"Jonathan Kamens" wrote

"SteveB" writes:
As I said, what planet do you live on? With all the road rage, drug use,
domestic violence, organized crime, driveby shootings, terrorism and
various
other random acts of violence, do you still think that vandalism is high
up
there on the list.

OK, I vowed to myself that I'd stay out of this thread, but I
feel compelled to make a point that has very little to do with
dog poop and very much to do with the attitude that vandalism
is low on the list of things that cops should be dealing with.

I strongly urge you to get yourself a copy of "The Tipping
Point" by Malcolm Gladwell and read it cover-to-cover. If you
read it with an open mind, then I suspect that when you're
done, you'll have a very different attitude about what kind of
impact can be made on society's ills by addressing seemingly
small problems such as vandalism. Gladwell's thesis, which he
defends astonishingly well, is that in fact "small" things
like vandalism can have an extremely disproportionate affect
on "big" things like crime and public safety.

You must first have some information about me to realize where I am coming
from. My daughter is a police officer on the street. My son-in-law is
nearing lieutenant grade. I have been a coroner investigator. I have been
around law enforcement and officers a lot. I have many friends from high
school (class of 66) who were career officers. I have two neighbors and a
renter who are POs.

I am just writing some firsthand information that I observe from my dealings
with police and police situations. I get a lot of inside info.

I am not poo pooing the idea that vandalism should be tolerated. I know
that among people, particularly adolescents, vandalism is a big deal, and
can result in a lot of damage that regular citizens must bear the cost of.
Vandalism is not acceptable in society. Mainly it is an expression of
frustration, despair, hopelessness and anger.

And I am not saying that it is low on the list of things the officers SHOULD
be concerned with. I am stating that in overworked departments, it IS low on
the list of things officers must deal with. They just have too many other
calls for service that are far more critical than vandalism. Robbery,
assault, person with a gun, burglary, rape, child abuse and neglect. In our
town, there aren't even enough officers to adequately enforced traffic laws,
and the place is turning into a demolition derby with citizens being picked
at bus stops, sitting at stop signs, driving along, or just walking along
the street. And this by people who need to be cited and who need their
asses kicked for being such poor drivers. Three school children were killed
recently while waiting for a bus. Before that, an infant in its mother's
arms killed at a bus stop. And on and on and on. They SHOULD be taking
more time on this, they just don't have the time because of all the other
calls. Now and again, they do a saturation exercise at a major
intersection, but it is mostly PR.

There are just not enough officers because they are dealing with critical
situations. They will cite if a citizen makes a complaint for vandalism.
But, if one thinks they are doing society a favor by taking up an hours time
of an officer in their neighborhood for some dog crap, they are delusional.
Outright vandalism is a different thing.

What I am taking exception to is the Pollyannish approach by some posters as
to what they think the behavior of responding officers will be. There will
be a difference between the officer's behavior from Mayberry to Megalopolis.
And books about subjects are just a statement on how things should be. I
totally believe that things should be better, but I am locked into a world
of reality where things are the way they are, not the way they should be. I
totally agree that if people would just do the right thing, this world would
improve noticeably in about three minutes.

As with all usenet posts, you just have to take the pertinent information
and apply it to your own situation.

One size does not fit all. The situation and civilization where you live is
probably totally different than where I am. But, then, in my travels, I
have noticed that Smalltown, USA, has many of the same problems as Bigtown,
USA.

Reality is nature's way of keeping things straight. For the rest of the
people, there's books, liberalism, and playing Pollyanna.

Steve