The Freddy Gets Flagged

I made a comment on that Nextdoor Neighborhood e-mail list yesterday that someone flagged as being inappropriate. My comment??? Yes, my comment. How can this be? Except, yes, I did go a bit far at the end of it. At least for the purposes of that list.

They'd been discussing abandoned or improperly parked vehicle policy as per my last post here. I was really surprised at the number of people who said EPD was a bit aggressive with their abatement policies. They cited cars parked that nobody complained about, yet EPD would tag them and come back again for the same car. I replied that my experience has been pretty positive with one slight exception.

I've reported four or five cars over the last few years. One parked next to my house was eventually towed. The others were gone next time I was in the area or had been moved. No problems with that, at least on my end.

I once had the abatement officer come by my house and ask about my smashed trailer that had been sitting on Trinity Street for a few days- not so much the time, but the condition of the trailer which I think got his attention. He asked if the trailer was mine. I told him it was. He said that was all he needed to know and left before I could even explain. He never came back.

The last incident I feel was something not so nice but not much of a deal, and that's where my comment aggravated at least a couple people.

I came out to load up my truck and trailer one morning to find one of those warning tags on the back of my trailer. This was shortly after former EPD Chief, Garr Nielsen, announced his crackdown on derelict and illegally parked cars. I felt this was an obvious provocation by someone within EPD. 

The truck and trailer in no way met the definition of vehicles under that abatement ordinance. Cops drive up and down the street all the time and see that truck and trailer. They know it was regularly used. My feeling at the time- and it hasn't changed- was they tagged the trailer to get me pissed off at Nielsen over his more aggressive approach to abandoned and illegally parked cars. 

I don't know if they only tagged me, being a famous blogger, in an attempt to get me to join their efforts against Nielsen, or if I was just one of many who were tagged. If there were more than me I would think we would have heard of it. Either way, I'm convinced it was a targeted attack, political in nature. In fairness to them- although it does reinforce my feelings- they never hassled me over that trailer again.

I mentioned those suspicions on my post on the Nextdoor list. Former blogger, Joel Mielke, pointed out the list shouldn't be used for unfounded allegations like that. I agreed and apologized. I figured that was the end of it. Then, some hours later, I get notice that someone flagged my post as inappropriate and that notice had been sent to all neighborhood "Leads" (bosses) and they could remove the comment if they see fit. It's still there as of this morning.

I'm just wondering who flagged it, not that it matters that much. My guess is a certain representative of EPD that is on the list and has given some useful comments and tips. Hey, just curious.