Orrin's Racism Thesis Takes Another Hit

It's been a while since the last posting. As this blog is primarily dedicated to refuting the delusions that frequently flow from Off-leash Hours policy rejectionist Orrin and his so-called "Committee for Responsible Dog Ownership" aka CREDO, which is neither a committee nor has dog owners (check that, out of the three known CREDO members, one does claim to have a dog), there just hasn't been much of worth from Orrin's disjointed and stubbornly wrongheaded missives in 4Q 2008 to discuss. Orrin just kept posting the same boring delusions that don't break any new ground, nor coherently contribute to his general rejection of the 20+ year successful Off-leash Hours policy and his hatred of the thousands of dog owners in NYC who responsibly take advantage of the Designated Off-leash Areas (DOLAs), now in 89 NYC parks.

But it's a new year, and Orrin's whackadoodle racist anti-dog/anti-dog owner theory is being tested yet again. This time by his own blog entry.

Frequent readers may remember that following the fringe off-leash rejectionists' total defeat in 2006-2007, our Dear Orrin struggled to find a peg to hang his anti-Offleash Policy hat upon.

The Off-leash Hours policy rejectionists were shut down every which way but loose (no pun intended)--legally in NYS Supreme Court, from a public health perspective at the NYC Health Department, in the court of public opinion as overwhelming support for the 20+ successful Off-leash Hours policy appeared in tens of thousands of petition signatures and on public opinion polls in the major NYC weeklies, and of course the final insult to their self-inflicted injury, when the NYC DOPR formally codified the formerly "unofficial" policy.

So poor Dear Orrin felt a bit left out. It appeared that only him, a few hopelessly grizzled Archie Bunker types in Middle Village, Queens, and one or two of his radical birder Internet friends felt the way he did against his fellow citizens. (Interesting side note: this author attended a recent dinner at which several birders were happy to discuss some of the radical anti-dog fringe birders such as Dear Orrin and his buddy the so-called Prospect Park "Advocate" and how the rational mainstream birder community rejected their futile calls to go against the Off-leash Hours and politely asked said radical anti-dog birders to leave their group).

Orrin thought to himself--since the challenged Off-leash Hours policy got a full and fair hearing in court, court of public opinion, in front of public health professionals, and has been shown over 20 years to be a very popular and beneficial policy, so much so that the Parks Department decided to codify it in its regulations--there must be some sneaky, cynical, depraved, disingenuous, cowardly, yet effective way to somehow still kill it.

That's when Dear Orrin came up with his Cynical Bogus Racist Ploy. In a nutshell, a made up attempt to "scare" city government officials by playing a false race card, in the belief that certain City agencies (such as the DOPR) are so sensitive to charges of racism and racial discrimination, that he could somehow get their attention, manipulate them, and finally get his way. In Orrin's World, his way would be the total abolition of the Off-leash Hours policy. The baby with the bathwater approach that Dear Orrin and his micro-ilk so strongly advocate, and have failed so badly to achieve.

So our Dear Orrin has been carefully counting the number of "Black," "White," "Mexican" people he sees with and without dogs in various parks and our very white Dear Orrin has arrived at his brilliant hypothesis from his life experience and hours of careful observation through his anti-Off-leash colored glasses: Black people are afraid of dogs, so therefore the Off-leash Hours policy is keeping Black people out of the parks, so therefore the Off-leash Hours policy discriminates against Black people.

So Orrin's been blogging repeatedly about his racial observations and theories. And he's found company in the single dog owner in the 3 person "Committee for Responsible Dog Ownership" - Kim E., Pit Bull Owner, of late calling herself "Datnioides", and who has jumped on Orrin's Cynical Bogus Racist Ploy bandwagon.

However, on his New Years Day 2009 blog entry, it completely escapes our Dear Orrin that the recent DOPR approval to make Coffey Park (or as Orrin repeatedly/incorrectly types "Coffee" Park) the 89th park in NYC designated to have Off-leash Hours, completely shatters his Cynical Bogus Racist Ploy.

Red Hook is one of the most ethnically, racially, economically diverse communities in NYC. There's a sizable public housing population, a significant Latino community, and a large African American constituency represented.

The process to declare Coffey Park a DOLA took the better part of a year, as first the community received provisional permission to try out a DOLA to see if:
(a) a responsible group of dog owners would use the facility (it did),
(b) contribute to the park (they do),
(c) comply with the rules (they do),
(d) and to see how the rest of the community perceived the DOLA (as a benefit to the park and the community).

So guess what happened? A large responsible group of people takes their dogs to Coffey Park on a daily basis, forming strong friendships and community bonds across class, racial, ethnic lines (which so often happens when people of all stripes gather in all weather, day and night to care for their dogs) with each other, other park goers, and others in the community.

In fact, the president of the Red Hook Tennent's Association, which is a representative group for the very racially diverse public housing in Red Hook, who's also a member of the local CB, joined to unanimously approve the DOLA in Coffey Park after the months long experiment to see how the DOLA benefited the entire community progressed. Judging by the community support, the support of the CB, and the local associations, it's been successful and was overwhelmingly approved by one of the largest non-white and African American communities in the City.

Our Dear Orrin, if he ever set foot in Coffee (sic) Park, might see what he chooses not to see in Prospect or Central Park; that the 20+ year successful and now official Off-leash Hours policy brings diverse groups people together in this City around something most people can agree to--that the 1.4 million dogs in the NYC should be properly socialized, exercised, and that taking one's dog to the park is a beneficial recreational activity for all citizens, whether you own a dog or not.

But we know our Dear Orrin. He'll conveniently ignore this inconvenient truth and continue to keep his Off-leash rejectionist lenses firmly strapped to his eyes.

Also interesting in Orrin's post is that he lets the real truth slip again out why he's really so vehemently opposed to the Off-leash Hours policy. You see, in Orrin's World, apparently the parkland should just be for HIS recreational activity, and not other peoples. We've known about the rejectionists' selfish reasons for trying to kill Off-leash Hours in 2006, but it's nice to see them occasionally admit it to themselves and others in print.

A happy and healthy 2009 to everyone, even Orrin and his ilk. I'm sure we'll be hearing more racial theories and other interesting perspectives in the coming year from the rejectionists. For them, it's like being the Grinch all year long.