have shut this down, but I had used it in the past:
    http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/litter/c_hotline.html

    Posted 11 months ago #
23. 

    great idea
    

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    Cate, if you have the license plate number, I think getting an address is only a few clicks away.

    what I'm suggesting is that YOU send the letter (anonymously of course).
    the Myballard forum will even help you compose it if you'd like.

    Posted 11 months ago #
24. 

    Edog
    

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    Dear dearest Litterbug, there is a specter haunting Ballard.......

    Posted 11 months ago #
25. 

    RichY
    

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    Gee Whiz, If you have their address, then just mail the trash to them, COD.

    Posted 11 months ago #
26. 

    Edog
    

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    .... our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty dedicated to the proposition that we should not throw trash out of our window...

    Posted 11 months ago #
27. 

    ballardpilot
    

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    So let me get this straight - the outraged citizens of Ballard want the police called out because some idiot tossed some trash out of his car.

    We have people getting shot in their homes. Drive-by shootings nearly every day. Break-ins. Where to begin...

    Hey, outraged citizens I've got news for you: the cops won't even take a report over the phone if there's a crime and the property damage is under $1000 - never mind them showing up in person. You really think the cops have time to arrest the guy who tossed a Big Mac wrapper?

    This is the police department that has been downsized for years as the city's population has exploded. Good god, this is how you think the city should prioritize its resources? OK. That explains a lot.

    Posted 11 months ago #
28. 

    pennygirl
    

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    There were (allegedly) 2 shootings within 7 days at the 8th/85th intersection. Yes, I know...most people here regard that as hillbilly land. Littering is horrible but it's not exactly up there in the grand scheme of things. If there was some kind of hotline you could call, like Bio's now defunct site, it would be one thing, but calling the SPD about a burger wrapper isn't likely to get much of a response.

    Posted 11 months ago #
29. 

    BuffaloHawk
    

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    PG I saw this posted on Phinney-Wood

    Rainier Beach Murder Suspect In Custody
    The 26-year-old suspect in a fatal shooting outside a south Seattle restaurant on May 16 is now in custody. Detectives tracked the suspect to a Greenwood apartment building early Friday morning. Around 2am, a SWAT team surrounded the building and the suspect surrendered to police.

    I used to work with the shooter a few years ago and was floored when I saw what he did.

    Posted 11 months ago #
30. 

    pennygirl
    

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    BH...

    So that's another one in the area (shooter not shootee)

    They also found a dead body in an apartment building on Gwd and 105th. It's like the Bermuda Triangle around here.

    Posted 11 months ago #
31. 

    BriarRose
    

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    "Anyone remember back in the day when people would dump an entire ashtray in the parking lot."

    Back in the day? I still do that and tend to look for the greenest establishment and use their parking lot.

    Posted 11 months ago #
32. 

    Cate
    

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    And it is RichY for the win! Mailing it back with a polite note that he must have accidentally dropped this on the street and I am sending it back to him. Seattle passive-aggressive, what could be more Northwest. I better check though to make sure that the address on the license plate is the same as the address on the discarded envelopes.

    Posted 11 months ago #
33. 

    BuffaloHawk
    

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    I worked with the shooter who they found in Greenwood. I haven't talked to him years and always thought he was a wanna be gangsta but figured he was harmless.

    Little did i know.. Looks like he got his street cred for his rap career.

    BR- haHa

    Wait til the price of liquor goes up and the transients get even more aggressive. It should be interesting to see the people hanging out in front of the grocery stores starting Friday.

    Posted 11 months ago #
34. 

    Mondoman
    

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    Cate, I'd be happy to contribute to the postage (seriously!).

    Posted 11 months ago #
35. 

    Cate
    

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    Mondoman - Thank you, but you know I think it will actually give me pleasure to mail this package back to him, money well spent so to speak. We were going down 14th by McDonalds; I was thinking about what it would look like when the (if the) new park is built and he threw garbage on the very park I was envisioning! Seems strange to worry about (more) garbage on 14th but the brazenness of it all just ticked me off.

    Posted 11 months ago #
36. 

    RichY
    

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    Might add a note that it is a $103 (min) fine for trash and $1,024 ticket if an officer sees a lit material (including a cigarette) exit the vehicle.

    Posted 11 months ago #
37. 

    great idea
    

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    I wonder if that $1024 ticket has ever been issued (and if so, ever for a cigarette)

    "We have people getting shot in their homes. Drive-by shootings nearly every day. Break-ins. Where to begin..."

    we can begin by not letting people throw their trash on our street. kind of like the broken window theory, if we ignore this, more brazen crimes will follow (maybe).

    also, with these shootings, particularly the one that killed the father sitting in his mini-van last week, we all feel a bit helpless as if we live in an environment we have little control of.
    going after a litter-bug is a good exercise of community-stewardship that can show we won't stand for even minor disrespect of our streets.

    Posted 11 months ago #
38. 

    BuffaloHawk
    

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    I just took 3rd home and when I passed 85th I made sure to not beep at anyone in a tinted Escalade.... I did notice they put fences around the Fred Meyer lot

    Posted 11 months ago #
39. 

    teigyr
    

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    Lit cigarettes out the window or even tossed aside if someone is standing there gets to me. I have extreme sensitivity to it so I know I'm crankier than most but I'm also from a mountain region of Southern Calif. I know it's wetter up here and probably slightly less prone to catching fire but it's pretty idiotic to think that throwing something LIT out a car window is a fine thing to do.

