Back In The Day...
I know there must be a great number of you that have used that phrase, probably within the past week, if not sooner. And in some respects, it IS becoming a hackneyed term. But perhaps there's a reason for that.
We like to draw comparisons to times that we feel were better, safer, more prosperous, less stressful, more fun, and even somewhat predictable.
We recall an era where we were not looking over our collective shoulders for some boogie man to frighten the bejeesus out of us (or worse).
We remember when we didn't think twice about going somewhere, for whatever reason. We recall with clarity thing we were told, people we've met, situations we excelled (or failed) at, and the lessons we learned from them. And we all felt a lot more protected, even during the heyday of the Cold War era, when nuclear annihilation loomed over our heads like an intercontinental ballistic Sword of Damocles.
Can we say the same today? I'd like to THINK we can, but in so many instances., that is NOT the case.
Recently in Fort Wayne, a man was shot from a car while sitting on his front step. Another man was shot in his car that was parked, Now without knowing these people and their backgrounds, I can't say with assurance that they might have deserved what was coming to them or not. What I can say is that this city is fast establishing a dangerous precedent.
Citizens are not enjoying a level of safety they once knew. And the generation now growing up is seeing that relying totally on any law-enforcement agency is not the standard enjoyed by their parents of grandparents.
And that brings me to this FWPD take home car policy.
I have stated here (as well as commented on other blogs) that this "free ride" for the officers is not the best way to go, and that the implementation of a graduated "payback" to the department for the use of a CITY vehicle needs to be enacted.
Looks like SOMEONE in the department is listening.
Chief York said that beginning in August, officers will have to pay for the privilege of having a take home police vehicle. He said (in this morning's paper) that the officer will pay a bi-monthly "fee" of $25 if they live WITHIN the city, and $30 if they live OUTSIDE the city. MY amounts were a bit more graduated, but the concept is similar.
OK, fine...I can work with that. I mean it does make up for buying those three-wheeled "Segue-Wannabes" at $7800 a pop INSTEAD of buying some police-outfitted MOUNTAIN BIKES for ONLY $1100 apiece, right?
Yet, Back in the day (sorry, had to use it), police officers typically LIVED in the area they patrolled. Worked out damn well, too. Also, many officers didn't have a car, and they TOOK THE BUS (imagine that).
I know if I were an officer, although it might be a financial stretch, I'd run with that. And if it were too much of a burden (there is a LOT of out-of-pocket expenditures for ANY officer, trust me), then I would simply fore go the take home car and just use my own.
No big deal.
I do have to take exception to ONE thing that was highlighted in the story shown on the TV news last evening, though. They showed a very nice neighborhood in some development (away from my area) where the people had TWO POLICE CARS within a stone's throw from one another. Now the people interviewed said how NICE it was to have them on their street, and that THEIR neighborhood was QUIET because of it.
Well, f$cking good for you, Ms Jane Upscale Taxpayer. I'm glad YOU have your wonderful whitebread neighborhood with 2 policemen on every street, ensuring that YOU can get your good night's sleep.
Now...what about MY damn neighborhood, hmm?
Back in the day (yeah...had to use it AGAIN) this USED to be a damn fine neighborhood. A former mayor from the post-war era even lived in a house one block over. Bet he'd be rolling in his grave if he knew what the house looks like today.
Now, I've only got TEN frigging houses on MY block, and it is noisier and more crime-ridden than a traditional Philly row home block with over FORTY families living on it. Oh, and I don't have ANY police officers living in MY area to dissuade the criminals from performing their daily "activities". Let's make note of that, shall we?
Truth be told, there is NO incentive to have the police live in areas such as mine...absolutely none whatsoever. And by the looks of things, that will be the status quo for quite some time. Actually, the way things are headed, I can see the area get much worse before it will get better, and by that I mean profitable enough for some developer to raze the whole area, and make it another "new neighborhood", when it fact it is an older neighborhood to begin with.
I said here often that in the past 10 years, I've seen the tide of crime and deviancy rising southward towards my area like the flood waters from a broken levee in New Orleans, and I have not been proved wrong thus far. Little if anything has been done to quash this, and if I were to point fingers, I'd start by pointing downtown.
And I've been known to give most all of them in the City-County building, on occasion, at least HALF of the "peace sign".
Now, when it comes to dealing with the problems down here, the first thing that has to be considered is the RACIAL makeup of the area, and by that I mean that the city has to use "kid gloves" to address issues that in other neighborhoods would not be dealt with in like manner (if they needed to be dealt with at all), unless the city wants to see lawsuits out the ass.
Also, I would go on record by saying that no matter HOW COMMENDABLE a job any officer would do down here regarding public safety in their eight-hour shift, it figures minimally into the grand scheme of things, because when that shift is OVER, the officer returns to his/her nice neighborhood to live their lives. I know when I was done work, I left the job as far from my house as possible.
I maintain that if officers lived down here instead, the "vested interest" aspect to their job would be greatly amplified, and crime WOULD in fact, go down. Such is not the case.
But with some REAL thought, many of these houses COULD be reclaimed, renovated, and sold at considerably LOWER prices than these $200,000 monstrosities in "Mayonnaise Meadows". It used to be called RE-GENTRIFICATION. And actually, that's what makes many neighborhood go downhill in the first place, thanks to "diversity". It's when cities decide to RE-re-gentrify, that they turn things back around.
If we had a lot more officers with take home cars on OUR streets instead of being parked side by side in upscale developments elsewhere about the city, the morons that meander through our streets and alleys would be tamed down a lot more than the current conditions reveal.
If there is ONE thing I have told our quadrant captain every month, it's that we need MORE PATROLS in the alleys and on the streets. But with staffing coming into question (yes, there are days when staffing is at a MINIMUM), and no officers living nearby, the perps know that they run the streets.
So you take that nice, expensive police cruiser home to that nice, quiet neighborhood, officer. And if I have a situation that requires my immediate attention, well, I know where my SHOTGUN is at, so don't sweat it, OK?
I mean it's not like I can call my neighbor down the block who JUST HAPPENS to BE A POLICE OFFICER...can I?
Oh, wait, if I DID have a police officer living on MY block, we wouldn't HAVE the situation that would illicit a response from me with using deadly force in the FIRST place, and wouldn't even be HAVING this conversation, would we?
Point made.