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The criminal inside us

Little-known laws mean we break them more than we are aware
David Holub/Durango Herald illustration

Lawbreakers abound in Durango. And you are likely one of them.

According to the Durango Police Department, in 2014, officers issued 5,734 citations – or about one citation per every three Durango residents – for alleged violations of 239 distinct laws, ranging from child abuse to having an “improper muffler.”

While that number may seem staggering, the citation data provided by Durango Police captures a fraction of last year’s lawbreaking, because it excludes thousands of citations issued by Durango Transit Authority and the city’s code enforcement division.

The majority of DPD’s citations had to do with traffic violations, including 987 for speeding. But they also encompassed trespassing (222 citations), public consumption of alcohol (192), “obtaining goods, services or money under false pretenses” (172) and voyeurism (1).

Within the wide realm of human activity regulated by city ordinances, some crimes are less intuitively criminal than others. Police issued someone a citation for running afoul of “general smoking restrictions,” a vague but serious-sounding offense. Twice they cited someone for “expectoration,” an obscure Latinism that describes an extremely mundane practice: spitting in public.

Durango Police spokesman Lt. Ray Shupe said officers have a lot of discretion in enforcing these more esoteric areas of city code, and mostly, the police aim to educate the public that they exist.

Despite DPD’s prolific ticket-writing, interviews suggest many habituated local criminals went unpunished – and unaware – in 2014.

Longtime resident and Durango Autoworks mechanic Dennis Rypkema, a married father of four, at first insisted he never broke the law.

Then, he was asked questions.

Did he ever:

Spit in public? (“No.”) Walk his dog off leash? (“Sure, yes.”) Smoke or drink on the river trail? (“No.”) Shoplift? (“No.”) Jaywalk? “Yes. Constantly. And I don’t always use my signal lights. Gosh, I guess I break laws all the time,” Rypkema said, horrified.

Others cheerfully confessed to ongoing criminality.

“I’m breaking the law right now, while I’m talking to you. I just went over the speed limit,” said Kris Oyler during a telephone interview while driving his vehicle.

Oyler, owner of Steamworks Brewing Co., said he is a veteran of senseless city laws, including one 1996 ordinance that effectively banned dancing at Steamworks.

It was repealed in 2003, but for years, by law, “We did have to ask people to stop shaking their booty.”

Oyler was philosophical about his outlaw status. Given the accumulation of city ordinances over time, he said, “We’re all probably criminals.

“That’s why I’ve always said they should spend as much time taking obsolete, antiquated laws off the books as they do making new ones,” he said.

City Attorney Dirk Nelson is in the process of reviewing the city’s ordinances. He will examine their language and determine if they need to be updated, modified or struck from the books.

While purging the books might do some good, so, too, might publicizing the laws that currently are in effect.

For instance, habitual public urination offenders often are unaware that under Durango’s current city code, it’s also illegal to curse in public. (DPD issued two such cursing citations in 2014.)

Even prominent members of Durango’s legal community fear the long arm of the law. Tom Williamson, former public defender for the 6th Judicial District, said when he’s downtown, “I jaywalk all the time. Don’t print that. I don’t need them coming after me.”

When it comes to Durango’s seemingly large criminal population, John Baxter, a defense lawyer, said, “I don’t know that what’s going on in Durango is different (than the rest of the country). The felon population is growing exponentially, and we’re incarcerating a greater proportion of our population than any democratic country in history.”

Municipal Court Judge Jim Casey said no one ever has pleaded ignorance in his court, but he suspects many Durangoans are, in fact, ignorant of the laws they break, conceding that even he has been surprised to learn that the expectoration ordinance still was on the books.

To Durango lawyer Bill Zimsky, the situation in Durango is a case of too many laws rather than an overzealous police force.

“In Durango, you have to renew your dog license every year, and a lot of people don’t know that. It’s a silly regulation. And people violate these small, stupid, totally unnecessary, outdated laws and regulations, and that breeds distrust of government,” he said.

Durango Mayor Sweetie Marbury defended the ordinances, saying they mostly have to do with the community’s collective health and safety.

She recalled that 32 years ago, she left her sprinkler on overnight.

“The next day, two city policemen gave me a ticket. I went to court and said I did it, but I didn’t know it was illegal. But afterwards, I was very careful about water laws in Durango.”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com

Durango police citations

The Durango Police Department issued 5,734 citations in 2014. Here’s how they broke down:

Top citations

Speeding: 987

Failure to have or provide proof of auto insurance: 506

Expired license plates: 254

Driving under the influence of alcohol: 236

Trespass: 222

Public consumption of alcohol: 192

Obtaining goods, services or money under false pretenses: 172

Other citations

Disorderly conduct: 160

Obscene conduct: 84

Disturbing the peace: 74

Violation of protection order: 51

Obstructing a peace officer: 51

Possession or use of marijuana: 50

School bus violations: 25

Bicycles, roller skates, etc.: 23

Aggressive begging: 12

Skate, ski or sledding violations: 8

Drunken pedestrian in roadway: 6

Public indecency: 2



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