North Seattleite Eric London was kicked out of Green Lake Park on Sunday, July 1 for indecent exposure. Citing Municipal Code 18.12.278 (City Attorney Mark Sidran's 1997 Parks Exclusion ordinance), the Seattle Police banned London from the park for seven days.
Was the Sidran ordinance, often criticized by the Washington ACLU for disproportionately targeting minorities, actually working some good this time--ridding the park of a bona fide treacherous cretin? Hardly. The "flasher," it turns out, wasn't 33-year-old London, but London's three-year-old son, Michael, whom London had taken to the Green Lake wading pool for an afternoon splash.
London, a senior projects manager at Real Networks, calls the police action "obscene."
However, according to Fritz Hedges, Director of Seattle Parks and Recreation's Citywide Division, little Michael violated Public Health codes by cavorting nude in the pool. "We do have rules that are based upon health department regulations," he says. "If a small kid goes to the bathroom and contaminates the water, it takes hours to empty it. Until they're potty-trained they have to wear a plastic liner or a swimming suit to contain anything that might happen." London has demanded to see the Public Health rule. Hedges says he's still trying to track it down.
London and Hedges do agree on how the events went down. After just a few minutes in the water, the Green Lake wading pool staffers told London that Michael had to put on some clothes. The situation escalated from there when two SPD officers arrived on the scene and told London he was being uncooperative. (London says he had taken Michael out of the pool by that time.) Next the cops sent London and his indecent boy packing with the exclusion notice.
Getting 86'd for seven days is the maximum penalty for a first-time Parks Exclusion offense.