1982-10-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

, I I J. A. LANG ~~ff>~ 1400 - 18TH ST. N.W. NEW BRIGHTON. MINN. 55 t t 2 November 9, 1982 New Brighton City Council New Brighton, Minnesota 55112 Dear Council Members: Our family has lived on what 1s essentially a cul-de-sac in Windward Terrace for the last seventeen years. Traffic past our house has always been so light that if ten cars had. driven by in one hour, we would have rushed out to watch the parade. Consequently, we have often noticed the police cruiser as it passed and we came to believe that we- were being protected frmn the. hazards of potential murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals. Little did we re- alize the far greater crime this diligent surveilance was guarding against until one memorable afternoon early in September. My wife and I were preparing to leave for a two week visit with our son John who lives 1n Seattle. Our daughter Linda stopped by to receive some last minute instructions on watering the house plants and feeding our cat. She inadvertently drove down 18th st. rather than 17th and parked her car on the left side in front of our house. What a pleasant surprise it was to all of us.. as she left to return home, to find a citation neatly tucked under the ~shield wiper blade. It was an even greater surprise to note that the very efficient officer, who had on numerous occasions de- livered my Planning Commission packet to our house, had written that this serious crime had been committed at 1400 15th Avenue N.W. Since I had planned on notifying the Police Department that we would be out of the city for two weeks, I contacted this officer to alert him that we lived on 18th street so he wouldn't be guard- ing a non-existant house in an undeveloped former sheep pasture dur- ing our absence. He then a.dvised me that there would be no problem with the citation as he would merely change the address on his copy. Since this alteration apparently would be acceptable to the court, one can only assume that the date, the type of crime, and anything else he had written could be altered with equal impunity. There are legal loopholes for just about every crime that has been invented - a would-be assassin who attempted to kill our President avoided guilt by pleading insanity; and more recently in Minneapolis, a parOled criminal confessed to his counselor that he had murdered a lady friend. The court ruled that he could not be tried for murder since the counselor had not read his rights to him before his confession. But.,for alleged illegal parking in New Brighton, there are no legal loopholes; the officer apparently can alter any entry he makes on his copy of a citation even though the