Holy cow..did anyone see the mess in prospect park?

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The Daily News weighs in:
That was some party.
More than 1,000 people at a private barbecue left behind mounds of trash in Prospect Park last weekend - angering city officials who are considering legal action.
Parks Department officials want to throw the book at publicity firm MIH Ventures for throwing the Sunday shindig without a permit.
"It was 2 to 3 acres of solid garbage," said dog-walker Bob Ipcar, who spotted the trash strewn on the Long Meadow Monday morning and posted pictures he took at Fidobrooklyn.org. "You could walk across the surface of it."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/07/22/2009-07-22_city_aims_to_clean_bbq_trash_targets_litterbugs_in_prospect_park.html#ixzz0LzZ7qlLw

I was in the park in the afternoon as the party was starting. When I came back at around 9pm to take a run, the party was huge and there were droves of people streaming into the party. I noticed that most all of the party goers were African American and I will wonder aloud if the police took that into consideration when they decided to ignore the party. On the 4th of July I was babysitting around 10 blocks from Atlantic Center in a mostly African American neighborhood. An all day party broke out in front of an empty house with huge speakers blasting music. By 10 pm there were 20 cars double parked along the street, several grills with open flames, people everywhere, cars couldn’t drive past, fireworks being shot off (I saw one bounce off a house and I saw a young couple walking by literally run for safety when a bottle rocket was set off around 3 feet from them), etc. The police were called at least 4-5 times by different neighbors (who were also African American). When I left around 1AM the party was all over the block, with at least 50-60 young adults and teens, but the police never came. I will wonder aloud if the police have a spoken or unspoken policy of responding to gatherings of African Americans in a different manner then other gatherings.

And of course, double standards work in both directions, but it does seem that the police have different responses to parties held by different groups of people.

Wow, I saw the mess on Monday (and the crowd on Sunday) but didn't see that it was that much more trash than usual...if anything more wide-spread. Guess I didn't look properly, or I came after the cleaning up was already in place.
I've always wondered why there aren't more trash cans - they get stolen, really? For what? I'm not a very creative person so nothing comes to mind, but people in general seem to be idiots, esp. when it comes to public property. Could the city at least put more trash bags out? Most people put their trash near the bins but then it gets blown away overnight or in the morning. I always wonder how many of the ducks/goose (?) die from eating the wrong leftovers or being trapped with their heads in 6-pack plastic rings etc...

Unbelievable.

Sure you don't Beav. I know it is you stealing them then reporting them "stolen" to 311. Come clean - would ya?

It was probably Dash Snow, stealing them to make a Grand Artistic Statement Against the Bourgeoisie.

How's this for nonsense? Prospect Park's twitter - "Lots of voices about trash left in the Park Sunday. One answer - help out: volunteer info session tonight." Not - "hold people accountable", not "enforce rules, regulations and laws", but "clean up other people's messes that we allowed". I have volunteered in PP in the past, but am unmoved by this plea.

And I agree with previous posters about the politics of enforcement. I'm not excusing it, nor do i agree with the politics, but let's be honest - there are times when NYPD is told to stand down. Just take a look at the Labor Day parade where they are forced to allow drug use and other clearly illegal activity. I have no doubt that if they had thrown folks out of the park and ticketed all the illegally parked cars, it would have created as big a sh*tstorm as their inaction did.

Why rely on the police? Shouldn't there be a park ranger to show up and give everyone a heart-warming lecture on respecting nature, avoiding forest fires, and not littering?

I see cops in the park but never park rangers. I think enforcement would be more effective with park rangers, whose sole responsibility is to protect the park from humans (and maybe get people to stop raping and stabbing each other in the park now and then).

wingedearth wrote: Why rely on the police? Shouldn't there be a park ranger to show up and give everyone a heart-warming lecture on respecting nature, avoiding forest fires, and not littering?

I see cops in the park but never park rangers. I think enforcement would be more effective with park rangers, whose sole responsibility is to protect the park from humans (and maybe get people to stop raping and stabbing each other in the park now and then).

The problem is is that there are very few (if any) rangers in Prospect Park and police are not there to give any lectures.

and

Yes, there is no management in Prospect Park

What a bunch of disrespectful pieces of shit. I'm not easily angered at all, but this kind of stuff pisses me off. I cannot believe there could be so many absolutely selfish and careless people. One or two here and there, of course, but so many? Sickening...

As was said above, if you pack it in, you pack it out. It's NOT HARD. There's NO excuse.

ugh...

The problem if that the small amount of park rangers ever tried to do anything - up to and including bringing in the police - there will be problems that could escalate. The park ranger folks are usually too busy doing nothing, or if they are doing something they're ticketing dog owners for allegedly violating leash laws, or shooing people away from the concert bandshell area during paid events. Plus the police usually have better things to do. It's a bigger problem of entitlement - leave a mess, oh the city will pick it up. Some goody-goody volunteer will clean it up. Extrapolate from there.
One large bunch of lazy slobs ruined it for everyone. And park "management" basically let those responsible get off scot-free. I used to hold the park administrator Tupper Thomas in high regard, with her hard work trying to keep the park interesting, safe, and clean. Not so much any more.

pokersloper wrote: Unfortunately, I understand why the park rangers backed down from either controlling the situation or bringing in the police. Just look at what is going on with Professor Henry Louis Gates. No park ranger or police officer wants to end up on YouTube or the evening news for trying to enforce the permit law.

Yeah, I can see the headlines now: "Racist Park Ranger Accosts Black Family Having Peaceful Barbeque. Family Says, 'This is What We Get For Being Black in America.' President Obama Says the Ranger Acted 'Stupidly.'"

Gee, it's really terrible when cops are forced to be accountable for their actions, because they cannot drop their spare gun on the ground and claim the guy they arrested was carrying... or lie about other aspects of the confrontation with impunity, because people can actually record their misbehavior and prove that they lied...

For way too long cops have been able to get away with anything they wanted, because cops hang together, even lie for one another, and people tend to believe whatever cops claim is the truth, because, after all, they're the good guys, right? Not necessarily.

If your hypothetical cop on the subway wants to arrest the guy, nothing will stop him. All the camera phones can do is lead to his punishment if he violates the guy's rights. What's wrong with that?

So the street cop phones a superior officer, and lets him decide. Let the superiors send in the swat teams to deal with the babies and strollers... and the people with cell phone cameras.

Or they stay on the edges of the park, and arrest the motorcyclists (half of whom are probably off-duty cops).

Either the police have to arrest the trouble makers without getting their reputations automatically destroyed, or else public parks will have to end along with a decrease in taxes, and responsible people will pay for private parks and gated communities to keep out the riff raff who don't follow the rules.

If you can't trust the cops enough to let them do their jobs, then the free market solution (i.e. less taxes and privatization of parks) is the only solution.