Laws in place for a reason

This letter is in response to last week's "anonymous" letter published in the Whitefish Pilot.

The writer, whoever he or she may be, must be confused on how local government works. It is the job of the City Council to pass municipal ordinances and the job of the city police department to enforce those laws. It was very unfair to lambast the Whitefish Police Department for simply doing their job well. If the writer has a problem with the "open container" law or the "public intoxication" law, he should instead lobby the City Council to change it.

We, on the other hand, think both are good laws. It is our understanding that the open container law was enacted to prevent people being injured by thrown bottles and cans, to make it more difficult to provide alcoholic beverages to minors on the street and to help the local businesses (bars aren't the only businesses on Central Avenue) from having to clean up the litter the next morning.

For those of us who like to eat a late dinner out or simply take a stroll down Central Avenue after a play, we certainly appreciate the public intoxication law. And, yes, we do feel safer with both laws in place.

Are we the only ones who fail to see the logic in the argument that the enactment and enforcement of these laws is an attack on the "working class" in Whitefish? Aren't the members of the City Council working class members of our community who are trying their best to make Whitefish a town we can all be proud of and who, by the way, are volunteering their time? Also, aren't the officers of our Whitefish Police Department risking their personal safety for our well being and protection for relatively modest wages — and even less thanks?

There are many members of this fine town who have lived here their whole lives, and many members of Whitefish who moved here in the recent past, all of whom have made financial sacrifices to work and play here, but don't find that "playing hard" needs to include public intoxication.

The next time you want to send a letter to the Whitefish Pilot, please have the courage and conviction to sign your name to it. Also, shame on the editorial staff of this paper for publishing an anonymous letter. Allowing anonymous potshots is a bad precedent to set.

Michael and Ann Viscomi

Whitefish