As We Said, It's All For Show

More recent loose dogs in Prospect Park:

Feb. 25, 5:10 P.M.: white mile in late 50s with hooded sweatshirt saying "zoo" and sandy orange mid-sized mutt on slope above Maryland monument.

Feb. 26, 8:27 A.M.: middle aged white female jogger with small white rat terrier, in woods at northwest corner of cemetery.

Feb. 26, 8:30 A.M.: lack couple, male with orange vest and female with Russian fur hat, with reddish brown Weimaraner at same spot.

Feb. 27, 10:30 A.M., mixed young couple playing with 2 dogs on peninsula thumb.

If the cops are interested in even controlling this situation--and there is no evidence that they are--they need, quite literally, to get off their high horses. They need to go where we go, when we go there. The postings on this blog are a literal roadmap to the where and when of illegal off-leash activity in Prospect Park. The cops need to go in scooters and on foot where scooters can't easily go, and at times they need to go out of uniform. And they need to issue summons and possibly even arrests for reckless endangerment, not toothless warnings that these scofflaws have learned from experience may be safely ignored. The cops need to do this even though the lawbreakers--that's what they are--are "middle class" and overwhelmingly white. The cops know how to do such things: the property and life-threatening chaos that used to be July 4 in New York City ended when, during the Giuiliani administration, cops led vanloads of white, middle-class males away in handcuffs and made them spend the night in jail. The off-leash lawbreakers are no different.