Preventing Murder Ate on It

KLMNO A14 EZ RE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2011

LETTERSTOTHEEDITOR ABCDE d [email protected] Taking care of (doggy) business AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER In all of The Post’s coverage of the battles over dog excreta [“A case of piling on or public EDITORIALS nuisance?,” front page, Oct. 25], the crux of the issuewasignored:therightofpropertyownersto decide if their lawns will be used as a pet toilet. If you own property, you should be allowed to decide whether someone else’s pet gets to evacu- Preventing murder ate on it. I had a large German shepherd as a boy and know that it left all of its deposits in our yard, With a bit of congressional support, a simple test can save many lives. because it was my job to collect them in a pail. Nowadays, it seems that the only place dogs do N 2009, ONE-FOURTH of the District’s 144 According to the Maryland Network Against ened risk is offering immediate help, including not do their business is in their owner’s yard. homicides were linked to abusive relation- Domestic Violence, the approach consists of a counseling and emergency housing. There would be no fight over this ridiculous issue ships. The following year, according to the “user-friendly, 11-question screening tool” used Fourteen states and the District use some form if dog owners would keep their pets from making advocacy group D.C. Safe, the number of by law enforcement officers and others who of the lethality assessment. Given the program’s any sort of deposit on other people’s property domestic-violence homicides fell by half. come into contact with victims of domestic success, that’s 36 states too few. Congress has a without getting consent. IIn Maryland, there has been a 41 percent drop violence. chance to help the program be adopted more I pay dearly for my modest castle and grounds, in the number of homicides linked to domestic Some of the questions are what you might widelywhenitreauthorizes the Violence Against in treasure and toil, and my property rights violence over the past three years. expect: Has your husband or boyfriend ever used Women Act (VAWA), which was passed in 1994 to should be respected. The rate of violent crime overall has been or threatened to use a weapon against you? Has raise awareness of and combat domestic violence Craig W. Culp, Gaithersburg declining, but not that fast. The dramatic drop in he ever tried to choke you? (Although men are and to provide federal support to state and local l domestic-violence deaths in Maryland and the also victims of domestic violence, women are the communities to assist victims. Sen. Patrick J. I was thrilled to read the headline “A case of District is due largely to a simple but effective victims in at least 85 percent of the cases.) Other Leahy (D-Vt.), who is shepherding the reauthori- piling on or public nuisance?” because I expected tool that helps identify women most at risk of questions, perhaps less obvious, include whether zation, is considering adding the lethality assess- the article to highlight the environmental prob- being killed by their husbands or boyfriends. It is the man is unemployed and whether there is a ment to the list of programs that state and local lems associated with pet waste. As I read on, a tool that, if used nationwide, could save child in the household who is not the biological entities may fund with VAWA dollars. Extending though, I realized The Post missed that opportu- hundreds of the approximately 1,200 women offspring of the potential perpetrator. the life-saving benefits of the program to all of nity. While some of the regulations regarding killed every year by partners or former partners. As important as identifying women at height- the nation’s at-risk women should be a priority. picking up pet waste were probably initiated on nuisance grounds, most are now directly related to the environment. Pet waste and the fecal coliform pollutants it adds to streams are a serious water-quality and health concern. Acceptable Many Virginia jurisdictions contribute funding for a regional stormwater-education campaign stressing the importance of keeping pollut- exceptions antsoutofstormdrainsthatleadtolocalstreams and, eventually, the Chesapeake Bay. This campaign has targeted pet waste, as well as excess Complex as it may be, fertilizer and the dumping of motor oil, because of the way it gets carried in storm runoff. the Volcker Rule still has teeth. By educating the community that storm drains lead directly to streams and rivers, it is our hope EW RULES COULD be clearer, in theory, that people will see how