26 April 2011

A Final Postscript on Easter...
As I had predicted (and as many of you in law-enforcement have come to know) crime NEVER seems to take a holiday.
Easter is not any exception, especially in MY little part of the Fort Wayne Ghettohood.
On Saturday and Sunday, we had a grand total of THIRTY-TWO boomcars that were loud enough to make you stop what you were doing and take notice.
That would include shaking the house, drowning out the TV (or radio), or even waking the dead...and that naturally excludes those "walking dead" we have cribbing on my block.
That's 32 citations that COULD have been written had just ONE officer been around to do so.
And, at $150.00 a pop, that was a nice chunk of change..about $4800.00 that was otherwise NOT collected for the city and remains in the (saggy) pockets of the socially-illiterate and societally-dysfunctional.
Now, the FWPD states that they "made close to six HUNDRED noise citations JUST last year"...
((*rolls eyes*))
...AHEM...
Wow, I'm just so damn impressed that I could crap PLAID!
That is about the smallest drop in the biggest bucket that I have ever heard of.
Now, you know my feelings about those who display their audio prowess (read manhood) by invading the houses of all the decent folks.
And it's not up to me to address the issues of certain male inadequacies versus bass kicker-box sizes, either
But I do profess to know a little bit about something we call THE LAW...as well as the way it SHOULD be upheld.
For years, I have belabored my point about patrolling the area to PREVENT the rise not only of noise, but also of crime.
A (very) few have listened to what I had to say...too few to make the impact needed to halt such a rise.
There used to be something the city called QUALITY-OF-LIFE, and is bound to pursue that for it's citizenry.
Down here...not so much.
Otherwise, we'd be seeing a lot more noise violations being written up, right?
Hell, neither the department NOR Parking Control can figure out all those that block driveways, and sidewalks with their vehicles, as well as parking the wrong damn way on their side of the street...and that should be some REALLY EASY sh*t to figure out.
Now, if you call dispatch, THEN (and only then) will that illicit the police to move on it.
But that is a REACTIVE stance, and not a PROACTIVE one.
Funny, how in other cities, even SMALLER than Fort Wayne, the police don't seem to have this particular problem, OR are taking the steps needed to quiet the din of these audio-terrorists in our midst.
In Roseville, Michigan, they are fighting back against such boomcars.
Here's the source article (and a damn good read):
http://www.noisefree.org/newsroom/pressrelease-display.php?id=111
Imagine that, taking AWAY the offending vehicle and placing a nice hefty FINE to get it back...works for me.
And those other cities seem to be on track when it comes to taking care of it's tax-paying citizens.
Wish I could say likewise for down here.
The Elkhart, Indiana story especially puts a smile on MY face.
Here's the source article on this:
http://www.wndu.com/hometop/headlines/102908324.html
In a city like Elkhart, which is considerably SMALLER than Fort Wayne, the police THERE have written several hundred MORE tickets...astounding!
Wonder why THEY can do it there, and we can't seem to do that here?
The funny thing about the ONE OFFICER assigned to the "NOISE DETAIL", is that he has made MORE DRUG BUSTS (as a result of stops from violation of the noise ordinance there) than the narcotics team in that city!
That's just a-freaking-mazing!
So WHY can't that be done here, and especially in areas such as mine?
I mean, it's NOT like I haven't been forthcoming with vehicle descriptions, tag numbers and occupancy (when you can see past that damn too dark tint)...I HAVE BEEN...and for the LAST SEVEN YEARS!
Hell, I've got HUNDREDS of digital pictures eating up my computer storage OF such vehicles, complete with a T.O.D. and tag numbers. I have a corroborating written LIST of them also.
And I regularly pass this along to the quadrant captain, hoping that something gets done.
So far...not a whole helluva lot.
I keep seeing the same vehicles thumping through the area, sometimes for YEARS, so it doesn't appear as if ANYONE is confiscating the vehicles, does it?
And since I keep hearing them, they HAVE to be "repeat offenders"...more money missed.
When you have THAT many vehicles coming past your house, you have to wonder WHY that is...and the answer is so damn simple:
It's because these drivers KNOW the police aren't gonna be around to stop them or ticket them.
That ALSO explains the curbside drug deals I manage to get pictures off.
Calling these items in is a waste of time, too.
By the time the police even GET to the area, these druggies will be long gone.
But that's not the officer who's driving the cruiser's fault...it's the fault of the command staff.
THEY are the ones who assign and place officers "where they're most needed"....like up NORTH, where ticketing people at specific intersections is a helluva lot easier (and the people tend to PAY the citations, unlike the scofflaws down here).
Still, if the jerks down here WERE cited often enough, they would find somewhere else to go, and pronto.
After all, business is business.
Traffic stops for noise are about as rare down here as a decent neighbor.
And given the number of vehicles I see AT NIGHT with blown out headlights, tail lights and license plate lights, that manage to fly under the radar for months, if not years, one can only conclude that THEY aren't being stopped either, right?
I suggested what the FWPD could do to "lower the boom" in my ghettohood.
And all it would take would be one officer in a beach chair on my property with a radio and another in an UNMARKED car down the street.
It's worked damn well in OTHER cities...helluva "sting-op", and perfectly well within the law.
When the offending vehicle is stopped, it's TOWED to impound...none of this "let's make a deal" BS...period.
Tack on a nice STIFF fine of say...$250.00 (per violation), and do that for a few weeks during ALL shifts, and presto...instant quiet!
And it would NOT surprise me one damn bit that THESE officers would wind up making MORE DRUG BUSTS than our vice/narcotics team...not to mention any illegal GUNS being carried around. Hell, we could put the officers on "commission", and they could retire early, given the sheer numbers of offensive vehicles down here...LOL.
Like I say, I DO know something about THE LAW...and the way it SHOULD be followed AND upheld.
There is simply NO reason why decent people need be subjected to such interruptions of their repose...none at all.
But there IS a solution to such a problem, as long as someone is willing to make the right call in the FWPD to make it happen.
It's not ONE man pitching a fit out here....there are others that are too scared to say anything, or feel as I have in the past - that nothing can be done.
Well, time for that "nothing" to take a hike, because something CAN be done...and SHOULD BE.
This affects more than "just me"...it affects everyone exposed to such noise, and particularly those INSIDE such vehicles, especially the kids.
That hurts not only their ears, but their future, and we all know that drug dealers make no bones about taking kids "along for the ride" down here.
Taking care of the NOISE would go a LONG way to stopping a lot bigger sh*t from occurring down here, that's for sure.
And who knows...it might even bring back a little bit of CIVILITY into a wasteland of ignorance.
That's always a good thing, no matter where you live.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.

