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POLICE NEWS . . . VANDALISM van-dal-ism n: willful or malicious destruc- or defacement of public or private prop- erty. van-dal n 2: one who willfully or ignorantly destroys, damages, or defaces property belonging to another or to the public. sense-less adj: destitute of, deficient in, or contrary to sense: as b: FOOLISH, STUPID, c: MEANINGLESS, PURPOSELESS. re-spon-si-ble ajd 1a: liable to be called on to answe~. 2a: able to answer for one's conduct and obligations: TRUSTWORTHY. b: able to choose for oneself between right and wrong. com-mu-ni-ty n. 1: a unified body of indi- viduals: as d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society. A person living in a community, who shows no responsibility for his or her behavior and commits a senseless act of destruction has committed vandalism and is nothing more than a vandal. By now you can tell what the tone of this article is going to be, can't you? ~hat's right...vandalism (or, as it is legally c~lled in Minnesota, Criminal Damage to Property). There are any number of other terms and words that can be used in conjunction with that dirty word. Try, Cowardice, Sneakiness, Lack of Civic Responsibility, Ostrichism (head-in the -sand attitude), Narcing, Ratting, Re- venge, etc. ,etc. The list can go on and on because so many excuses are made for com- mitting acts of vandalism or for not corning forward and telling who did. One of the largest (top 5) citizen complaint areas in our files is VANDALISM and it seems to be growing every year. Or maybe lIve just been in this line of work too long and the frustra- tion is bubbling over. Whatever, every month the long list of complaints about destroyed mailboxes, broken lawn decorations, broken bottles in the street, slashed tires, "lawn trashing" (driving cars onto lawns and spin- ning tires), broken over shrubbery and small trees continues to get longer. While I do hate to brand only one group or class of citi- zens with the major responsibility for this type of crime I must say that, even if I didn't have kids myself I owned no calendars I could tell when Friday or Saturday nights roll around, when there are teacher confer- ences, or Easter Vacation, Christmas Vacation or summer break times by looking at the com- plaint reports because during the above listed times the vandalism calls go up. Sorry 'bout that, young folks but I've got to lay the blame, for the major share of this type of activity on your shoulders! And now I've just got to ask the $64 ques- tion. WHY? First of all, why do you do it? Does destroying other persons possessions provide a perverse relief for boredom? Do those of you who do these types of things have no sense of value for property or do you in fact even have any sense of property rights? I'm sure you do because I know you would scream bloody murder if someone stole your bicycle, smashed your stereo or "trashed" your car. I'm sure that most of you value to some degree your own possessions so why do you get a kick out of walking down a dark street and smashing a mailbox or breaking up someones lawn decorations? Co- wardice maybe? Did that person have the nerve to excercise his or her rights andcom- plain because your dog did doo-doo on their front steps and now you are getting revenge? Instead of personally confronting the person and talking it out you sneak around and damage property. WOW! Or you 'lawn trashers" with your cars that can actually spin their wheels on green grass. Is this the new form of 'macho' display that proves to you and others that your car or four-wheeler is powerful enough to plow through 2t inches of grass? AQd then there is Mr. Muscle who rides along in a car and uses a ball bat or tire iron to physically crush aluminum mailboxes. Awesome, just awesome! Lets not leave out the bottle breakers who find pop or beer bottles lying alongside the road (a whole 'nuther subject, by the way) and see if, by their supreme ath- letic prowness, they can cause t~e bottles to break by throwing them up into the air and letting them fall on the hard asphalt surface. Not so much as a thought is apparently given to the consequences of this type of act. So what if a a slashed and ruined tire costs $75 to replace or the new tike tire costs $10.50. Who cares if the 'bare-foot boy" slashes his foot wide open while traipsing down the edge of the roadway. Shouldn't be going without shoes anyway, right? And last, but certainly not least, I must address those who see these acts of vandalism committed either as a witness or as a conse- quence of being with the person who commits them and by neither word or action does not- hing to stop the act and won't corne forward to say who did it. Now we are getting into the part about RESPONSIBILITY and COMMUNITYl Here is where OSTRICHISM comes into play. It seems to me, that even at a young age, people can understand that asa member of a community there is a