their actions have a than “Thou shalt not kill.” Yet even that direct impact on the environment. commandment is subject to interpretation Adrian Fremont, Fairfax and exceptions (war, self-defense). And so The writer is an environmental engineer for the City of Fthe history of law-making is studded with well- Fairfax. meaning prohibitions — Prohibition itself, to l name one — that were straightforward in princi- I must observe a number of laws as a responsi- ple but rather more complicated and occasionally ble dog owner, so I am bewildered that the rules unworkable in practice. aboutpetsdonotalsoapplytoownersofcats.Ata Is the Volcker Rule the latest example? When time when our songbird populations are plum- enacted in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank meting, cat owners aren’t required to shoulder financial reform law, the rule was intended to ban responsibility for their animals. commercial banks from investing their own The cats in my neighborhood jump my 5-foot money in hedge funds and other speculative fences and wreak havoc in my yard. Not only do businesses. The rule’s purpose, according to its theyleavebehindtheirwaste,but—worse—they eponymous advocate, former Federal Reserve prey on the fledglings of the songbirds I try to chairman Paul Volcker, is to keep banks, whose nurture. The Audubon Society and others have deposits are federally insured, from taking exces- compiled data that corroborate the correlation sive risks based on the funding advantage that between free-roaming cats and declining bird they get from implied government support. CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES populations. City governments should act re- Mr. Volcker argued that this widespread prac- Paul Volcker, center, with Elizabeth Warren and then-Commerce Secretary Gary Locke at the sponsibly and pass ordinances requiring cat tice was not only unfair but systemically destabi- signing of the Dodd-Frank bill in 2010. owners to keep their pets indoors. lizing. Better, he said, to reestablish a clear line Rosemary Donaldson, Falls Church between commercial banks, which do basic finan- — that elaborates on those exceptions. As the draft Still, the rule is hardly unjustified: Though cial intermediation — lending savers’ deposits to candidly notes, putting the Volcker Rule into banks’ trading losses did not start the financial businesses — and the uninsured investment operation “often involves subtle distinctions that crisis, they probably intensified it. Nor is the rule It’s not all gerrymandering’s fault banks, which may take higher risks in pursuit of are difficult both to describe comprehensively toothless. Most of the argument now is over finer higher rewards. That line was established under within regulation and to evaluate in practice.” The points, not the core definition of proprietary The Oct. 26 editorial “RIP: Democracy in Vir- the New Deal but repealed in recent times. agencies estimate that 10,000 U.S. banks may trading, which some major banks had already ginia” asserted that gerrymandering is the reason Sounds simple, except that everything about eventually spend a combined 1.8 million hours a begun to exit in anticipation of the rule. The there are so few challengers in so many General the Volcker Rule, from its rationale to the precise year complying with the rule. Of course, that could apparent slump in financial-sector earnings may Assembly races. Redistricting is certainly one cause, definition of such seemingly obvious terms as change if the rule evolves between now and the indeed reflect Dodd-Frank’s impact. U.S. commer- but it is not the major cause. The cost of running an “hedge fund,” is open to debate. The financial final version, due next year. Evolution seems cial banks will soon find it harder to trade on their effective campaign is a bigger villain. crisis did not begin with the collapse of a probable, given that regulators posed 383 issues own accounts, and formerly high-flying proprie- In many cases, candidates put their lives on hold commercial bank but with the downfall of Leh- for public comment by Jan. 13. tary trading desks may migrate abroad. and sacrifice their privacy to put together a cam- man Brothers, an investment bank. Sometimes No wonder banks and financial-reform activists Let them migrate. Of course, banks will pass the paign that has essentially no chance of winning the commercial banks’ trading is best described as are unhappy: The former decry the proposed costs of the Volcker Rule on to their customers — unless they can also raise the many thousands of necessary risk-mitigation or client service, rather regulation’s