Violence begets violence

I left the modest adobe Friday morning headed to the nearby Turkey Hill, and the first person I encountered was sporting a light jacket covering a hooded cotton jacket. Yes, it’s that time of year again.

Sucks.

Ted Kennedy passed on? Never really liked the guy, but I can’t say I detested him either. As far as his legislative achievements go, well, I figure I could do that…taking money from one group so as to help some other group. It’s akin to setting up a charitable foundation, I suppose.

Today I’d like to announce the formation of my new charitable pursuit, the Bikes for Poor Kids Foundation. Something like that. I’m still working on the name. It goes like this: Deliver to me your old, unused bikes, or the bikes we see abandoned here, there and everywhere; I will repair them and offer them to any underprivileged kid who wants one.

Needless to say, bicycle replacement parts do cost money, so make your sizable checks payable to: The Mark Cour is a Great Man Foundation, P.O. Box 777, Wilkes-Barre, PA., 18702. And the generous donation of tools, oil-based lubricants, office furniture, a telephone and a blonde receptionist with large mammalian protuberances would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and, I’m going to need a van (preferably one with A.C. and a kick-ass stereo), a work shop, a 2-3000 square foot warehouse and a staff of 3, maybe 4. And some T-shirts with my do-gooder image splattered all over it. And a Jacuzzi. And some condoms. Lots of them.

Know what, forget the wayward bikes, the spare parts and the used rotary telephone. Being the unassuming philanthropist that I am, just send me the checks (only much bigger) and the blonde receptionist with large (gargantuan) mammalian protuberances. As for myself, I’ll kick in the know-how, a couple of hours per week and the alcohol with which to ply the blonde.

I am a great man.

No?

A couple of days ago, I ran across the following prompt at the Political Rants blog.
　
Should there be more qualifications to vote other than age?

Definitely a fair question when you consider that we just elected an inexperienced far-left underachiever, a financially reckless sycophant as president.

The gist of the question is that some people are just too simple-minded to be trusted with a vote. Or ignorant. Or apathetic. Or inbred. Or on welfare and set for life. Or Philthydumpia Eagles fans. Somewhere thereabouts.

More qualifications other than age? In a word, I’d have to say no. And my reasons are as follows:

For whatever reason, (pick a number, any number) 24.9% of the electorate just doesn’t care and will probably never vote. And they are continually excoriated for that by the people that do bother to vote.

Another 24.9% of the electorate will probably vote for whichever candidate or political party that offers said group the most, as in taxpayer-provided goodies. At this juncture, your mind should be picturing our current Know-it-All-in-Chief.

Yet another 24.9% will only consider voting for a Democrat, and will never, ever (even a fleeting nanosecond) listen to the incessant noise coming from the dastardly Republicans, no matter what logic, common sense or data may accompany it. Hopelessly partisan, I call them.

Then we have the 24.9% will only consider voting for a Republican, and will never, ever (even a fleeting nanosecond) listen to the incessant noise coming from the dastardly Democrats, no matter what logic, common sense or data may accompany it. Hopelessly partisan, I call them.

It goes without saying that these percentages are known to fluctuate wildly as time marches on and the same decades-old troubling issues are repackaged and prevaricated in a much more concise way.

And for the folks that do not neatly fit into any of these categories, that’s why we do voter registration drives. To get those non-believers nestled into our camps and educated as to how best do war with those non-believers on the other misinformed side.

So I must conclude that, since the vast majority of the electorate has no real clue about how to vote responsibly, or vote in a manner that could be called anything other than self-centered, there’s really no need to pick on any individual group, or any sub-group within that offending group.

If we all suck, where’s the foul?

Then again, the non-smoking voters have enabled and cheerfully encouraged a legislatively-driven financial assault on the voters that do smoke, so I guess we’re at the tipping point where one group of voters should be able to do harm to some other group it disagrees with, dislikes or has been incrementally taught to hate.

Hmmm.

The “less fortunate” are working towards the eventual demise of the “more fortunate.” The sophisticates and elites want the less intelligent more closely regulated so as to save them from themselves. The skinny people want the morbidly obese people to pay more than they do. And the elected kings and queens of Amerika want us to believe that, despite their lofty status and their overly cushy lives, they are tirelessly working…they are fighting to better our individual predicaments.

Face it, we all suck.

Unlike WILK’s Steve Corbett, I am not going to pretend that, I alone, am the foremost expert on all things policing. Neither will I attempt to leave you with the distinct impression that the Wilkes-Barre police department should immediately demote their training officer, and hire me as the most obvious replacement.

I have no law enforcement training. I have never tried to handcuff somebody who didn’t want to be handcuffed. And never have I pummeled anyone in any official capacity. Darn it!

But as far as this, in my opinion, this future parolee is concerned, as far as this kid and his flacks making the police brutality claims are concerned, I’m not buying a single word of it. Not a single word.

First of all, not only have I studied police issues as they would pertain to my smallish city, I have ridden along with two different police departments a total of 3 times, I am a hopelessly addicted scanner junkie; and being the avid bicyclist always armed with a scanner, I somehow find myself in the mix very many of the times when the sirens get to screaming across the city. Completely by design, I might add.

