Friday Follies...

Finally...we made it. It's the weekend!
After last night's wonderfully FULL MOON (which I'm sure CWM took some pictures of over at HIS blog) I was wondering how we'd wind up.
The lovely Mrs. Bobby G is taking the day of after a stressful day yesterday at school with her students who decided to play "debate team" whenever she said something or asked them to do something.
We'll come back to that in a bit, but let's check the Hoosierland weather.
-- It'll be clear today, with temps reaching upwards to 60 degrees. I know it's a bot chilly out there this morning, but I'm sure that after the glorious sunrise, that will all burn off, and most all of us will be able to enjoy the day.
I say MOST ALL of us, because down here in the ghettohood, things rarely change, and that means pretty much the same crap as the days preceding.
Still, we soldier on, and make the best of the city's lousy situation, that they so marvelously created over the years.
With that said, let's see what's happening...
*** First out of the stables today, is the first installment of a fantastic story presented by Adam Widener over at WANE.

Here's the link with video:
(( Editor's note: the video only has background music - the voices have not been dubbed in, but the graphs are worth the watch, as are the guns being shot at the range Adam forgot to add the voices back in I guess...lol))
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/15-finds-out-is-fort-wayne-a-dangerous-place
So, IS Fort Wayne a dangerous place?
THAT is the question asked by our reporter, and the answers are pretty much what I was expecting, compared to cities with approximately the SAME number of citizens.

I am glad the station is deciding to do this series.

The source materials used in the story are spot on, and it's VERY interesting to note that our own FWPD is woefully UNDER-staffed...!

Gee, that sure SOUNDS familiar, doesn't it?

In fact, I've been saying that for SOME TIME, and Asst. Chief Marty Bender says the numbers could go even LOWER, which would make this city not the best place to live.

Well, THAT'S reassuring, isn't it?

Thing is, our local population has been on the RISE, and the number of sworn officers has not grown in proportion over the last several years.

That places EVERY citizen at greater risk because not only are we BELOW the national ratio of officers to citizens, but also UNDER the number of officers in comparable cities.

Add to this ALL the "radio-chasing" being done, which would certainly include things NOT mentioned in the story like all those 911 BUTT-DIALS, and it's very plain to see that the most simple act of PATROLLING a known area for crime doesn't come that easily these days.
You just don't have the MANPOWER to make that occur effectively, and the crims KNOW that. They're not THAT stupid.
The story also mentions how we stack up against the same cities regarding police on the streets and the number of homicides.
Fort Wayne is leading the herd this year, with fewer officers and more homicides.
What I was dumbfounded by was Chief York's remark likening our situation here to the sinking of the Titanic...

Sure, let's make THAT the last "WTF???" moment for the week...why not?
He's earned it.
He states that:
“If you’re on a boat in the ocean and you hit an iceberg and there’s a hole in your boat, it doesn’t make any difference where your cabin is. “We have to work to resolve this issue or we’re all going down.”
Not really, Rus...and here's WHY...
(( Caution - ANALOGY ALERT - you might learn something! ))
If you compare those "cabins" on the boat to the NEIGHBORHOODS we live in, there IS a difference - some live in "first class", while others live in 2nd class, 3rd class, or (back in the old days) "steerage"...that's a fact in ANY city (or ship).
What is MORE important when you hit that "berg" (vis-a-vis deal with crimes and death), is how many PEOPLE you can SAVE, and that all comes down to the NUMBER OF LIFEBOATS you have on board that bloody ship (aka police officers in the damn city).
That ensures that we ALL don't go down with the ship...as the CAPTAIN would (that would compare to the police CHIEF).
And THAT is how you demonstrate a PROPER ANALOGY, Rusty...pretty simple, huh?

