lagremage
05-13-2006, 01:09 PM
This is a flame against the cruel and hateful people of the world. Basically, **** off.
I took my 1.5 year old son out for a walk today and was met with racist and sexist graffiti. Of course, it was not there yesterday. I walk in this park every day and I have never seen something so bad in it before. They defaced every single sign in the entire park with racial, sexual, and nah-nah-nah-you-can't-catch-us taunts (and this is a really big park - several soccer fields, a playground, camp ground, bike trail, beach).
But what pisses me off more is that when I got home and phoned the cops about it, I found out that I was the first one to have done so (and it's not like I went out at 5am and was the first person to walk through the park).
But this has been making me think a bit... I don't know what other communities are like, but here, where I live, people sort of expect the cops to know everything. When something happens, people gripe about how the cops should have been there. Why weren't they out there patrolling? Why aren't they aware of the crap that goes on in specific places? ...and so on. I fall into this trap myself, quite often. However, when I think about it more, this is exactly the kind of thinking that eventually leads to people believing that cops should be everywhere, at all times, the kind of thinking that leads to people wanting cameras to spy on us all. But I have to hit the brakes, here. Whoa, I am against cameras, and I don't want cops everywhere at all times!
So today, I told myself that I would have to just call the cops and get them out there. Know what they did? They said thanks. So as much as I want to be pissed off at them, I have to stop and say to myself that maybe I should be pissed off at all those of us who don't phone and report stuff. OK, so there are people who think that those who report stuff are "tattle tales." But if you never report stuff, you end up living in a crime infested area, and then suddenly they start talking about bringing cameras in... (so either you spy on people yourself, or you let the authorities do it, lol. Damned if we do and damned if we don't? I think I would rather have the residents work together and do the "spying", though. I think that's what communities should do - watch out for each other. Edit: but residents keeping an eye on the place is WAY better than having cameras run 24/7)
I took my 1.5 year old son out for a walk today and was met with racist and sexist graffiti. Of course, it was not there yesterday. I walk in this park every day and I have never seen something so bad in it before. They defaced every single sign in the entire park with racial, sexual, and nah-nah-nah-you-can't-catch-us taunts (and this is a really big park - several soccer fields, a playground, camp ground, bike trail, beach).
But what pisses me off more is that when I got home and phoned the cops about it, I found out that I was the first one to have done so (and it's not like I went out at 5am and was the first person to walk through the park).
But this has been making me think a bit... I don't know what other communities are like, but here, where I live, people sort of expect the cops to know everything. When something happens, people gripe about how the cops should have been there. Why weren't they out there patrolling? Why aren't they aware of the crap that goes on in specific places? ...and so on. I fall into this trap myself, quite often. However, when I think about it more, this is exactly the kind of thinking that eventually leads to people believing that cops should be everywhere, at all times, the kind of thinking that leads to people wanting cameras to spy on us all. But I have to hit the brakes, here. Whoa, I am against cameras, and I don't want cops everywhere at all times!
So today, I told myself that I would have to just call the cops and get them out there. Know what they did? They said thanks. So as much as I want to be pissed off at them, I have to stop and say to myself that maybe I should be pissed off at all those of us who don't phone and report stuff. OK, so there are people who think that those who report stuff are "tattle tales." But if you never report stuff, you end up living in a crime infested area, and then suddenly they start talking about bringing cameras in... (so either you spy on people yourself, or you let the authorities do it, lol. Damned if we do and damned if we don't? I think I would rather have the residents work together and do the "spying", though. I think that's what communities should do - watch out for each other. Edit: but residents keeping an eye on the place is WAY better than having cameras run 24/7)