responsibility owed to others re- garding the safety of their bodies and their property and if they don't have the courage to assume this raponsibility how can they ever expect others to be concerned for them when th~ir turn comes? And it will corne Don't ever think, you passengers in the "1awn trasher" car that that same driver won't do the same to your home if you should have a falling out sometime or maybe to your neig- hbor who is your friend. If you or your brother or sister ever lays open your foot on a broken bottle you can think back to the time you saw someone break a bottle on the street or pathway and you stuck your head in the sand. Now, I'm not asking all you folks, young and old, to play "Big Brother" and run around spying on everybody and calling the commisar on Morn and Dad. All I'm saying is that maybe if these types who commit vandalism get the idea that none of us will stand for it and will corne forward and speak out, they will slow their activities somewhat. -Chief Auspos RECREA TIONAL VEHICLES It seems we are encountering a new crop of person, young and nearly young, who haven't heard about the city's policy concerning motorcycles (mainly 'dirt bikes' and mini- bikes) and other recreational vehicles. At least this is what they tell us when they are stopped by the squads! So, for the uninformed or forgetful, and because it's summertime, here we go again. Under state and local laws, no motor vehicle can be operated upon a highway (main travelled portion of the roadway, like, pavement or gravel) unless it is currently registered and properly equipped (lights, horn, brakes, turn signals, etc.) No MOTOR VEHICLE, pro- perly eqiupped, registered or otherwise, can be operated on the right-of-way (this means from the roadway edge, up to and including the far side of the ditches). Generally, any thing beyond the far side of the ditch is private property. Any person operating a motor vehicle on a highway muyst be properly licensed for the vehicle he or she is operatig. No recreational vehicle (motorcycle, all-ter- rain vehicle, four wheel drive vehicle, snow- mobiles, etc., etc.,) can be operated on PRIVATE PROPERTY without WRITTEN PERMISSION form the owner of the property. The written permissi9n must be in the operator's posses- sion while present on the land. It is our department policy to cite into court all person s who are in violation of these laws and, if necessary due\to cir- cumstances, to tow the vehicle to an impound lot. Why is all of this necessary? Well, tor years, since 1971 anyway, we generally tried to ignore the passage of cycles, in particular 'and ATV's while they were enroute to field areas to enjoy themselves. All we asked was that the riders go very slowly in the ditches, turn power down when crossing driveways, push thier machines across the streets, and keep t:,,~m muffled. Unfortunately, an ever increasing number of machines appeared totally unmuffled with their riders dressed like Mr. Kneivel and trying to b6 like him also. They seemed to take a perV2~se pleasure in eroding driveways and road edges; they leaped halfway over the streets oblivious to the safety of others, in particular the very young kids, and in general acted dumb!! The ditches became race tracks and any piece of land without a house was alive with 200 pound bumblebees roaring at 110 decibels for hours. Therefore, due to a greatly increased number of complaints, we have had to take the route of complete en- forcement of the existing laws. This has been started and will continue. So, to those parents whose kids have the types of vehicles I have been talking about (and for four whee- lers), I humbly request that you monitor their actions for the sake of the majority of the citizenry of Ramsey and for your own pocketbooks. Two bills and time out of work for court appearances are expensive. Every- one's cooperation will be much appreciated. -Chief Auspos BURNING Burning permits are available at City Hall. The permits are issued for three consecutive days and only for the evening hours from 6 pm to 6 am.. It is important to notify the fire depart- ment before burning. If you were burning with- out a permit and someone called the fire de- partment, you would be charged for a fire call. No burning may take place within 600 feet of an occupied residence other than those located on the property receiving the permit. NO LEAVES WILL BE BURNED IN ANO~A COUNTY Part of the reason for this rule is it's affect ~n those people with asthma problems, There is no charge for burning permits. Materials to be burned should be place in a pile. If you have any further questions, call the DNR office at 464-2810 or City Hall at 427-1410. A map at City hall shows those locations within Ramsey that the Council has designated off limits to burning because of extremely high dangers. There are two ways of meeting difficulties; you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them. -Phyllis Bottom~ page 6