Who Watches The Watchers????

One thing that becomes painfully evident (being a SOUTH side resident), is the fact that SO many eyes are always on YOU. You don't even have to look about...you can just "feel" them much like the mosquito that wants you to join him for lunch (and not in a GOOD way).

Now there ARE those that say "you're just paranoid", or "you're too sensitive", but I'll say THIS much...if you're NOT aware of your surroundings (and those within them), then you are just hanging a sign around your neck saying "Please rob me blind, burn down my house, and feel free to take any damn thing of MINE you want, because I embrace diversity and acknowledge YOUR right to be the asshole you are, excclusive of MY rights". Sound like something that SHOULD be said, but never IS? What I maintain is that when you have a person with no job to speak of (and "drug dealer" is NOT a job) with all damn day to wreak havoc upon those who are really supporting YOUR SORRY ASS anyway, thanks to all the gov't "give-aways" on their hands to cruise around and LOOK for someone to take advantage if...well, you will have these ctrimes of "opportunity". And sometimes the opportunity is forced into creation.

When you drive down ANY street on the SOUTH side of Fort Wayne, be expected to be stared, glared, and gawked at...by anyone AND everyone. And don't think they do NOT notice all they can about you. They might not read at a 6th grade level, but they WILL remember your car (and even what house it winds up parking at). They might be able to articualte a compound sentence, but they KNOW when you leave your house to go somewhere, and will be looking for a "routine" you might adhere to. They might not be able to speak in anything other than an ebonics-laden, monosyllabic slew of epithets, but they DO know what you look like, nd will remember if you call the police to he area for anything.

With that being said, it's no wonder that so many people have already left the area. I mean who wants to live under the pall of constant view by those whose only desire is to claim for themselves what is rightfully yours? Take the case of young gangs of boys stealing a bike from some other kid whose only crime was being in THEIR field of view. Or how abiout the senior citizen that is robbed of his/her SSN check because some perp KNEW what time of day on a given month they would be visiting the bank or ATM?

I am always impressing upon my wife (and friends) the fact that you should always be aware of your surroundings. never take anything for granted concerning these "people", because you are being watched...being scrutinized....evaluated for whatever "they" have in mind to satify their basal desires. These people who are watching you are rarely covert about it. And since there are SO many of them, the "network" they form works to their interests (in your possessions).

All this started with that "Broken Window Theory" we heard about all those years ago. If you park a nice car on some street with a broken window, it WILL become the victim of more crime, whether it's stripped, set ablaze, or even towed away to the local chop-shop. So it is around here. I've had things taken from my garage WHILE I WAS HOME....now tell me that nobody had been watching the house to NOTICE that, hmm? Somehow, someone KNEW when I was going to be IN the house, away from the garage (for a brief time), and thereby making it easy to "snatch and grab". Again...a crime of "opportunity", and someone knew when that opportunity would present itself. Watching them back serves little purpose, as the police will rarely act on anything you inform them of. And even if they DO act...it takes longer to make an arrest (unless the police catch the perp IN THE ACT), than it did to build the GREAT WALL OF CHINA (we can thank the ACLU a lot for that)!

The question then becomes: "Who DOES really watch these watchers"? If you're fortunate enough, the police just "might" watch them (especially if there's an election year available, or they have a QUOTA to meet). These perps will even watch each other, but that serves the average law-abiding citizen NO damn good at all. And most of us cannot effectively watch ALL of these "people" ALL of the time...(it's the whole life - job - family - sleep thing), so that won't be happening either. Basically, these perps will be left unfettered, because nothing has ever been put in place to change the BEHAVIOR that promotes what they do. As long as their sub-culture of crime is allowed to fester like an infected wound, we're all just going to have to watch EACH OTHER'S back, as well as not become creatures of "habit" vis-a-vis changing our routine to keep these "people" guessing. If THEY don't know what's going on...we've already made progress. It's when we make it easy for them that they WILL act on all that they view. Having enough people doing just that will work against crime...look at ANY nice upscale neighborhood. People CARE. People band TOGETHER. There is a REAL sense of COMMUNITY.

Sadly, there is nothing approximating that on the SOUTH side...only scattered individuals, like survivors of some holocaust, trying to be heard...trying to live.