I'd much rather have MORE OFFICERS on my streets than MORE TREES at Headwaters Park, but I like to feel SAFE around our "Fortress".
What we need is enough officers to effectively PATROL, because just the mere sight of a cruiser rolling through "the hood" is often sufficient enough to dissuade perps from doing their nasties...unless you've allowed things to get SO far out of control (like in Chicago) that NO number of police will take away the empowerment the crims have enjoyed for far too long...that's just fact!
Granted, it won't stop ALL crime, but it WILL let the perps know they are being watched, and that law-enforcement means business.
You can have all the technology on Earth, but without the right number of "boots on the ground" to utilize it, it's just so much junk collecting dust.
Nothing compares to having the "beat cop" on the street, getting to know the residents, checking out the "lay of the land", and learning all the nooks, crannies, and cubbie-holes that perps can hide out in, as well as flee to whenever something goes down.

You have to seriously ask yourself IS Fort Wayne a safe place...and not because some folks are fortunate to live in a NICER area than those often mentioned whenever there is a homicide.
We are seeing the crime that used to be the solitary domain of the SE side spreading like a damn plague both up the EAST side of the city as well as SOUTHWEST, and that only comes when the bad guys know several things:
1) The city can't afford more police to keep up with population increases
2) The SE side has been pretty much tapped out as far committing crimes that net BIG money
3) Residents in other locations will bug out, allowing those bad guys to "win", just like what happened on the SE side.
It's not hard to see where this is going, and the outlook isn't all sunshine and lollipops, gang.
It will be interesting to watch the next installments of the WANE series to see what can and should be done to make this city safer...for EVERYONE.
(Wouldn't it be a hoot if Mr. Widener interviewed ME? Talk about getting a "earful"...LOL!)
Moving on...
*** Wifey is dealing with kids getting antsy for the end of the school year (already? Cripes, 'ya got SIX weeks to go) and that means a lot of kids that don't want to be in school, and yet believe they still should PASS the class...

FWCS has a policy about cell phones in class, but apparently all these little sh*ts have short-term memory problems, because they were f$cking with the phones, and Wifey had to "remind" them, and that obviously became the portent to an impromptu debate...which doesn't have a DAMN thing to do with classwork, but everything to do with student FOCUS and attentiveness.

Wifey was dealing with the dreaded "well, what if?" syndrome, and she came home fairly burned out over it...they never tell you about THOSE things in the news...how teachers have to put up with ALL the shenanigans these kids can dream the hell up.

Well, truth be told, we were also like that in high school, with ONE exception.
When the teacher laid down the LAW, we got our pubescent a$$es back to learning, or risked a trip down to the school disciplinarian.

It was THAT simple. Back in those days, we had something too many kids LACK today...RESPECT...FOR...AUTHORITY...!
And we know how well THAT translates when these "kids" grow the hell up, don't we?
Could be the reason we have the level of violent CRIME in this city...
Oh, wait...it IS the reason...and we've PROVEN that right here.
Must be those parents that don't give a rip, too...yep, sure is.
Add to that a lesson plan that was left for the substitute, and somehow wasn't found by the sub...WTH is going on there?
(the sub did find the lesson,when they LOOKED for them...geezus, we're doomed...lol)
I told Wifey to place the lesson plans in a folder in her MAILBOX (w/ instructions for the sub to pick it up THERE) at school, that way NOTHING can screw that up - that's the way it was done DECADES ago...and it WORKS!
In any event, Wifey is taking it a might "easier" today, and that means I get to make her breakfast.
(Hey, it's what I do.)
*** Lastly today, how often do we attempt to take in ALL the crap that's going on around us...and fail miserably in the process?
Face it, there IS too much sh*t going on to take care of...doesn't matter if it's on the home, on the street, in traffic, at work or school, in our city, state or even a round the damn world.

Too many people + too many problems = way too much crap to deal with.
So, we have to be a tad more "selective" with what we choose to face, and then proceed with a definitive game plan on how BEST to deal with THAT.
We can then measure success at a more manageable rate, simply because we CAN succeed under those conditions.
And when can do this as easily as we can walk and chew gum, success becomes a much more common friend than the elusive foe in our lives.
Remember, it's all the LITTLE things that add up in our lives and can more easily be appreciated.
It can also be said that all the bad little things get on our nerves just as readily.
Our job is to sift through the good and the bad to avoid the ugly...And it does get easier with practice.
Do have yourselves a great weekend.

Be well, make a difference to someone today, and as always...
Stay SAFE out there, America.