4 comments:

CWMartin said...

BG:
Don't you realize that Ft Wayne sits on the banks of De Nile river? We had politicians telling us that we had no gang problems TEN YEARS after every overpass in the city limits had "Vice Lords" tagged all over it. No offense to any LEO on or near the streets, but I think the upper management of both City Hall and the FWPD haven't had the cajones to do anything about REAL crime for a long time. And now, we even have a prosecutor that fits right in ( don't take the cajones part literally here, please).

John DuMond said...

Perfect example of James Q. Wilson's "Broken Windows" theory. Let the little things slide, and quality of life deteriorates. Tolerance for B.S goes up, and the dirtbags are emboldened. You get more crime and bigger crimes. It's not a hard concept to understand, but the polytishuns (including those with badges who sit behind big oak desks with big brass nameplates) never seem to figure it out.

Bob G. said...

CWM:
I keep thinking of the old Johnny Cash song "How high's the water, Mama?"

The river of DENIAL is deep indeed.
The upper echelon of the city and the department would appear to need an enema.

When you have to "reclassify" certain crimes to be able to state that crime has gone DOWN...that speaks volumes to me.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing the "writing on the wall" (or is that the OVERPASS???)

Stay safe up there.

Bob G. said...

Johm D.:

I'm glad I'm not the ONLY one that sees this whole broken window theory in "action".
I studied this AGES ago, and I know the damn thing when I see it.

Can't seem to convince those in THIS city (especially those downtown) about this, however.

Politics be damned...we're talking citizen SAFETY here...who speaks for the seniors, or the youth that are exposed to all this crap?

Some days, I SO feel the need to be Frank Castle...!

Hey, thanks for stopping on by today and commenting.

Much appreciated.

Roll safe.