Hot (under the collar) Summer Nights

The sign on the gate at Harry Todd Park in Tillicum declares the place closes – and the gate gets locked – at 9 P.M.

I drove into the park - through the open gate - at 9:45 P.M. July 1, to see why a bonfire and the comings-and-goings of a number of cars was, well, on-going. 

A rendezvous of one car - that had just arrived – with a passenger of another from a waiting vehicle resulted in some sort of out-of-pocket exchange.

The nice lady at 911 said she would pass the information along.

A follow-up with the Lakewood Police Department (LPD) the following morning indicated that a “patrol officer checked the park at 2210 hours to find the gate secured and locked with no one around.”

The LPD spokesperson added that the SOP – evidently for the LPD – “is to secure the park every night, when an officer is available between radio calls.  The duty is not forgotten or delayed unnecessarily.”

Given, however, the longish weekend coming up; the lengthening daylight hours; the suspect activity – and clientele - observed; and a May 15 incident (at 1835 hours) at Harry Todd Park in which a report cited “approx. 50-100 people running around, lots of commotion in background, a 19-20 y/o male was beating up on an 18-19 y/o female in the parking lot (with) one subject bloodied (with) officers start(ing) to arrive within approx. one minute” – according to the police report – then it would seem most proper for a police officer to begin clearing the park at 8:30 P.M. because the sign on the gate, after all, says it is locked at 9 P.M.

A broken window not fixed, graffiti not in short-order painted over, and a rule not timely enforced are not recipes for a picnic.