Letters
07/15/2010
Bon appétit
Animals are being raised for food under abject conditions of caging, crowding, deprivation, drugging and mutilation. When trucked to slaughterhouses, they travel for days without food or water only to be bled, skinned and dismembered while still conscious. Wastes from factory farms foul the water we drink and the air we breathe, and meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Most chronic killer diseases are linked to consumption of animal products.
We have choices, and there are consequences — blessings and curses. We can continue to subsidize these sins against nature with every food purchase, or we can show our respect for Jesus’ message by accepting a wholesome, nonviolent diet of vegetables, fruits and grains first mandated in Genesis.
~PATRICK LAWSON, PASADENA
Mean streets, angry guy
I enjoyed your recent article about the ticket racket in Pasadena and the insensitivity and heavy-handedness of the police. All of this takes place against a background of rapidly increasing militarization of law enforcement nationally. It starts with even the young cops now shaving their heads, the close-cropped look increasing the intimidation factor, especially when combined with the usual shades and the clear squiggly ear wires and belts full of Tasers and Mace. Cops are out of control in America, and people have let it happen. It doesn’t really matter what your race is. People are afraid and intimidated, but this very cowering and complacency has allowed municipalities to get away with outrages like these creepy intersection cameras with their $500 fines, in the process turning cities like Culver City into risky destinations indeed.
Since you ended the story with requests for stories, I thought I’d tell you about what happened to me a few years back on those “mean streets of Pasadena.” I had gone to the Rose Bowl Flea Market on a Sunday morning, as was my habit. At mid-morning I returned to my car to consult a reference book and I couldn’t find the car. Thinking I had simply not remembered where I parked it, I walked around and around the lot for nearly an hour without locating it. Since it was a fire-engine red Fiero, it usually would stand out in a crowd. Finally, I began to think that maybe it was stolen, so I flagged down a patrolling cop.
When I described my situation, the officer said to me, “Get in … you forgot to put it in park, so it rolled out of its space and had to be towed.”
OK, it was a standard shift, and I hadn’t set the parking brake, and I must have left it in neutral when I walked away, so it rolled about 15 feet back into the lane within the parking lot. Pretty dumb move on my part, but I’m human and made a simple mistake. Of course, two people could have easily pushed it 15 feet back into its spot, a cop perhaps leaving his business card with a note as to what happened, but that would be too easy in today’s kinder, gentler America. Better to tow the perpetrator’s car, hit him with a big fine, inconvenience him and — best of all — teach him a good lesson.
The cop drove me to the station, where the desk cop told me “the good news is the car is safe; the bad news is you probably won’t be able to get it until tomorrow,” which was a Monday.
I became agitated and loud, at which point the desk cop threateningly warned me to calm down. I told him I lived in Santa Monica, 25 miles away, and that Monday was not an option. In true cop style, he said that the tow lot was generally not able to release vehicles on Sundays and that the mistake had been mine — “You are supposed to put your car in gear and engage the parking brake.”
I called the tow yard and the son of the owner told me his father was at a wedding and therefore my car would not likely be released until Monday, unless I paid extra money. I think he called it “gate money,” or some term like that. As I recall, it would be an additional $100 on top of the normal charges. The son called his father at the wedding and spoke to him. Even though the father could have authorized him to release the car to me, he decided for his own reasons that he personally would have to be there to release the car. Now I was becoming really agitated.
OK, I can understand having to pay for making a dumb mistake, but I cannot understand how a city can tow a car on a weekend and then either make it impossible for someone to get it until Monday or leave the victim at the mercy of a greedy tow lot operator. I mean, really, simply because this guy is at a wedding I have to pay extra?
Why couldn’t his son release the car to me as long as my Visa card and all paperwork were in order? It reeked of greed and spitefulness. What if the tow victim was a foreigner from Europe, needing to catch a plane home on Sunday night? Holding a car hostage like this elicits images of all sorts of ugly situations and possibilities. Someone whose car has been towed should have 24/7 access to it.
The next morning my girlfriend drove me to the tow yard and things got ugly in a hurry. I am not trying to defend my actions in this particular respect but, extremely angry, I began to hurl ethnic slurs at the father, who I believe was Armenian. Then, his father (evidently this was truly a family affair) stood up and began making threatening moves at me, at which point I began to assume a defensive Ninja warrior-type stance, telling them to “bring it on.”
Finally I paid the fines, about $200 in all, and drove home, still steaming.
I intended to write a letter to the city and ask how someone can be left at the complete mercy of a city-contracted yard. Unfortunately, I cooled down and never wrote the letter, but I've always wondered how this situation could be allowed to exist. I also must wonder if this greedy, unprofessional, capricious, mean tow operator is still under contract to the city of Pasadena.
All in all, it was a disgusting affair that gives meaning indeed to that phrase “driving on the mean streets
of Pasadena.”
~JON BERG, SANTA MONICA
Paying twice
Why must we drive on run down city roads? Are we not paying enough in local taxes? Why is paying exorbitant wages for our city employees more important to the City Council than directing our taxes to repair the city infrastructure first? When my car hits a pot hole or two, I know a wheel alignment will cost me about $80. It would be worse if my car lost control following a blowout. It is like paying taxes twice. I pay taxes to the city and give my credit card to my auto mechanic for car repairs.
Help! Is anyone at City Hall listening?
~MIKE MOHILL, GLENDALE
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