0 Pooches: On Off-Leash Dogs and Speaking Up

Since adopting our pups, we've realized there are all kinds of challenges and considerations when owning dogs in the city, and the other week we wrote about the 'unspoken rules for dog owners' to be  considerate of others in our community.
After that post, we received an interesting question from a reader:
"How do you guys deal with other dog owners that don't respect the actual (leash) law, let alone the "unwritten rules" like you wrote about for today's post?  
At some point, you have to walk away, but how can we all as a community keep each other and our four (or three) legged friends safe?"

The reader then went on to detail a horrific interaction she had with a woman busy on a cell phone with 2 unleashed dogs.
This is one of the most frustrating things for us because when people disobey the leash laws and give themselves extra rights, they are actually taking rights away from other people.
They are taking away the rights of people who are afraid of dogs to feel safe in their own community.
They are taking away the rights of small children, older people, people with disabilities or unsure footing to do something as basic as securely walk down a sidewalk.
They are taking away the rights of fellow dog owners who for several reasons--working on training, needing space, needing to get to work, having an older dog or a dog with an injury, not wanting to get tangled in their dogs leash. etc--just don't want to interact with uncontrolled dogs on their walks.

Just like the reader who wrote to us does, we always try to make a point to speak up and represent those who can't speak for themselves. Maybe it's because of language issues, cultural fears, or just not knowing what to say.
Though at the same time, speaking up can make people defensive and hostile. We have an on-going issue with some neighbors, who despite our explanations, continue to allow their dogs to barrel down the sidewalk in front of them. It has gotten to the point where the guy even yelled at me for 20 minutes, as I stood in the street with our foster dog to avoid them, telling me things like nobody likes me, nobody likes my dogs, his dog is more popular than our dog, and the only reason we had the foster dog was because something was wrong with it and nobody wanted him (seriously...who makes fun of homeless dogs???). Despite having many other neighbors approach us with these same frustrations, they have never said anything to the off-leash people, so the off-leash people seem to think we are the only ones with an issue. We understand it can be difficult to speak up, especially when it can become a hostile situation, though DINOS wrote this really good article about standing up for your dog.

So what does everyone else think:
"How do you guys deal with other dog owners that don't respect the actual (leash) law, let alone the "unwritten rules" like you wrote about for today's post?  
At some point, you have to walk away, but how can we all as a community keep each other and our four (or three) legged friends safe?"

Also:
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Comfortably introducing dogs