    Btw, I would also contribute postage money to send the litterer's belongings back to him. I'm dying to know who it is but even if we don't, hopefully the shame will keep him from doing it again.

    Posted 11 months ago #
40. 

    pennygirl
    

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    We can also revert to using Capitals like we used before we decided that lower case was trendy. Please.

    Aimed at the one with a supposedly good idea..

    Posted 11 months ago #
41. 

    stopgo
    

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    definitely report him. we should not have to put up with him saying racist comments about native americans or ANYONE really. Onder has gone too far, yet again.

    Posted 11 months ago #
42. 

    teigyr
    

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    http://www.dailywritingtip.com/?cat=28

    Posted 11 months ago #
43. 

    great idea
    

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    pennygirl, does it really bother you that I'm too lazy to hit shift?

    not trying to be trendy. is it trendy? if so, I started it!

    Posted 11 months ago #
44. 

    BuffaloHawk
    

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    haHa

    Your skinny jeans have been revoked ;)

    Posted 11 months ago #
45. 

    SmartsyArtsy
    

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    I don't understand why you would mail it back to him. At this point it's not about him at all. He did it and didn't think anything of doing it again. You are hoping to satisfy your feelings about it by what-- imagining what his reaction will be? SPD may do nothing but reporting him is more constructive.

    Posted 11 months ago #
46. 

    teigyr
    

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    I think sometimes people don't think about their actions. I think a LOT about this stuff -- ie do people do what they do out of the fact they don't care or do they do what they do simply because they don't think beyond what's going on in their lives right now and it's habit. It might not seem like there's a difference but to me, there is.

    Could be he knows his neighbors see him doing this and he doesn't care. It also could be that he just does it and doesn't think about it but were he to be called out on it, he would realize what he's doing does bother people.

    A long time ago, I went out with (briefly, VERY briefly) a person who wouldn't put a shopping cart away in a store parking lot. When I questioned him, he said "it's someone's job to take care of it". That was it and to me it was inexcusable. There are other people who just never really thought about it or didn't think what happened to that cart after they left the lot. As impatient and seemingly rude as I can be sometimes, I do like to give people the initial benefit of the doubt and then see if it's a choice or a habit. Habits can be relearned, choices are a different story.

    Posted 11 months ago #
47. 

    Alferd Packer
    

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    biophile87, sorry to hear the rat-a-litterer-out line is no longer in service. I thought that was a much better use of taxpayer money than Ashcroft's Army of anonymous tipsters -- http://www.folkmusic.com/lyrics/ashcrofts-army

    Posted 11 months ago #
48. 

    gracie
    

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    Cate - I, too, read Onederfull's as implying Native American officers being drunks. Also hoping that wasn't what he meant. When GI mentioned the Native American going to this guy's door with a tear in his eye - that's from an old commercial about how we are messing up this world.
    You said something that I thought out of character for you too: Does Seattle even have any Native American officers? We should, it might be safer to be a wood carver in Seattle, but do we?
    That is offensive to police officers - Native American or not.SPD has a diverse representation of different races, etc and this implies that officers are targeting certain races. That is beyond NOT TRUE. And all of the employees of SPD, both sworn and civilian, go through much training on diversity.

    Posted 11 months ago #
49. 

    Cate
    

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    Hi Gracie,
    I understand what you are saying it is true that the SPD do receive much more training on both community relations and cultural competency then in the past. I also receive regular and frequent trainings on cultural competency and have found it to be educational but minimally useful. But what has helped me to be more culturally aware is sharing an office for a year with a woman verying different than myself, drinking coffee in the morning with a group of varied and wonderful people, being invited into the homes of others. It has not been the required education that has changed me but the actually knowing people. Compared to when I was a girl in Seattle, the SPD is much more diverse than it use to be. But it still has a long ways to go as documented in part by the recent Federal report and investigation. I have met and seen many (but of course far, far from all) Seattle Police officers, and I don't know of any that identify themselves as Native American. I was seriously asking if we do have any Native Americans on our police force. I do believe that knowing and working with multiple ethnic and cultural groups can positively effect how our police respond to situations. It has for me at least.

    Posted 11 months ago #
50. 

    Cate
    

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    I had calmed down this morning, didn't mail the box but it is packed. Maybe tomorrow.

    Posted 11 months ago #
51. 

    gracie
    

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    Cate - yes, Native Americans are represented within SPD. And then, of course, there are some, both civilian and sworn, who are part Native American and something else. Today was a real stressful day for all the officers who were dealing with these two tragic shootins and I'm very proud of them. And my heart bleeds for the loss of totally innocent people today - may they all find peace and to the surviving family & friends - my heartfelt condolences to all of you.

    Posted 11 months ago #
52. 

    great idea
    

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    Cate, I would like you to sign the return letter "Gaia"

    also, slip in some mean-spirited, instant-karma's gonna get you stuff to let him know you mean business.

    Posted 11 months ago #

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