[nagdu] Pooper Scooper Laws

[Marion & Martin]

Linda,
    First, I would like to say that I don't think blind people should be 
exempt from such laws. On the contrary, I think we need to be more diligent, 
since we are more likely than the sighted to have our dogs in public. That 
said, it sounds as if the officers didn't know you were blind due to their 
ignorance, not to mention their insensitivity.
    I believe you are taking the correct action by going to the PD and your 
ADA coordinator's office. It sounds as if you have a just cause to fight the 
citation should you need to take it to court, as inaccessible as that may 
be. Now, this sounds like a story: Blind woman cited for pooper scooper 
violation can't have her day in court because she can't get there! (smile) I 
do think, though, that making a media issue of the citation in spite of the 
laws exemption would not serve our mission well, as it would send the 
message that the blind are incapable of performing this simple task.

fraternally,
marion


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com>
To: "NFBnet NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 4:44 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 back 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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