Go, Speed Racer...
Well, since the live-action movie isn't out yet, I can't really do a critique of it, nor will I attempt to review the old animated series from Japan.
What I will do is spend a few minutes of everyone's time pondering the latest "crackdown" of speeders in the city of Fort Wayne.
Let me preface this by saying that SPEED KILLS...doesn't get any simpler than that. The ONLY places speed will have any relevance is when you're racing other drivers for that checkered flag, vying for a timed win, trying to make a Guinness Book record, launching an attack against a foe (and that includes getting rid of hand grenades after pulling the pin), or trying to escape the earth's atmosphere and achieve orbit.
Anything else is relatively pointless.
That's why this week, we have police officers monitoring our highways and roads looking for people who feel that "need for speed".
I guess the seatbelt gig was waining.
I think in that regard, I am the best judge as to whether or not I choose to WEAR a seatbelt. It's MY car, MY life, and MY choice, but others have seen fit to decide FOR me.
Thank you ever so much for all the "caring" you've shown for my existence.
But we just can't stop there...oh, no. Now we're looking for SPEEDERS.
Well, OK then. That's not intrusive (as the seatbelt thing is). And it DOES promote safer driving. Hey, but didn't the sobriety checkpoints do the SAME thing (and were also called unconstitutional as a result?) and are no longer in place during "peak" holiday times.
But I digress...
So we're looking for people SPEEDING...sounds like a plan. Where EXACTLY will the police be targeting? Well, I can tell you with certainty where they will NOT be targeting. That would be MY neighborhood. And every day, I can see SO many people driving (more like flying low on two OR four wheels) up and down the streets in OUR area at what anyone would consider an excessive speed (it's a helluva lot faster than 25 MPH, I can assure you). This occurs day OR night, every day of the week, and even when children are present.
Now since this area is ALREADY a problem as far as dubious people and behavior, rentals, drugs, guns, gangs, and improperly illuminated vehicles go, it would "make sense" that THIS area would be a focus for speeders, as we seem to have SO damn many. That's what one would THINK, anyway.
Sorry, Charlie....no can do.
Haven't seen ANY 30T/S (police code for traffic stops) in the area when speeding is most prevalent (which is almost any time of day or night). If there ARE any traffic stops initiated, it's because of a suspect vehicle (erratic driving, failure to stop, maybe a noise violation), and nothing else.
Again, we see much of the SOUTH side being ignored. Sure the police might be looking for speeders along Coliseum, or Lafayette, or Clinton, but what about ALL the side streets, where, thanks to the pattern of STOP and YIELD signs, the city has created what amounts to "dragstrips" for several blocks?
I have never seen any SPEEDTRAPS along our streets in ten years. Never once have I seen one officer with a radar gun sitting in some alley or driveway, tagging speeders, while another officer waits a block away to pull him over (the method often employed in Philly). Wonder why that is?
What I DO know is that if a car that even LOOKS like a police car is sitting at some busy intersection, the majority of people WILL SLOW DOWN. One creative agency even had a dummy sitting behind the wheel of an older "unmarked car" (ex-police car). I want to say it was somewhere up north by the zoo, and for a while, everyone was passing the area doing the limit (or less), and NOT speeding. One intersection around here had a white 4 door 1989 Chevy Caprice Classic sitting on a corner lot, and not only did the number of speeders go DOWN, but loud music shut off before the corner was reached, and overall annoying behavior actually abated for a time (until the locals caught on). So ploys such as these DO work.
Yet for all the "hype" connected with trying to catch speeders, nothing (once again) is being done to take these freaks from the areas that can cause the most harm to the greatest number of pedestrians.
You want crime to go DOWN on the south side? I've said this too many times...you have GOT TO START going after the small $hit. Make it costly to behave in such a bad manner. You don't necessarily need jail time, but hit the morons where it REALLY hurts...namely in the HIP-NATIONAL BANK! DO that, revoke some licenses in the process, and do it often enough that such behavior becomes the thing NOT to do on the streets. When you target seemingly innocuous things like speeding and make the price steep enough to deter people from doing it...it will not happen. Sure, the EASY way to do this is wait at major intersections or long stretches of road away from the inner city. Sgt. Bonar LOVES the area of Lima/Coliseum/Coldwater. He KNOWS there is money to be made for traffic stops THERE.
Well...DUH!
If you get over 50,000+ vehicles passing there during any day, you're BOUND to get quite a few dumbasses doing something they're not supposed to do. The hard thing to do is to go onto the REAL streets and get all THOSE people that get a "free ride" from traffic stops daily, for so many reasons.
In Decatur, if you play your car stereo loudly, you WILL get pulled over, and these cops seem to come out of the woodwork. You never see it until they've got you in the "spotlight". People have conveyed this much to me over the years, so they don't bother with loud stereos there. Easy, huh?
Don't get me wrong...the FWPD does a commendable job with the boots they have on the ground, but even THEY don't know it all...and never will. That's where people like "US" come into play. We can see things from a perspective many officers and commanders simply cannot, for no other reason than the fact that most all the officers DO NOT LIVE DOWN HERE.
We LIVE here 24/7/365. We SEE what happens. We HEAR what happens. We KNOW what happens. And WE can provide the (needed) input for the department to act upon. All the department has to do is listen, and then we can ALL learn a bit more than we thought we knew yesterday.
Not much to ask...is it?