MOSES LAKE ORDINANCES

An empty home in Knolls Vista was recently broken into for the sole purpose of gang tagging. Gang members tagged this home with permanent black markings all over a sparkling white refrigerator, kitchen cabinets, and two freshly painted walls.

Ironically, the service vendor who discovered this rental home break-in was actually more concerned about being “tagged” by the Moses Lake code enforcement police for parking his work trailer on the front lawn. Lawns are not a “permitted parking surface”. He has been tagged before during the course of his work. City code police are known to drive through neighborhoods taking pictures of peoples’ homes daily, looking for violations.

When we allot for this kind of police force, but our gang and drug problems are totally out of control, shouldn’t the city budget/job duties be redirected?

These assaults by the city have been reported to our organization by many upset property owners. These ordinances may be justified by some as needed to “beautify our neighborhoods,” but to do so, you can no longer “live” or “work” in said neighborhoods. We should be entitled to peaceful enjoyment of our own property without the “police state” felt when looking out the window to find picture snapping code police that sometimes park and watch for violations.

Prosperity and the availability of livable wages is what most often clean up neighborhoods. Gang activity destroys all our futures. Our poor, retired or disabled community members are harassed and embarrassed when plastered on the front pages of the newspaper, Most of whom have only token “code violations.” We must find a way to redirect our efforts to the real offenders of what is taking our city down and leave our struggling citizens and service vendors alone.

Gail Adair

Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights

Moses Lake