[nagdu] Pooper Scooper Laws

Wed Jan 14 02:03:41 UTC 2009

I live in? reiverside county ... i did not know in san diego blind people were expempt. I always pick up my poop and if i cant find a trash can i take it with me? BUT on the same note if im going into? some place i leave it in the baggie and go back for it on the way out ... if we r exempt i would fight the? sitation with an attorney? let me know i have the name of one? who is in LA and supposed to be good ?
cari and denver 

-----Original Message-----
From: lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com
Sent: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 1:44 pm
Subject: [nagdu] Pooper Scooper Laws

Hi All,
I recently got cited by the police for violating San Diego's "pooper scooper 
law".  Both our county and city laws exempt blind people.  Curious to know if 
anyone else has had this problem?

I was at a political rally at our County Administration Building last Saturday.  
Landon took a dump on the grass near the street, I picked it up with a baggie, 
and put the package under a nearby bush out of the way.  I wasn't able to find a 
trash can to throw it away in.

I was talking to a lady who is in my Democratic Party club when a man came up to 
me to tell me I had to throw the poop in a trash can.  I told him that I was 
blind and can't find a trash can and asked him to show me to one and I'd be 
happy to do that.  He said that I had to do it myself and that he wasn't going 
to help me find a can.  He then asked me for my ID.  Then I asked him who he 
was.  He answered " San Diego Police".  I again told him that I was blind and 
needed his help to find a trash can to throw the poop into.  Again, he said that 
I had to do this myself.  The lady's kid offered to throw it away for me but the 
police had my ID and they wrote me a citation for "Dog Nuisence" and that I was 
to appear in Traffic Court (in an inaccessible location) in March.

The lady I was with said that I could have avoided the ticket if I was real 
polite and begging for help from him.  I did tell the police officer that I was 
exempt from the County's law and most likely, the San Diego city law.  So, this 
lady wasn't at all sympathetic to me on this.  She even has a disabled son!  I 
was not angry or disrespectful to the cop.  I just stated facts and didn't 
grovel.

I went home after the event and called the police department to place a 
complaint against an officer because he was totally insensitive to the fact that 
I couldn't find the trash can due to my blindness and for his failure to 
identify himself - I thought I was talking to just another person at the rally 
who objected to my putting the dog crap under the bush.

I got a call b
ack from the seargent and it turned out that the same seargent was 
there!  He didn't identify himself to me either!  The seargent said that he 
observed me letting Landon defecate, saw me competently pick it up, and throw it 
under the bush.  He wondered why, if I was really blind, how could I know where 
the pile was to pick up.  I told him that we are all trained in the arts of 
picking up dog crap - it was part of the curriculum of the guide dog schools.  
He was surprized that the blind could learn how to find the pile their dog 
leaves.  So that told me that not only did he not know the law, he didn't know 
anything about blind people either.

I called the office of our City Disability Coordinator and have not heard back 
from them yet.  I called my City Council member's office and talked to somebody 
there.  They thought that I would still have to go to the inaccessible Traffic 
Court, or maybe, they could come to a downtown location that I could get to.  He 
was going to check on that and get back to me. He also said he knew of someone 
at the Police Department who dealt with disability issues.

Some of my friends thought I should go public with this by contacting a lawyer 
on KSUI-TV named Mike Turko.  He has a segment called"Turko Files" and he gets 
contacted by lots of people with all kinds of problems and he helps the problems 
to be solved and goes public with them.  My CCB (ACB) chapter members went to 
him about SD TRansit refusing to put bus changes and meetings in a format 
readable by the blind.  The website was also inaccessible as well.  After Turko 
did two seperate segments on KUSI-TV on this, Transit made the needed changes.  
I told my friends that I'd save Turko for later if needed!

Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do about it? Thanks.

Regards,

Linda and Landon
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