… Everyone’s got one.

Something really bugs me about this most recent bout of violent crime at Universiity High School. I say violent crime, and not “school violence” like many because I think what that does is conveniently put the act into some kind of different class that we can either dismiss or attribute to different causes. No, this was a violent crime, part and parcel to the plague of violent crime that has been on an ever increasing and destructive path in our city for the past year or more.

But what bugs me is what the police are saying. I’ve heard the city’s finest blame everything from video games to pocket knife rules, as if those are the deep rooted problems with the human condition. Give me a break, those are excuses for not being able to handle your job. I know that’s harsh, but I am a life long resident of this city and it is going to crap in a hurry due to this increasing violent crime, and there is one organization tasked with curbing that problem, and it it the law enforcement community. Do your job, and last time I checked your job was not to play the blame game.

A short while ago I wrote about the running down of a police officer on Conway Road by a youth on a jacked motorcycle. The police officer was out there because after MONTHS of complaints of dangerous drag racing on that road they finally decided to look into the problem. What happened? One of those thugs broke the cops leg. What happened next? NOTHING! So I’m driving down the road the other morning in bumper to bumper commute traffic and that same spot where this violent crime occured what do I see, a police officer with a radar gun. I drive that same stretch multiple times every day and the only time I see a police is in the morning with his radar gun. So the police are plenty concerned with writing tickets for drive time traffic, targeting hard working people on their morning commute, but when it comes to putting feet on concrete to patrol those same spots in the night time hours for vandals, drag racers, thugs and such, when residents have called to ask for it… well, that’s just not a priority.

I’m sure the police don’t want to be portrayed as not doing their jobs, not caring, being more concerned with writing tickets than righting wrongs and all the other negative stereotypes that people sometimes come to have, but when you consisently display an inability to control and reduce crime, especially that of the violent type, and offer up nothing but lame excuses like video games and pocket knifes in school (you can stab a person with a pencil, it’s the intent, not the weapon that kills), well, those stereotypes look more and more like educated assumptions every day. Stop talking and start walking the beat. I want my city safe like it used to be, do what you have to, but just get it done.

Related posts:

1. Finally A Solution to Crime!
2. University High School stabbing
3. Conway Crime
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5. Normally we have heat waves… but CRIME waves??