Letter to the Editor 2, 11-4

Dear Editor, I take issue with some comments in the Oct. 30 issue of The Pitt News article… Dear Editor, I take issue with some comments in the Oct. 30 issue of The Pitt News article ‘Thirsty? City Council quadruples open container fine.’ Specifically, police commander Kathy Degler is quoted as saying that, ‘The quality of life of the people who live in Oakland is vastly challenged by this cavalier behavior.’ As someone who lives in Oakland, I can safely say that my quality of life is either not affected by people carrying open containers around, or the effect is negligible compared to the variety of other criminal behaviors that take place regularly in Oakland. I believe Degler is quite misguided in her beliefs, and I would personally rather see the police in Oakland out patrolling for thieves (who strike regularly, by the number of stories I hear), or out preventing other types of inherently anti-social behavior. I often see groups of officers citing students for violating minor (and I believe unnecessary) ordinances. Again, I often wonder if those officers could, instead of writing up a student for an open container, be catching a thief breaking into someone’s window to steal a laptop. Police have a limited amount of time, and I think that instead of policing puritan, anti-alcohol laws, law enforcement should be directed against those who actually harm others. Open container laws might drive students into private residences for drinking, but at what cost? Jim Hartle School of Arts and Sciences