That could be the new "catchsong" for the Metro Squad as last night representatives of the neighborhood associations met with local law enforcement representatives to hear about how reactivating the Metro Squad is a GOOD thing for everyone in their communities. Last night the topic was...what else? Crime.
And of course, most of the controversy surrounding reactivating "Metro" is this misconception of what the squad would entail. The Squad is targeting illegal guns and wants to get them OFF the streets...and rightly so. We're seeing TOO many crimes committed with guns. This is not to say that stricter gun laws are needed...that won't help worth a damn. What WILL help is getting illegal guns out of the WRONG hands, period. Retired ACPD officer Albert Reese stated that: "It's good for the community. It's going to help the community. Give Sheriff Fries the chance to prove himself".
It's like I say...'ya never know if 'ya never try.
This whole "Community-Oriented Policing" is a relatively new thing to me, as Philly never had anything like this, probably because people were already working with the PD there to keep crime at bay. But this methodology is not without it's own problem; It's dependant upon the COMMUNITY interacting WITH the law enforcement agencies to keep the areas safe. And let's face it, when people stop giving a damn, where is the "community" in that community-oriented policing? It becomes more like "Problem-Oriented Policing", which is an entirely different animal. I feel the police here have done an exemplary job in doing all in their power to get the community to work WITH them...it's the community that (in many cases) failed to carry the ball and run with it. In fact, in some areas, the community has either dropped the ball or handed it over to the opposition without so much as a whimper.
FWPD PIO Mike Joyner was also in attendance, speaking about how the citizens can help prevent crime. "The police department is only ONE piece of the puzzle", he said. And one way the community make a difference is to work WITH the police to prevent crime. We call that picking up the damn phone and reporting suspicious activity when it occurs.
Now I'm so much a staunch advocate of those words, it's not even funny. I take down information regarding activities that are the least bit "hinky", and have NO problem with passing it along to the FWPD or the ACSD. I can show you gigabytes of pictures regarding drug deals, speeders, boomcars, and so on. And I can show you lists of vehicle descriptions complete with tag numbers for people of "dubious" persuasion. And the police receive these on a monthly basis from me....this lone wolf, operating without the help from my neighborhood association (Pettit-Rudisill), as they don't seem to want to aid in any venture of this nature. In fact, when I contacted them years ago, their response was an off-handed: "What would you like us to do"? And after my disbelief in that statement ebbed, I thought "I just told you what the problems were (in detail), and YOU can't seem to advise me on how to proceed, set up a meet with law enforcement, or even give me a phone number to call"? OK...I know where YOU stand. To this day, I have never been contacted by anyone from the N.A., and that's fine by me. I'm not doing too bad for ONE person (which is about equal to one TENTH of the attendees at one of their meetings) in a neigborhood of about several HUNDRED people.
There are some that think I should have created my OWN neighborhood association, but that just wouldn't fly. There are too FEW people around here anymore that give a damn to make it feasible, and too mant rentals with too many of the WRONG people (read trash) living in them. Then someone suggested I become a "block captain", and I turned that down, because I have a large enough "target" on MY back already.
Yeah, I've been threatened a few times (and laughed at them about it, which pisses them off even more). We've had a brick come through a window (by someone on a bicycle), had the house hit with paintballs, had a few garage windows pock-marked with BBs, but nothing (yet) that requires my "personal" style of urban intervention (I call it 12 gauge whoop-ass).
My take on this is that when you have an area that becomes lawless, you come down hard, fast, and continuously ON that area, sending a message to the criminal element. You do what it takes within the boundaries of the law to make it safer and more secure or everyone who IS lawful. THAT is how things get done. Having your head in the sand, doing nothing serves the wrong people. Any venture such as this that goes against the criminal status quo is not without risk. You can "cut and run" and move (like I've seen quite a few neighbors do), leaving others to try and fight the fight, or you can make your stand, work with law enforcement, and take back (or hold onto) what you busted your ass for, namely YOUR home, YOUR right to a quality of life, and YOUR neighborhood.
If people do nothing about crime here, and now, it will eventually wind up in other neighborhoods...that's just the nature of the beast.
And whether we cage the beast, or let it roam free is up to every one of us.
We choose whether Maxwell wields his "silver hammer"...or not.
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