costs, and the latter claim banks in higher fees or reduced services, or both. But dollars needed to run an effective campaign. For than mere profit-maximization. lobbied the Volcker Rule to death. Both have a financial stability is a public good, not a free lunch. incumbents, it is easier. Their lives already revolve Dodd-Frank itself took account of these nuanc- point: The proposal’s complexity is inherent in the A well-designed Volcker Rule could help prevent around their office, they have already sacrificed es by allowing exceptions to the Volcker Rule. The rule-making process and a result of the many or mitigate crises like the one the world lived their privacy and they already have a list of contribu- federal banking agencies recently published a compromises regulators struck to appease banks through in 2008 — and from which it has not fully tors. proposed implementing rule — all 298 pages of it and other constituencies. recovered. That’s why running against an incumbent is such an uphill battle. Few people are willing to take the chance with the odds so badly stacked against them. Take money out of the equation, and it will be a different game. Get Maryland moving Joseph Maio, Round Hill l At last, a blueprint for the state’s badly underfunded transportation network I agree with the editorial on Virginia redistricting, but the problem runs deeper than noted. Our OT LONG AGO, Maryland transportation spected Montgomery County land-use lawyer, is rec- same amount of revenue it did after it was raised in elected officials take their partisan cues from the officialstriedtoestimatethecostoffulfilling ommending increases in taxes, fees and fares that 1992. And this time, the commission recommended, general public. Why? We the voters act like mindless the wish list of transportation projects sub- would yield an additional $870 million in annual thestateshouldindexthetaxtoinflation—asitfailed drones when it comes to elections. We do not bother mittedbythestate’s23countiesandtheCity transportation revenue, about 50 percent more than todo20yearsago. to learn anything about the candidates for office; we Nof Baltimore. They stopped counting at around $65 is currently available — and still not enough to meet The plan is politically risky, particularly for Gov. just assume, depending on our allegiance, that billion—afigureroughlyequaltotwoyears’worthof all the needs and wants across the state over the next Martin O’Malley (D), a term-limited executive with whoever has the R or the D next to his or her name is total state spending for all purposes: schools, univer- 20years. national political ambitions who raised taxes, signifi- the best candidate for the job. Then, after elections, sities, health care, public safety, the Chesapeake Bay, Morethanhalfthenewmoney,nearly$500million cantly,lessthanfouryearsago. we complain that nothing ever gets done. younameit. a year, would come from an increase in Maryland’s It’s also not perfect. It does not address the issue of Why even have elections? Let’s just check the The amount was preposterous and wildly beyond motorfueltax(meaninggasolineaswellasdiesel),the increasing fuel efficiency in vehicles, which will whit- voter rolls, and whichever party has more people the state’s means. It was also instructive, for it under- principal source of state transportation funding, tleawayatgasolineuseandgastaxrevenueovertime. will be installed in office. lined what has been clear in Maryland for years: The which was last raised in 1992. Phased in over three And it leaves unanswered the question of how Mary- We whine and moan and complain about our state has fallen into a deep pit when it comes to years,thelevywouldriseto38.5centspergallonfrom land would pay its share of the cost of its two highest- representatives, but when it comes time to do buildingcriticalinfrastructure. 23.5 cents, making it almost double Virginia’stax and priority transit proposals: the Purple Line light-rail something about it, we blindly reelect the status quo. Itwon’tbeeasytoclimbout,butablue-ribbonstate 60 percent higher than the District’s. No doubt, some project connecting Montgomery and Prince George’s This is why I am an independent. Anyone who wants commission has provided a proposal for lawmakers Marylanderswillcrossstatelinestofillup. counties, and the Red Line, an expansion of Balti- real change in the political process should be an thatatleastputsthequestionoftransportationfund- Still, there is logic in the proposal. It puts the more’stransitsystem. independent also. ing front and center on the legislative agenda in burdenwhereitbelongs—ondriversandcommuters Still, the commission