DEAR EDITOR: I cried when I read about the mean mom on the bus who kneed her small boy in the back and yelled at him [Last Days, June 1]. I still want to cry and my heart is breaking. Please, please, I want to encourage everyone to report child abuse when they see it. If the same woman treated a disabled or otherwise-helpless person that way, everyone on the bus would be calling 911. Her child is completely helpless, and if that's how she treats him in public she probably treats him even worse at home. Please, whenever you see a mother strike her child or threaten him, call 911. It's our civic duty to defend the innocent and helpless!
Stephanie Drury
TOKEN OF AFFECTATIONEDITOR: Like a lot of papers, you guys have a writer combing police reports for nuggets that you then print to fill space. It's cool to find out about some weird shit that went down in your neighborhood. When reporting these little news tidbits, it's best to list the facts and get the information out, so you can move on to yet another item.
This is why I want to run Charles Mudede over with a police cruiser every time I attempt to read Police Beat. I don't need some jackass wasting precious column space waxing philosophical about what some fucking crack addict on Capitol Hill did in a 7-Eleven or whatever the hell happened that week.
Please reassign him away from this potentially interesting column and give him some other genuinely crappy section that I'm not interested in reading—like I Love Television. You can dump that jerk-off Steven Humphrey, keep your token black columnist, and I'll get another column to read in The Stranger—everybody wins! How about it?
Godless Pinko
COPS DON'T NEED DEGREESCHARLES MUDEDE: I have to disagree with you [Police Beat, May 25]: I feel that members of our police force cannot be expected to be total professionals in the way that you outlined, just as you would not expect a podiatrist to know how to perform open-heart surgery.
Our police force should be well educated in the letter of the law, how to safely pursue and apprehend criminals, and crowd control. They should be given ongoing training on how to safely and competently operate all of the equipment issued to the officers in the line of duty. In addition, the community should support our police force with ongoing counseling to help them deal with the stresses of the job, grant them a higher living wage to compensate these men and women who put their lives on the line for us every day, and provide cultural-sensitivity training to give them a fuller understanding of the civilians that they have sworn to serve and protect.
To require that each and every officer gain a doctorate before being issued a badge is shortsighted. Would you require an animal-control officer to have a veterinary license? Would you require a firefighter to gain a master's degree in chemistry?
Honor our police force by voting for more budget money to support them, elect representatives who vow to support our law-enforcement departments, and put your energy into advocating for better public health care instead of calling for outrageous requirements in job training.
Jennifer Blessing
LITCRITEDITOR: I'd like to thank Christopher Frizzelle for (re)opening a dialogue about the whithers and whys of Seattle-based literary magazines [Nightstand, "A Tactful Question," June 1]. Believe me, as I wade through blood, sweat, and other bodily excretions to publish each issue of Swivel, I myself wonder if the world really needs another freakin' literary magazine. But in the case of Swivel, I've decided the answer is hell yes, in large part due to the many e-mails I receive each month thanking me for creating a literary venue that would otherwise be nonexistent—a journal devoted exclusively to smart, funny writing by smart, funny women.
As for Frizzelle's mean-girl-esque accusation that Swivel and other local indie magazines are "in the schoolyard sense, unpopular," I would remind him that everybody knows it's the unpopular kids who turn out to be the coolest.
Brangien Davis
Editrix in Chief, Swivel Magazine
DEPENDS ON THE SCHOOLYARDMR. FRIZZELLE: I'm writing in regard to your column this week, notable for its unkind and poorly reasoned assessment of local literary journals. Could one say that the Paris Review has ever been popular, "in the schoolyard sense?"
Dave Dederer
FROM THE FORUMSPOSTED BY COLIN ON JUNE 1: In the newest installment of Our Worst Enemy ["Cohousing with Christ," June 1] Cienna Madrid is sent to a "Christian community" where someone is allowed to buy a condo only if they sign a pledge stating, among other things, "We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, is reliable, and is the final authority for faith and practice."
Does anybody know how they are able to pull this off without running afoul of the Equal Housing Opportunity Laws?
POSTED BY CHRIS COMTE ON JUNE 1: Condominium Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CCRs) have been ruled to be legally enforceable by homeowners' or other associations, unless specific provisions within them conflict with federal, state, or local laws.
According to RCW 49.60.222, which covers "unfair practices with respect to real-estate transactions, facilities, or services," religious belief or affiliation is not listed among any of the protected classes used to define discriminatory practices. However, according to the WA Office of Human Rights, religion is defined as a protected class under the federal Fair Housing Act, and so would be considered as such under state law, even though it's not specifically listed in the RCW provisions.
So, from a layman's perspective, it would appear that any provision in the homeowner's covenant specifying that tenants must adhere to a specific set of religious beliefs or practices would be unenforceable.
But, even if you pushed the issue, you'd be living in the midst of a bunch of wild-eyed fundies, who could probably still make your life miserable, so why bother?
Join the discussion at forums.thestranger.com.
