FPD vs. 'Racket-eers'

Bravo to the city for cracking down on those who fill the public square with ugly noise.

Date published: 10/23/2004

$84: The tuition for a lesson in respect

COUNT AMONG CIVILIZATION'S friends the Fredericksburg police officer who last weekend wrote four tickets to alleged violators of the city's noise ordinance--one bar owner and three drivers whose sound systems produce serial sonic booms. Like 17 other accused "racket-eers" convicted earlier under the 2003 law, each faces $84 in penalties. Each also is a potential herald of the message that in town limits, loudliness is next to fineliness.

That is as it should be, because excessive noise is bad for a community in many ways. Les Bromberg of the Vermont-based Noise Pollution Clearinghouse notes that homes located near airports lose up to 4 percent of their market value with each one-decibel increase in jet noise above 55 decibels. Similarly, in Fredericksburg, which is spending millions to create an attractive ambience for visitors, bass-blasting louts and loutettes carpet-bomb the tableau of tranquillity that makes tourists want to come, stay, savor, recommend, and return.

Also, punishing "small" crimes can cause reverse ripple effects that exponentially enhance a city's livability. When New York City police under Mayor Rudy Giuliani began running in subway turnstile jumpers, alleyway urinators, graffiti artists, and other low-grade miscreants, the city saw its major-crime rate drop 15 percent in a year, or 71/2 times the national average. "Enforcement brings compliance," says Fredericksburg police spokesman Jim Shelhorse. Conversely, when the inconsiderate observe that authorities are indifferent to petty misdeeds, they are apt to engage in them--and perhaps commit graver infractions--all the more.

Garbage trucks that bang around dumpsters in the pre-dawn. Fleets of cyclists who gun their engines to spook the squares. Restaurant musicians who raise the roof without regard for nearby neighborhoods. All of these subtract rights from the rest of us--to read, listen to music, sleep; to enjoy a peaceful lunch at a sidewalk cafe or a mellow stroll along Caroline or William Street. City Council and city police deserve the public's gratitude for their renewed commitment to busting these aural muggers.

Indeed, Fredericksburg's anti-noise campaign makes us want to stand up and holler--softly, of course.

Police of course must enforce noise ordinances neutrally: Mister Softee's merry tune and the backup siren on the garbage truck are equally bound by the law. But there will be certain disproportionalities in ticketing and conviction.

Rap is to music what the mullet is to hairstyles. Heavy metal is a genre favored by the light mental. Both feature bass audios that could move the stylus on an earthquake-recording machine. It is not racism or ageism, but the varying natures of musical forms, that explains why the cops stop few drivers for playing the Brandenburg Concertos.

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Date published: 10/23/2004