Wouldn't You Just Know It...
Now who would have thought that a day of REMEMBRANCE would be considered a day to set off FIREWORKS? Well, that's the dustoff I got from the FWPD dispatch when I attempted to call in some a**hole who was setting off some "blockbusters" yesterday afternoon and well into the evening.
Sorry, if I'm a bit "dense" here, but doesn't the SOLEMNITY of Memorial Day trump being a dumb ass?
In THIS city (Fort Wayne)...apparently not.
Now I can see the "need" to set off fireworks on say Flag Day, Independence Day, and even new Year's Eve, but yesterday? I don't think so.
To me, it's akin to someone at a funeral being a drunken SOB...you just don't ALLOW that. Show some DIGNITY for the fallen. I guess that's asking WAY too much of those in this part of town, though.
When I called dispatch, I notified them that wanted to report LOUD fireworks (think somewhere in the decibel range of 40-60 mm rounds), to which the response was a rather icy: "SIR, WE ALLOW THEM TODAY".
Well, I was amazed. I said to the dispatch girl (named LYNN...and your name will figure prominently in my email to the quadrant captain, sister): "I suppose *if* I called this in as a SHOTS FIRED call, I could have some boots on the ground here?" She replied : "Yes, but you sound like it's more fireworks than gunshots". I then said to her: "How long is this permitted?" She said: "Until midnight".
I said "Fine, I'll call back one minute AFTER". And hung up.
Suffice it to say, within FIVE minutes, I saw TWO FWPD cars cruise the area. And I'd wager that someone ELSE called the fireworks in as a code *113* "SHOTS FIRED". I hope that dispatch girl likes having egg on her face.
But that's just (as I like to say) "All part of the show" down here.
I'm not dissing fireworks. They have their place in celebratory venues, but not this house-shaking, nerve-jarring ordnance meant to wake the dead we're trying to remember with honor.
C'mon people...wise the f$ck up!
It's no surprise when people like Phil Marx and I are summarily "dismissed" (all too often) whenever "we" attempt to right some wrong, or try to keep our respective areas from otherwise falling farther into the "abyss of apathy" that is most prevalent in our part of Fort Wayne.
And it's not that we're trying to "inflict" OUR brand of justice (it's the justice laid down by the laws already on the books...no more, no less)...we'd just like to see (once in a damn while) the LAWS that have been written to protect ALL citizens enforced to SOME degree.
We could give a rat's backside as to how many "seat belt" violations they ticketed this weekend.
That's inconsequential when balanced against active drug dealing, pyrotechnic mismanagement, and sundry other violations we are exposed to daily on our streets.
Cripes, this department can't even get a handle on the boomcar "Donks" (more about them tomorrow) we have running the area every damn day, nor the speeders on cafe bikes, who make something as harmless as getting one's mail an exercise in "timing", not to mention the hazard to kids and pedestrians (who frequent the middle of the street instead of the sidewalks).
It amazes me that in an area where NO police have a home or apartment (read VESTED INTEREST), people like Phil and I are THE first best defense to hold this crap at bay (and we're the minority of the minority in that respect). I'd bet that in those neighborhoods where the police DO live, there's a LOT more PROACTIVE policing than REACTIVE policing.
Wonder why?
Hell, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist too damn long to figure that one out, eh?
The SE quadrant has the most public safety resources dumped into it...and what's the NET result? We STILL have shootings. We STILL have rapes. We STILL have arson. We STILL have burglaries, robberies and the usual array of criminal activity, with little if any abatement (not to be confused with the abatements given to businesses that WE pay for anyway).
Now I'm not ragging on the rank and file of the force. They just do what the hell they're TOLD to do. The problem lies farther up the totem pole with whoever's collecting the admission fees for this freak show.
It's small wonder that our local HOUSING AUTHORITY is being audited. Look at the monster "they" collectively created (and are allowing to grow).
This part of town has been all but "written off", by much of the city officials. Trouble is, they keep telling us the exact opposite. Well, we who are trying to survive down here STILL have EYES...and EARS...and MOUTHS. We KNOW what we SEE. We KNOW what we HEAR, and we're not going to "go gently into that good night" like they would have us do.
WE WILL speak up...and often about things and people operating in some realm devoid of the laws that are binding the rest of us.
And please don't tell us what you're TRYING to do.
We've heard that song before, and it's STILL being sung off-key.
Watch The Empire Strikes Back, and take a cue from YODA: "No...try not. Do...or do not. There is no try".
Seems the city could use a NETFLIX account in that regard.
Memorial Day is about REMEMBERING. And I can think of NO BETTER way to carry on that aspect than to REMEMBER all the city is (not) doing to ensure the safety and quality of life for ALL. NO matter what happens, we WILL remember. Doesn't matter if it's a snippy dispatcher, or the lack of police presence, or ignorance on behalf of the representative city councilmen.
If all this sounds ominous...so be it.
I like ominous.
My Dad had a great saying:
"When you toss a rock into a pack of wild dogs...the one that YELPS is the one that GOT HIT".
I'm going to be listening VERY carefully for that yelp.