Humpday Happenings...
A nice break in the heat (here in the Heartland) with temperatures into the low-mid eighties...suh-weet!
Sure is good to go outside and not have to WRING OUT every breath.
Be a good day to take a ride on your HARLEY...except if you're planning a run around Fort Wayne, and near the Jefferson Pointe location.
Seems we have a bike thief in our midst, and that can't be good when you leave a restaurant, go to get on your "trusty steed", and instead find an EMPTY SPOT where once it stood!
I was listening to this on the police radio, and this all began around last week with TWO Harleys swiped in as many days.
I recall another theft ring around here some time ago...
Yep, it was back in September of LAST year, when a "father/son" theft ring was thwarted in the Summit City.
Here's the link to the archived story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100925/LOCAL07/309259981
In THIS case, the duo were targeting bikers attending rallies and staying at certain MOTELS along the routes traveled.
(wonder whatever became of these two?)
Donald J. Cupp Sr, 52, and his son, Don Jr were the two arrested, and were also growing POT in their Davis St. address.
There was ALSO supposed to be e THIRD MAN (cue the zither music) involved in this ring that spanned 6 months (with 30 thefts).
Wonder what followup was done on this guy?
The bikes recovered were NOT just from Indiana, but from Kentucky, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and as far away as New York and Florida.
Six stolen bikes were recovered in a barn in Stroh and one more in Ossian.
Two bikes were found in a STOLEN TRAILER at a house in Auburn
All in all, THIRTEEN bikes were recovered...so where are the rest?
Are the Cupps back on the streets?
What about THE THIRD MAN (cue the zither music again)? Was HE arrested?
...Makes 'ya wonder.
Can lightning strike TWICE...within a year?
It's interesting that almost the SAME TIME OF YEAR we find this happening again.
Perhaps a LARGER theft ring spanning the entire Midwest?
This will be an interesting story to follow, that's for sure.
You hate to see people spend GOOD money ($15K+) for a motorcycle only to have some doper/thief "relieve" the owner of such a burden.
People should be able to PURSUE THAT HAPPINESS we read about in our founding documents...right?
But NEVER at the expense of someone else.
In other news...
*** Philly is instituting a CURFEW for black teens on the weekends.
The number of flash mobs is increasing there, and the latest target was a SEARS store in Upper Darby (out by 69th street - I know the place well). The thieves took SNEAKERS and watches,
Here's the link to the story:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Nutter-says-police-will-be-tough-on-curfews-over-weekend.html
Now, this is the same (black) mayor that has CUT the fire department down so that not ALL stations are being manned EVERY day...they call them "brownouts", and that has caused a furor with the PFD, because such things can impede response times, and place firefighters at risk needlessly, and at least ONE ambulance has a bullet hole in it to prove how whacked-out this city is becoming...(stop over to the FIRST IN blog - link at left - to see what I'm talking about. he's a member of the PFD and tells it the way the media will not...TRUTHFULLY) !
It's going to be fun to see how "the mayor's people" react to such a curfew, and how long before we hear erroneous tales of "woe" from the ghettos regarding police "brutality" (called criminal profiling)...I can see the ambulance-chasers lining up already.
And now, it's happening in OTHER cities...
Here's the story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110810/NEWS03/308109960/1006/NEWS
In Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio...more flash mobs, and ALL thanks to this wonderful "technology" we have that has been perverted and turned back in upon itself.
The article is a great read, and tells you a lot of what can come to your neighborhood or shopping center, when you least expect it.
Can you imagine how this could impact HOLIDAY SHOPPING in a few months?
Stores that once would be open to LATER in the evening, will be closing SOONER, to avoid having their inventory go running out the door in the hands of some truly UNDESERVING (and by the looks of all the videos, mostly BLACK) people...
Guess that's ONE way to get that "reparations" thing...at the expense of everyone else.
Some kinda "strength of character" those folks have got going on...isn't it?
But wait, there's more...
*** Across the "pond", all is still not well in the U.K. with THEIR "protests" (read rioting, looting, and thug like behavior now spreading to Nottingam).
Here's the latest article (with a video that would have you think it was STILL 1940 during the damn BLITZ):
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110810/NEWS04/308109956
And THIS link to THE GUARDIAN/UK (Updated frequently - like 9 minutes ago)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london-riots
I have stated HERE that this is the sort of thing that causes change...and not the GOOD kind, either.
Such behavior by these large groups will only serve to have the GOVERNMENT step in and CONTROL the situation.
Thing is, EVERYONE comes under such "control"...not JUST the criminals who exhibit the riotous behavior.
The innocent person is NOW looked upon "as a suspect"...everyone becomes a guilty party, for whatever police or military intervention you have placed upon the streets of your cities can not possibly know WHO is "okay" and who is not...
"Show us your papers..." (sound familiar?)
In Philly, the curfew alone has problems the police will be hard-pressed to address, such as teens who are law-abiding that are found on the street, coming home from...let's say a church affair...and the police have NO way of knowing that. To THEM, this teen is a possible SUSPECT.
I believe that's why we shot the curfews in Fort Wayne down (they say it was unconstitutional...bullsh*t). I think it was MORE of a POLICING issue (and legal as well) rather than a "constitutional" issue. And the NAACP and the ACLU was all over it here.
But, both those organizations are IN FAVOR of the curfew in Philly (for now, until someone gets shot...you watch).
Now, when the government has such "control", the people have no recourse but to "go along" with whatever comes down the pike...the people are more PLIABLE...malleable, as it were, and can be led about and lied to, all "for their safety", mind you.
This can take us down the road to an AUTHORITARIAN regime, where "they" say what we can, and cannot do.
Think of the movies such as 1984, or Wild in the Streets, or perhaps THX 1138 (George Lucas' first film - and a good one, imho) , or maybe Brave New World, or the more recent movies Equilibrium (Christian Bale - 2002) and V for Vendetta (2004).
ALL of these films have a government out of control and yet still IN control (of the people), until the system is found to be flawed enough where one person (or group) can take the system down, and effect change for the better (for everyone).
To even ponder such a state of affairs in AMERICA (for me), is reprehensible.
And yet, here we have the murmurings of such a framework to allow this to happen.
We can not, we must not allow wholesale and wanton destruction of our society, and that means we have to find ways to suppress the criminal elements, while not losing OUR OWN FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES through government intervention.
We have allowed our technology to surpass our ability to properly utilize it in the manner for which it was initially designed.
We need to back up a few steps, rethink HOW BEST such technology can serve ALL the people for a common good, instead of serving some for criminal intent and purpose.
Again, we need a CAN-DO attitude, and by each and every one that truly VALUES what this nation stands for.
And that should be enough to get us all thinking.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and... Stay safe out there, America.