has given lawmakers in An- Jonathan Pick, Woodbridge Annapolis. who use the roads, rails and bridges. Even with the napolis a road map and a starting point. It’s up to l The commission, chaired by Gus Bauman, a re- 15-cent increase, the fuel tax would yield merely the them,andtoMr.O’Malley,toact. Computer-assisted gerrymandering is only a minor cause of uncompetitive legislative races in Virginia. The bigger culprit is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which effectively immunizes African TAKINGEXCEPTION American voters from electoral competition. In ABCDE Virginia and the other eight states covered by this The Dodd-Frank law: Better dismantled than defended provision, redistricting begins and ends with this EUGENE MEYER, 1875-1959 • PHILIP L. GRAHAM, 1915-1963 singular goal. Lending remains frozen, the housing mar- solidifies the very “too big to fail” system it KATHARINE GRAHAM, 1917-2001 Once minority voting districts are drawn to ket has slumped to Depression-era lows and sought to eliminate. By designating a handful ensure the election of minority legislators who, BOISFEUILLET JONES JR., Chairman unemployment has been stuck above 9 percent of large banks and institutions “systemically KATHARINE WEYMOUTH, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer nearly always, are Democrats, it’s logistically diffi- for 29 straight months, but former Democratic important,” the federal government implicitly News pages: Editorial and opinion pages: cult to draw a competitive statewide plan. senator Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) still de- acknowledges that these banks are eligible for MARCUS W. BRAUCHLI FRED HIATT Edward Blum, Washington Executive Editor Editorial Page Editor fends his signature anti-growth law [“Five more bailouts. This creates two classes of RAJU NARISETTI, Managing Editor JACKSON DIEHL The writer is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise myths about Dodd-Frank,” Outlook, Oct. 23]. banks: big banks that have a federal guarantee ELIZABETH SPAYD, Managing Editor Deputy Editorial Page Editor Institute. SHIRLEY CARSWELL , Deputy Managing Editor l Mr. Dodd claimed that Dodd-Frank cannot and the resources to comply with the maze of Business and advertising: be deepening the economic slowdown because new regulations, and smaller banks that have STEPHEN P. HILLS, President and General Manager An appropriate objective for the Occupy Wall KENNETH R. BABBY, Chief Revenue Officer/GM, Digital only 10 percent of its provisions have been neither. Vice Presidents Street movement would be to work for nonpartisan implemented. In fact, it is this sheer ambiguity Mr. Dodd finally threatened that repealing BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE...... At Large congressional redistricting in all 50 states. Many of USHA CHAUDHARY ...... Finance & Admin/CFO and arbitrariness of the law that hurts busi- Dodd-Frank would “invite disaster.” The disas- JAMES W. COLEY JR...... Production the protesters’ complaints can be summarized as nesses most. Dodd-Frank charges unelected terisalreadyhere,andwehavenochoicebutto L. WAYNE CONNELL ...... Human Resources “government is more attuned to special interests LEONARD DOWNIE JR...... At Large federal regulators with drafting about 400 dismantle the law completely. Marginal re- LAURA EVANS ...... Research / Chief Experience Officer than the needs of the people.” rules — most of which have yet to be written — forms will not erase the bill’s fundamental WENDY EVANS ...... Advertising Nonresponsive government is caused by two GREGG J. FERNANDES ...... Circulation and the resulting uncertainty makes it nearly philosophy: Economic decision-making is best JOHN B. KENNEDY ...... Labor primary factors: gerrymandered noncompetitive impossible for job-creators to plan, take risks, left to bureaucratic regulators in Washington. ERIC N. LIEBERMAN...... Counsel voting districts and the influence of money on CHRISTOPHER MA...... Development invest and hire more Americans. Newt Gingrich, McLean SHAILESH PRAKASH...... Technology legislators. Given the Supreme Court’s rulings on Mr. Dodd went on to rebut the charges that The writer, a former speaker of the House of Rep- STEVE STUP...... Digital Advertising campaign finance, changing the way districts are The Washington Post Company: his bill is bad for small banks and that it failed resentatives, is a Republican candidate for presi- DONALD E. GRAHAM, Chairman of the Board drawn might be a more attainable goal. to reform Wall Street. In fact, Dodd-Frank dent. 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-6000 Rob Rudick, Takoma Park