Letters to the Editor

Police

Officers, others doing their duties to protect

In reference to the letter by Dick Kerr in the Aug. 20 edition of the Enterprise, he like many, speak out on a topic obviously having little to no knowledge to base their comments.

Firstly, I will not comment on Mr. Kerr’s belief that police officer misconduct reports are on an increase since his statement clearly has nothing to support this. Additionally, Mr. Kerr’s belief that the Lynnwood Police Department traffic division use “misguided effort” is nothing further from reality.

As a police officer myself, I can speak with great knowledge on the operations of all divisions in this police organization. From the administration down to the volunteers each division or group has pre-determined goals to achieve in making Lynnwood a safer placed to live and visit.

From robbers to speeders, all of these law violations deteriorate the quality of life in our community. The traffic division’s goal is not to generate revenue through writing tickets. Their goals are to reduce traffic law violations that are the cause of most vehicular accidents. Certainly, from their enforcement efforts revenue will be generated which is needed to continue making our streets safe.

As for, “peeking over a shrub” or “hiding behind a 20 MPH sign” with binoculars I have two comments to make:

First, those who drive are determined by the state to be mature enough to understand the rules of the road. As a licensed driver it is solely the driver’s responsibility to obey laws. When a driver elects to risk this by exceeding the speed limit or not wearing a seatbelt is a totally the chance that driver takes. It is not the traffic division’s duty to sit out in the open and watchdog motorist to get them to comply with the laws. In areas where there is a high volume of traffic or accidents it is the duty of the police (sometimes more than one) to insure it is safe to travel on these streets of Lynnwood.

Secondly, Mr. Kerr’s statement of using binoculars to detect violators supports my claim of his lack of knowledge in this area. Lynnwood traffic officers are not using binoculars to located seatbelt violations. Officers do in fact look through a viewer on laser operated radar guns to accurately pinpoint speeders. Utilization of sophisticated equipment such as this quickly identifies the speeder even in heavy traffic.

Lastly, the use of Animal Control (and our Citizen Patrol volunteer group) for disabled parking violations, other code violations, or car lockouts is an exception use of the City of Lynnwood’s tax dollars. These collateral duties keep them busy, allowing our police officers to be available for that next emergency call. Or would you rather have them drive in circles doing nothing but looking for the next loose dog.

T.J. BROOKS

Edmonds

Thanks

Mervyn’s and Rotarians help students

As principal of Spruce Primary (Edmonds School District) I would like to commend the Mervyn’s store near Alderwood Mall. Recently Mervyn’s sale associates helped 20 children receive new back-to-school clothing.

Together with the efforts of Alderwood and Mountlake Terrace Rotarians, our children had help in choosing clothing and received new, school supplies filled backpacks. The bright excited smiles of the children were so rewarding and the adult was gratified to participate.

I thank Mervyn’s and local Rotary members for showing true community support for youth.

LYNDA TRIPP

Principal, Spruce Primary

National

Global labor pacts

don’t work for U.S.

Citizens must demand that Congress stop the bleeding of America’s jobs to cheap-labor countries. The first logical step is to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO): then return to negotiating trade agreements with individual countries. NAFTA and the WTO unconstitutionally gave the power away from our elected Congress to enact protective tariffs and gave us appointed international bureaucrats.

Our jobs and businesses are rapidly being exported (outsourced). During the past 12 months, our economy produced only 57,000 new jobs in low-paying services, leaving the economy millions of jobs short of normal performance, while high value-added jobs that pay good incomes continue to disappear.

The so-called “free trade” of NAFTA has been a racket for the past 10 years of U.S. experience. With Mexico, for example, it is designed to allow U.S. manufacturers to close their American plants and relocate them in Mexico, where they can pay Mexican workers almost nothing and ignore costly health, safety, and environmental regulations. Then their products are shipped back to the U.S. for sale at fat profits for those companies – at the expense of the loss of American workers’ jobs and tariffs for the American treasury, which is wrong.

NAFTA has stripped the U.S. of its steel industry, so that we now must depend on foreign sources, such as Communist China, for this basic support of our modern society, like the steel nuts and bolts for appliances. Our government and the news media were strangely silent as this shift was taking place. Why?

Although NAFTA involves Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, even more dangerous to our independent economic and political authority is FTAA (the Free Trade Area of the Americas) being considered by Congress which would enlarge NAFTA by the consolidation of 34 countries into a supranational government in the Western Hemisphere.

Congress must be pressured to cancel NAFTA and vote against the FTAA.

BILL LOFTS

Bothell