Rant: 1-800-GOT-BLIGHT

[DP]

Saturday night I was downtown,

   woikin’ for the FBI.

—Except I wasn’t really working for the FBI.

  In fact, I wasn’t even downtown.

  But I was enforcing the law.

 

The Problem

Recently a nationwide junk-hauling company put up some illegal and garish signs on light poles in my neighborhood. The signs were in violation of Seattle city code on the following grounds:

      1) Not dated

      2) Not advertising a local event

      3) Higher than 7 feet up the pole

 

 

Steps I Took to Resolve ‘The Problem’

I called the company, whose name (may a curse be upon it) I’ve obliterated from the photos below.

I was eventually transfered to a “Zach” who was the customer service coordinator at “corporate” in Vancouver, Canada. Zach apologized for the problem, took my information, and promised to get the signs down. I told him I’d give him a week to do it, otherwise I was going to GO VIGILANTE on his ass.

Within hours I got a call from a woman named Antonia who is the marketing manager for this area. She said she’d look into the problem, but didn’t seem too enthusiastic. She also questioned why I had told Zach that I didn’t want to be put directly in touch with the person who posted the signs. (Duh!!)

 

*************************************************************************************

Well, folks, a week has come and gone, and, as you can see from the photos, I decided to TAKE THE LAW INTO MY OWN HANDS.

The illegal and ugly signs have now been removed and disabled, and I consider myself under no further obligation to contact the company about this problem should it crop up again in the future. If I see one of these signs posted on a pole in my neighborhood, down it comes. As in immediately.

Can you imagine the irony of a junk-removal company (so called) that actually creates more junk than it removes?

I can, of course. But only because I have special training in the handling of irony.

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[miws]

I didn’t realize they were out of B.C.

So, DP, this prompts me to ask you a question, that considering your anti-war beliefs, (which I greatly respect and agree with [seriously]) will cause you to do some deep soul searching; if they continue to ply America, the Beautiful, (Sing it Ray, baby!) with these unpleasant, illegal, high altitude signs, would you be willing to go to war with Canada?

Mike

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[DP]

Huh? What?

Oh. Canada.

Make war on them?

No, probably not.

However, as a patriotic American, I do have a message for ALL those who would try to sneak across our borders, mess with our poles, and take away our stuff:

 

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[redblack]

but! but! but, that’s a corporation, dude!

they’re people, too! so what if they’re foreigners? what are you, some kind of anti-canadian racist?

btw, let us know when you get sued for destruction of private property and tortious interference.

then again, you’ll be prohibited from speaking about it in a public forum.

hmm. maybe you should tack your stories about this saga to utility poles once you sign the non-disclosure agreement – which will be a part of the settlement that keeps you out of jail.

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[Zenguy]

Sorry, not private property when you post it on a public telephone pole and there are laws regualating what you can post as DP stated. We as a city actually pay people to go around and take postings off of light and telephone poles. The staples are a hazard for the people that have to climb them and a blight for those that have to see them.

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[redblack]

zen: easy, big fella. i think your sarcasm detector needs tweaking.

;)

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[dhg]

dp you are a scream. Thanks for taking down the signs.

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[cjboffoli]

Zenguy: What if my car (private property) were parked illegally on a public street. Could DP take it upon himself haul it away and junk it?

Not at all intending to criticize DP. The clutter of those signs, and the audacity of companies that use public rights of way for advertising, annoys me too. But there IS the concept of due process to consider. There is a system in place for government to deal with private parties who break the law. DP did the most expedient and effective thing. But it still seems a slippery philosophical slope to me.

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[austin]

cjb: if you abandoned your car on a public street and you expressed apathy towards it when contacted via phone, I think it’s safe to say you wouldn’t mind if DP hauled it away for whatever purpose.

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[cjboffoli]

austin: That’s a good point. But my car is important to me as it is the only car I own and one of my most expensive possessions. I tend to pay attention to where my car is. So maybe that wasn’t the best example. Then again, the signs weren’t exactly abandoned.

What if I were a business owner, with a large inventory of equipment, and one of my employees left something in a public right of way. A call about it out of the blue from a private individual might not have any context for me. In fact, I’m not even in the same country where the equipment was found. Could a private party just take it away and either take possession of it or discard it?

If I have a dog and it sneaks out the back fence and is found wandering on the beach (illegally without a leash), can a private individual capture the dog and have it put down?

The police might not have time or resources to respond to my reports of a street level drug transaction down the street from where I live. Could I intercept the customer and confiscate his piece of crack and destroy it?

The guess essential question is: Just how far can (and should) private citizens go to enforce the law?

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[austin]

I disagree that the signs were not abandoned. I would argue that they are considered disposable advertising by most people who use that means of publicizing.

Dogs on the beach may legally result in an up to a $500 fine, not euthanasia.

Crackheads run fast.

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[Genesee Hill]

I view those signs the same way I view advertising circulars left on the sidewalks in front of homes.

Both are advertising, both are left on public property, and both are garbage.

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[cjboffoli]

OK. That’s probably fair, GH1. But what if the signs were not commercial but political? Still illegally posted. Would it be OK to yank them down and throw them away?

Some municipalities actually authorize citizens to pull down signs. What DP did is save the City time, money and trouble. Not to mention saving the rest of us from eyesores. But the way the SMC is written, it might technically be illegal here in Seattle, as private citizens are not among those authorized to remove illegal signs.

This company may not care. But what if someone else did this and the company went after them for malicious destruction of property?

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[Genesee Hill]

cjb:

I don’t ever mess with political signs, nor would I condone the behavior of those that do. It is my understanding that those who post political signs are responsible for taking them down after the election.

I am only talking about private, for profit, advertising. Such as the signs DP took down. Such as the advertising I frequently see strewn on the sidewalks of West Seattle on my frequent walks.

If this company goes after this for malicious destruction of property, I say, good luck with that!

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[flowerpetal]

I probably would’ve taken the same action as DP and taken the signage down.

However, if I were on the other end of the phone and someone threatened to go “vigilante on my a**” I would be calling the local police cuz I don’t know that guy and I don’t know what he means by that.

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[DP]

Two things: (plus 1)

1) I didn’t deliberately remove any 1-800-GOT-BLIGHT signs. As a matter of fact, I was just attempting to put up my own signs when I fell off the ladder and happened to grab the GOT-BLIGHT signs by accident on my way down. Three times in a row.

2) CJ, where’s your car? I’ll be by to pick it up later.

3) I didn’t actually say “ass.” I said “butt.” And I didn’t say “vigilante,” I said “neighborhood safety committee.”

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[cjboffoli]

DP: LOL. Nicely done.

But austin’s observation that “Crackheads run fast” actually made me laugh the loudest.

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[flowerpetal]

Hoping you didn’t bury your face in the light pole on your way down. Butt if you did, I have tweezers you can borrow.

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