Ludington Police Moonlighting as Cherry Pickers?

[XLFD]

In the Bullies in Ludington Blue Torch article, we saw Ludington's Police Chief Mark Barnett and his friends use intimidatory tactics to get a new downtown Ludington store alter their way of doing their business.  Chief Barnett may have had some personal issues with the legal products the store was selling, or may have had some pressure from secondhand sources, but there were a few lingering questions as to why he did take action and why the Ludington Daily News ran with a story that seemed to be written by someone who had an axe to grind with the business.  Perhaps the foremost of those questions is:  why was the AGS Store was singled out when other establishments carried the same inventory they were warned about?

 

But the tactics employed by the police on their follow-up activities continues to be troubling.  AGS-friendly Torch members reported an 'intimidating' police presence around the store, harassing people that left the store.  The harassment, reportedly, was not merited.  On April 21st it was reported elsewhere that a truck with a small trailer behind it unloading some stuff at AGS was ticketed for blocking the alleyway after a very short time, five minutes.  Allegedly, the trailer was parked so as to allow traffic to pass through the alley, and the unloaders were actively unloading at the time the LPD showed up and wrote the infraction. 

 

In legal terms, Michigan laws (R28.1813) in the UTC allows this.  It says verbatim that:  "...A person shall not stop or stand a vehicle in any alley, except actually while in the process of loading or unloading the vehicle."  Local laws could, but do not formally restrict this further except during 'lunch hour', between noon and 1 PM.  They restrict any vehicle in the downtown area from loading or unloading in any alley during that hour on every day that is not Sunday or a holiday.  So if one takes the reports of that day at face value, and notes that the 'infraction' took place at 3:00 PM, one may ask why were they singled out?

 

Because I dare say that people do park in those alleys and block them more severely than the truck did that day.  I am not just relying on hearsay information on this, however.  I have noticed that before and on my way to take pictures of other areas, I clicked some snapshots just before 1 PM just yesterday.

 

 

This first SUV was parked in the alley at that time, and was still there a few hours later.  No tickets on their windshield, no signs or pavement markers showing this as a legal place to mark.  Nothing; but its partially blocking the alley the same way the AGS truck did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another van was in the alley on the other side of the street, again parked their during the noontime hour, and later during the afternoon.  You will also note that the alley is partially blocked by the dumpster.  I do not believe that is covered by local zoning codes.  Why isn't that ticketed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture serves two purposes, it shows that City workers do work at times and that they should be ticketed if the law is fairly enforced.  That City of Ludington blue truck parked in the alley is loaded with decorative bark for landscaping.  The driver parked it there, and then besides just unloading the material, they did other work, leaving the truck there during the noontime hour. 

 

These examples could be found down on either alleys behind Ludington Avenue businesses every day.  So where are the meter maids of the police?  The LPD's action of ticketing the AGS truck at 3:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon, their prior harassment of that business, their investigation and handling of the Baby Kate disappearance, etc. illustrate a pattern of incompetence and unprofessionalism.  Something to be expected when the citizens of Ludington have no say in, or oversight of,  how their City's police force operates.

[Polly Purewater]

XLFD,

I also have snapped a few pictures of vehicles making deliveries in the back alleys, UPS, USPS, Fed EX, a few roofers working on buildings, several city workers totally blocking the alley to make the green on james street plaza. Not one has ever gotten a ticket. I have personally asked a few of them.

But to the point of my reply.

I believe that the city should not be allowed to just appoint certain city jobs such as chief of police, city manager and ect... the people in the city should have the right to vote who should be in these positions..

the mayor should not be allowed to appoint buddies for the job... we as taxpayers and citizens of the town don't even know if the people that are being appointed are even qualified for those positions. We don't even know if these appointed people even understand or care about Ludington or its people.

Ludington is a tourist town and most of the businesses depend on tourism. 

Ludington officials are making it so people don't want to visit our town. 

The DDA is making silly little rules and regulations to make it harder on the downtown area to survive. They claim it is to better help downtown grow. (my question is what are they looking for it to grow into ...a ghost town?????

at least 1/3 of the stores downtown close for the winter already.

If they really wanted to help down town grow, fill the empty buildings she has, Give store owners certain tax breaks for being open year round instead of seasonal.Stop harassing business owners with silly little quarks that you don't personally agree with. (If you don't drink... you don't buy booze, If you don't smoke... you don't buy smoking items, If you don't believe in God...you don't go to church), But it doesn't mean run all the business out town who sell booze or smoking supplies or don't run the churches out of town just because you don't believe the same way.

Give more Grants to the regular folks who own businesses so they can Paint the old buildings, Help repair and beautify the area..instead of giving grants to the same people all the time who take them print out fake documents and take the grant money and use it to take vacations on....yeah we know who you are.....

But we really have no say because the officials do as they please because they know they don't have to have the peoples approval. (cause we didn't elect them) a buddy appointed them. They don't even care to have the peoples approval which I think is the saddest of all.... cause the people are the town and they DO MATTER.... each and every one of them!

[XLFD]

My guess is that you wisely passed on signing the petition going around allowing our Mayor to ruin (unnoticed typo) for two more terms.  In the infancy of the Torch early in 2010, I wrote a piece on the City Manager system and how it is undemocratic and a screen so that no elected person has accountability here is a link to it.

I would advise you also to check out my soon to be expanded 11 part series on The Development of Authority, about the Ludington DDA and its continued conversion of public money into private money, often directly into the greedy palms of non-elected city officials. 

Getting grant information from the City via FOIA requests has been difficult, but I suspect you're on the right track about what's happening with them.  I will be having some interesting threads on this in the future.

[Smile]

May I say, fine work in the pictures of documenting the infractions done by other's and why one business was harassed by the Chief of Police. Since James Street has been closed, there seems to be way too many "un-noticed" infractions let go by the Lud. Police Dept. since this is now a major roadway, why does the City seem to be harassing just one business when so many sell alcohol, incencse, and hand sanitizer??? Should Mr. Barnett be now approaching the other seven to ten businesses downtown Ludington that sell hand sanitizer & alcohol..that seems to be so much more easily ready for under-aged kids to get in their hands at ANY age..... and shame on the liberal media for telling ALL how to use these products the wrong way!!! let's not pick on one business that is new to town, generous in their give-aways, generous to employing ppl, generous in advertising, generous in participating in downtown events!!!! Don't run stores out of town who come to fill spaces your city has begged for!!! This business sells clothing, furniture, giftware, kids toys, kids videos &collectibles, housewares and more.

[XLFD]

I just had the camera handy, and was drawn in by those City Workers working between Noon and 1 PM.  That is a wonder all in itself!  But I have seen a lot worse blockages of both alleys on other days where I did not have a camera, and the City Code says you can't even load and unload at the noon hour.  The underlying politics in the town has made it difficult for outsiders to assimilate into the downtown area, and the grant-hungry rest of them don't rightly care if you think it's unfair.