HUDseen: Got Any Theories Of Your Own?

Last week, an acquaintance of mine who, to my surprise, was well aware of the situation in the 7th Street Park with the likes of Michael Madison, Michelle Moskaluk, and their drinking pals, offered me a theory as to why the nonsense never ends with these people and the trouble they cause in the park. The theory goes something like this:

Hudson cops don't live in Hudson, they can't afford to live here, and they don't even really like Hudson, the people who live here, or the wealthy visitors jamming our city on the weekends. Their resentment is taken out in gladly letting Michael Madison and others do, essentially, whatever they please in the park and on our sidewalks. The indifference to the problem - and the effects that residents have to live with - is like giving the middle finger to the city: Here, this mess is for you. We don't care what you think. We hope it bothers the hell out of you. We are not going to make a single attempt to fix the problem. In fact, we don't see it as a problem. Nope, not for us at HPD.

I've been struggling for a few years to figure out why the situation in the 7th Street Park never improves and only seems to be worsening lately. Honestly, I find my acquaintance's theory plausible, at least partially. (It isn't true that no Hudson cops live in Hudson, though. Of the 20-plus employees at HPD, I'm pretty sure that 1 or 2 cops do live here, but certainly a large majority do not. This is an issue all over America, certainly not just here in Hudson.) Anyway, I can't come up with a more convincing theory about the situation at the park than what was offered to me.

Two weeks ago, I asked our new Police Chief on the phone if she felt that twice daily foot patrols by HPD officers through the 7th Street Park was a possibility. 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes in the afternoon, I suggested. Mishanda basically told me that it was not possible to schedule something like that. The answer was a firm NO, we're too busy. Hmmm... I just can't wrap my head around that answer, honestly. It only leads to suspicions that HPD is not at all interested in curtailing or even controlling the issues so rampant in the park. Plus, getting officers out of their vehicles and on their feet is nearly impossible.

A few days after that fruitless conversation, a friend of mine told me that he was sitting on a bench in the 7th Street Park earlier in the day when a HPD officer bicycled past the park. With Michael Madison clearly passed out on a nearby bench, the cop just pedaled by, later stopping to text something on his phone and then moving on. My friend told me, "There was no way that cop did not notice Madison passed out on the bench."

This past Friday afternoon at 1:00, I came across Michael Madison's preferred bottle of cheap Vodka, inside a paper bag on the ground in front of an empty bench that he frequents. The bottle was more than half full. Unsurprisingly, Madison was nearby, passed out on his other favorite bench, adjacent to the sidewalk and across from the Citgo station. There was a mess surrounding him and the bench. I called HPD right away. When the police officer woke Madison from his slumber, the first thing she said to him was this: "Hey, Michael. Are you okay? You've got noodles all over you." I showed the officer the bottle of vodka, and Madison told her that I was stealing his property. I didn't stick around.

On Monday at 9:00 in the morning, I came across yet another lovely scene in the park, most of it in the same area that Madison frequents. His bench was once again surrounded by a mess, much of it being food from the free fridge down the street. Then, 3 hours later and with the bench mostly cleaned up, I counted 6 glass beer bottles scattered around, one of them smashed in half with clear glass on the trail and in the grass, one large empty beer can, as well as a large empty plastic bottle of the much sought after Philadelphia Whiskey. That couldn't have been all Michael Madison's doing.