Yeah, It's Things Like THIS...
Anyone happen to catch the story of this man who had his gazebo torched by idiots with fireworks?
Here's the story:
(From the WANE website)
Fireworks torch lawn furniture
Updated: July 7, 2008 04:25 PM EDT
John Caudle thinks fireworks set his lawn furniture ablaze
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A 4th of July celebration had lasting effects for one Fort Wayne man. He says careless neighbors torched his lawn furniture.
It was a little after ten o'clock Sunday night, when fire broke out on John Caudle's property at 3419 Sanibel Drive on the Fort Wayne's northeast side. Caudle says people in the apartment complex behind his yard there were setting off fireworks, and the flames from one of them just happened to land on his property.
"We got a call from the Fort Wayne Fire Department saying the gazebo was on fire," says Caudle.
Firefighters put out the fire quickly with Caudle's garden hose, but it didn't take long to do a lot of damage.
"It was pitch black, and firefighters lit it up and said 'you lost everything.'" Caudle says "everything" only meant "everything inside the gazebo". "We got lucky nobody got hurt," he says.
But everything inside the gazebo, including a coffee table, a lawn sofa, and two lawn chairs, as well as the gazebo's frame and canopy, adds up to about $1,000, and Caudle just wants someone to take responsibility.
"We just want cooperation," he says. "We're not mad at 'em. If it's an accident, it happens."
When Newschannel 15 went to the apartment complex to talk to some of Caudle's neighbors, one was willing to give an interview. James Miller said he was one of a group of people that was setting off rocket fireworks Sunday night near Caudle's home.
"I'm not saying it was me," says Miller. "It could have been mine, but it could have been anybody's." Miller said if he could find out who owns the gazebo, he along with his other neighbors that were setting of the fireworks should get in touch with him to see what they can do for him. For now, though, Caudle is waiting to hear back from his home owner's insurance agent.
Fort Wayne Police did respond to the fire, along with the fire department. Police say anyone who causes damage to someone else's property is responsible for that damage, but they said it is now a civil matter.
Fort Wayne Police said their department was called to assist the fire department, so no report was generated from their service call at Caudle's home. The fire department says no one in their department is investigating the case.
Now how's that sit with all you people that own homes and have totally irresponsible people living nearby, hmm?
Welcome to MY part of town - the SOUTHEAST side.
Damn near everyone around here has NO concept of ownership, with the exception of they "think" they DO OWN everything (and that includes anything YOU own). They exhibit much the same irresponsibility that led to Mr. Caudle's fire in his back yard. My "neighbors" set off fireworks IN THE STREET (when the law stated that people HAD to either set them off ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY...OR...had the PERMISSION of the person whose property they would use to detonate them.
No exceptions.
Now unless someone got a variance to the law, these people MUST OWN the STREETS of our neighborhood. And judging by the amount of police activity (a lot less than usual) in the area during this celebratory event, I would say that my conclusion is a pretty damn fair assessment of the situation around here. The creatures that inhabit the low-income rental housing here apparently DO own the streets.
The ignorance displayed by these people on a daily basis is nothing short of remarkable.
And their arrogance isn't too far behind.
That would explain why I had to go onto my roof the other day and remove a rocket that landed there when it was shot off in the middle of the street that runs alongside my house.
What I'd love to know is when (exactly) will the black community sit up, take notice, and decide that normal people don't behave in such a reprehensible manner as "my" locals? I suppose ALL those years of entitlements is finally taking a toll. For that matter, when will people in general learn what the hell their voice is really for and collectively speak up for change?
Well, unfortunately, this arrogant ignorance is not bound to any one ethnicity. We also have our share of white trash and even Hispanic lowlifes that marvelously manage to merge with the black trash.
If there IS any good news that could be gleaned from this, it's the fact that soon enough, the Hispanics will chase away even the blacks from the area. The down side to that "good news", is that those Hispanics might wind up being worse (if such a thing can be considered possible). We're already seeing that happen in cities across America. Blacks are being targeted by Hispanics and forced from neighborhoods in some perverse "turf war". NO one it seems wants to "just get along with one another" any longer.
And to think this can all start from something as "harmless" as fireworks.
Maybe it's time to reconsider the fireworks laws, just so people can have a modicum of safety once again, should they wish to venture out onto their back lawn.
I mean, if we're so damn concerned about car crashes and enact seat belt laws, or if we worry about violence and attempt to legislate ludicrous bans on firearms, why can't we play it safe here and set bans on certain fireworks?
Oops, I forgot...we don't stop to consider the SOURCE of the problem, like the PEOPLE INVOLVED any more, do we? We can't take one moment to think that it just might be PEOPLE at the root of these issues, right? We blame the inanimate object, rather than the person BEHIND it. After all, it can't defend itself.
Now I for one, would simply love to see about 80% of my neighborhood undergo a frontal lobotomy...that would get rid of SO many problems here. To have a neighborhood full of drooling adults with the mental capacity of a 5 year old, shuffling down my street is the stuff my dreams are made of. A diversity I can live with at last.
No crime (well, very little anyway), no (illegal) drugs, no scrappers, no house-shaking music, no smug arrogance, no boomcars, no disrespect...nothing but that "quiet repose" the city is so keen to remind me that I am to enjoy, because of all the laws on the books that they are SUPPOSED to enforce that grants me that (and currently does not). Does the phrase FAIRY TALE mean anything to you people? Because that's all I'm seeing with the way you mismanage MY part of YOUR city year after year.
Still, I'm sure that Mr. Caudle doesn't worry about such things. And I'm positive that some agreement will be reached and that he will be compensated for the damage to his property by whatever group of people saw fit to be irresponsible the night they shot off those fireworks.
And I'm just as sure that things will all work out down here for the better real soon.
Oh yeah, I can dream too.
Like my Dad said:
"If you're gonna dream, dream BIG, because the price is always right".
Dad always DID know best.