Should the "no swim" red flag be enforced?

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - Could a "no swim" enforcement have saved lives on Lake Michigan this summer?

It"s a question one Spring Lake woman brought up, after two people drowned in a matter of hours in Grand Haven at the beginning of June. Red flags were up at the Grand Haven State Park beach, but hundreds of people still went into the water. This is something that frustrates Carol Dykhouse because with it comes no action.

"It can still be a great day without risking your life," she told 13 ON YOUR SIDE.

Which is why she took to social media to pose the question: Would you support rules that if the red flag is out should there be no swimming or jumping off the pier? It was a question that sparked more than 100 comments.

The consensus?

"It was about half and half," Dykhouse said.

"A lot of people said you can"t fix stupid people. A lot of people just don"t want more rules and regulations. But I think there was enough—50 percent at least—said they would welcome a change."

"I wouldn"t like having police officers or something like that," Laura Patterson, a Friday beachgoer, said. "I would be willing to pay a little extra money to come into the park if you had lifeguards."

DNR officials told 13 ON YOUR SIDE earlier this month, as much as they"d like to enforce the red flag, they don"t have a law to stand on.

"We don"t have a hard and fast rule that says you cannot go in here or you"re subject to arrest or tickets or something like that," said Ron Olson, DNR Chief of Parks and Recreation.

"Unless there is a declared emergency by law enforcement when occurs very seldom."

►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.

Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.

© 2018 WZZM

Source: https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/lakeshore/should-the-no-swim-red-flag-be-enforced/69-585237323

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Johnny English Strikes Again" for more family-friendly fun

Image
When spy movies were a big thing back in the 1960s, occasionally someone would try to spoof the genre. This almost never worked, except for the TV series “Get Smart,” which had Mel Brooks as its guiding force. Maybe the spy satire needs time, because it wasn’t until the “Austin Powers” series, and two “OSS 117” films (starring “The Artist” Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin), that the 1960s spy movie got its proper send-up. Right in the midst of all that was Johnny English, the British secret agent played by Rowan Atkinson. In “Johnny English” (2003) and “Johnny English Reborn” (2011), Atkinson played a hapless Bond-wannabe who tried to stay relevant during the British Empire’s decline, but could barely stay out of his own way. Those movies were built around Atkinson (still best known as the accident-prone Mr. Bean), whose willingness to fall out of windows and slide down staircases while clad in a suit of armor remains undiminished in “Johnny English Strikes Again.” As this sequel begins, Jo
Read more

What can we learn from the people Trump has pardoned so far?

Image
T he presidential pardon has never been a particularly fair or impartial instrument of government – it’s effectively circumventing the judicial system at the whim of whoever is in office. Democratic and Republican presidents have offered pardons to those on their side of key issues, and in some cases (Bill Clinton’s pardon of former Democratic congressman Mel Reynolds on federal fraud charges, for example) pardons have been given to political allies with little wider moral justification. Some presidents, including George W Bush and Barack Obama, have relied more on the pardon attorney’s office to recommend who to grant clemency to and have been less personally involved, although the pardons given still tend to reflect the sitting president’s wider politics. On Wednesday, Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother who has spent over 20 years in prison for non-violent drug crimes. It’s the sort of pardon decision previous presidents might well have mad
Read more

Woman sheds fat and gets ripped in 5 months WITHOUT diets: "They"re stupid"

Image
@LARXSA / INSTAGRAM WEIGHT LOSS: Larisa Gharakhanian burnt the fat and got ripped in five months without any diets Since January 2017, Larisa Gharakhanian , from London, has been a member of her local gym.  The 22-year-old has always considered fitness as part of her daily routine, but has never taken nutrition into consideration.  As most people nowadays use weight loss plans as a guidance to shed pounds, Larisa most certainly doesn’t.  In an exclusive interview with Daily Star Online, the supplement shop assistant has revealed how she got ripped in five months. @LARXSA / INSTAGRAM DEFINED: The 22-year-old started her ab transformation in April Related Articles “I love carbs too much” Larisa Gharakhanian She said: “I personally think in order for anyone to lose weight, they should find a way that is sustainable and that can be part of an everyday lifestyle. “There are lots of different and crazy diets out there and supplements that ‘promise’ a smaller waist
Read more