Good Morning? It's ALL "Relative"...
Anyone familiar with M.C. Escher's work will no doubt recognize this LEGO version of his work "Relativity". and that is the basis for this post.

((Caution: Educational Alert! - You MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING yet again here))

It's morning...you HAVE to get up and get on with the day's vicissitudes. There's just NO getting around it. So after punching out the alarm clock for disturbing you from your reverie, and stumbling downstairs, where you proceed to put the coffee on, get the paper to find out how extremely F$CKED UP the REST of the world has become overnight, you notice something ODD out front of the house.

((warning: this only happens in "blighted" areas of any major city))

There is some strange car you've never seen before...sitting there, engine running, like he's waiting for something or someone. So you do what ANY responsible citizen would do...you get the description and tag number, because for all YOU know, this could be a child predator (and it IS nearly time for the kids to head to the bus stop).

The car doesn't have any kids inside of it...just the driver. Then it dawns on you as to what this could be. Sure enough, another vehicle (again a stranger to the area) pulls up BEHIND the first car, and waits while the first driver gets out and walks lazily back to the second vehicle.
It's a DRUG DEAL...before SEVEN- f$cking AM...on YOUR street...with kids going to school.
(Wonder where the police are anyway? Shift change perhaps?)
So you grab your trusty one-million candlepower spotlight and "go Hollywood" on them, turning night into day at the blink of an eye.
And what do these morons do?
The first driver merely walks lazily BACK to HIS car, and they both drive DOWN the block to where they "think" you can no longer "beam" them effectively. And after the obligatory "transaction", lasting all of a minute or two, they both drive merrily off...until the next time.
The End.

Now I said all that to say this:
These types of scenarios occur with alarming frequency, especially at THIS time of month (de welfare checks is here, bitch), and sadly occur with relative regularity. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what is going on after you've seen it a few times. These people aren't swapping recipes, looking up old friends, nor returning hymnals to church members.
No way.
Not at these hours, and certainly not in such a clandestine manner.

Now I would like to "think" that our Vice & Narcotics team is all over this like white on rice, but to honest, I'm just not seeing it. When I can produce evidence of TWO deals a month JUST on MY block on a regular basis, something is wrong with some of the methodology being employed by the local police. Maybe some parts of this city ARE too bad to "bother" with. I know back in Philly, there ARE places where police response is slower than molasses in January, as the officers don't want to go into the "Badlands". They'd much rather have the perps kill each other off.
And to a degree, that's not all that bad an idea.
Fewer druggies=fewer crimes, I suppose.

Still, when this type of activity goes down near YOU, would you not be concerned about YOUR kids? These people are so brazen that nothing short of putting "one over their heads" would even begin to deter them. Personally, I would just drop them where they stand and let the pieces fall where they may, calling it MY version of "Urban Renewal" in the process.

I feel it's time that the city police turned up the heat a notch or two, and get a LOT tougher with these "drive-up" dealers. This ain't Mickey D's, people...we're talking about a situation where innocents can be at risk because of a "bad deal" that goes down at the drop of a hat. And we surely don't need schoolkids caught in ANY type of crossfire between druggies and their "turf wars".

We KNOW where the drug HOUSES are...that's the EASY part. The HARD part is being able to track and nail all these MOBILE druggies (and their dealers)...and do it with the same intensity as you use when closing the houses down. It can be done...the question is will it? And if it IS being done, WHY are we STILL seeing deals on the block year after year with no cessation in activity?

These are questions that everyone needs to concern themselves with. It can come to YOUR neighborhood as surely as it has been entrenched in mine, and it's time the city DID something about it.

Time will tell if the city cares enough about ALL of it's populace, no matter what section of town they happen to dwell.