I would have to dare to say that there is probably not a resident of this city that knows more about small town policing than I do. And I would also have to surmise that no resident of this city has seen the city’s police department in action and as close up as I have for a number of years. No, I’m not ready to join the auxiliary police corps or anything, but if you want to glean a few insights as to how things work when the subject is policing Wilkes-Barre, you could do much, much worse than to talk to me. I’m just saying.

My first problem with the police brutality story was how fast the outlandish-sounding accusations kept escalating every single time the press got within earshot of the victim or any of his supportive cohorts.

For instance, first it was 5 cops beat him, then 6 and then 7. 8 was mentioned on WILK. First it was 1 racial slur thrown his way, now it’s a cacophony of racial slurs. Then it was coerced statements from witnesses. Then it became coerced statements and threats of imprisonment for the witnesses. The way I’m thinking, you know, you people really ought to get your stories straight before you endeavor to fabricate things for the willing press and the outside investigators.

Can you commit a punishable perjury from your front porch, or from the tree lawn? Whatever.

Here’s how I put it to "Chief" Corbett, NEPA‘s most decorated law enforcement professional, via the e-mail outbox:

Steve,

First of all, the two platoons-worth of new police officers hired by the current administration of Wilkes-Barre are graduates of the Pennsylvania State Police academy. So much for the purposefully suggestive "lack of" training questions, or the "small-town" police force argument.

Secondly, while you are using words such as "attributed to, allegations and accusations," I find it interesting that every time the press gets anywhere near the "witnesses," i.e., the friends and family, the accusations grow by leaps and bounds and then some.

First 6 cops beat him. Then it was 7. Then 8 came up. Originally, a witness claimed she was taken into custody. Then, it became 'sign this statement, or I'll arrest you.' Then we had the highly predictable accusations of racial slurs having been used. By this time tomorrow, they'll be telling us he was shot at, he had his Spanish-language Pokeman cards ripped-up before his blood-filled eyes, and that his puppy was beaten for no good reason.

Dude, there's some storytelling going on here, so watch how far out on that plank you walk.

Cops face intense scrutiny from the public, the press, their peers and their higher-ups. And that's a necessary component to all of this. Oversight must accompany empowerment. But I'm here to remind you that when you choose to physically resist arrest or resist being detained for a field interview, you are entering some uncharted territory you may not like after having chosen to go there.

In conclusion, why speculate or draw unsubstantiated conclusions when we can wait for the results of the investigation being conducted by the State Police, an organization you profess to respect.

Your, ahem..."regular listener,"

Markie in Nord End

As for the police roughing the kid up, I have personally witnessed what could only be called two “beatings” administered by members of our police force. And like it or not, they both got me to outwardly giggling at the abject stupidity displayed by the highly agitated and doggedly uncooperative recipients. In a nutshell, they brought it on all by themselves. Or, if you trust and respect your police department as I happen to do, you could say they deserved it.

I’m sure I could be wrongfully accused or wrongfully arrested. And that’s what courts and attorneys are for. But I am supremely confident that if I were to be commanded to do anything by a Wilkes-Barre police officer, I would not be beaten to a bloody pulp after I chose to comply. I’m confident I would not be pummeled for having the temerity to inquire as to just what it was that he thought I did. Call it sheepish and unmanly on my part, but as a general rule, compliance is always a good starting point when confronted by police officers who seem even mildly excited, or who might have one hand on their firearms.

Yes, when you resist arrest, you invite whatever force is necessary to put an abrupt end to said resistance. If your attempts at resistance are weak, you’ll be facedown in an instant. But if your resistance is robust and sustained, you might be in for a world of hurt as the police response escalates just as high as it needs to to get you under control and fast.

Sorry, but that’s the way it has to work. Police officers come with a hefty price tag attached to them, and we really don’t need a large percentage of them sporting slings or crutches. They need to be able to, and we need for them to defend themselves when put in fluid situations that could quickly spiral out of control if taken too lightly.

And to approach it otherwise, to attempt noticeably kinder and gentler arrests of ramped-up punks would only lead to more injuries or even worse being suffered by our police officers. We recently had a local State Trooper killed in the line of duty, another one shot, as well as a Wilkes-Barre officer attacked and knocked out of commission since. Interestingly, save for the incident with the trooper, nobody cries for them. Nobody worries about whether they’ll be okay and back on the job soon, or whether they’ll be looking at prolonged periods of disability and rehabilitation.

To trim it down to it’s simplistic best, I hearken back to the overnight restaurant days, when the motto, when the necessary mindset was: If you wanna fight, we will fight! If you put in harm’s way my physical plant, my customers or my employees, we will fight. And especially, if you brought my well being in question by way of your drunken or drug-addled physicality. If you wanna fight, we will fight!

At the end of my shift, the very worst I wanted to have to face was a few sutures or a few staples at the local emergency room. Much like a police officer would, mind you. Call that a hyper-aggressive approach if you must, but be mindful of the fact that the sutures, the staples, some welts, some bruises and some partially shredded clothing was the worst I ever suffered.

And whether anyone wants to accept it or not, the kid crying police brutality wanted to fight.

So, when dealing with police officers that understand the inherent risks associated with the thankless jobs they do, but really would prefer not to be injured, disabled or killed today…be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

Better put, while technically being under arrest, violence begets violence.

Them’s my unsolicited thoughts on all of that.

And with that, I’m off to fantasy football land.

Later

Editor's note: The most-recent police trainees in Wilkes-Barre did not attend the State Police academy.