Night of the Hooligans!

Claire's stuffed bunny was lying on the floor, bathed in shards of glass. In the haze of the moment, I had a strange image of the cops drawing a chalk line around poor fluffy bunny, one of the victims of this random crime. Last night, my downtown Main Street studio apartment was vandalized. By vandalized, I mean some drunken moron thought that a night of drinking just isn't fun until you cap off the evening by smashing in the window of a stranger's apartment at 2:30 in the morning. Claire was much more prudent than I, and immediately called 911, begging me come back into the bedroom. I stormed into the kitchen (the "crime scene") and contemplated whether or not I should run out of the apartment and try to see if there was any sign of the scum bags (the "perps"). Glad I didn't in retrospect. The only weapons I had on hand were candles, a hard cover book about the progressive roots of fascism, and some butter knives - so unless the vandals wanted to read by candle light as I slathered them in marmalade while waiting for the cops to come, my plan to chase after the window kickers seemed rather ill conceived.

The cops were polite and efficient once they arrived (40 minutes after the 911 call. The station is located 2 minutes away). There were several anonymous tips called in regarding the incident; all contradicted the number of assailents and the ethnicity of the attackers. One guy called in to say he saw two stocky white guys kicked in the window. Another person called in to say that it was an African American male on a crazed window smashing rampage down the street with 2 to 3 scrawny white guys tagging along for the fun. Either way, I doubt I'll be getting a call from Cold Case Files anytime soon.

While it took the cops about an hour to finally kick things into gear, the folks at Economy Glass had the window cleaned and re-installed in about 25 minutes. I was recently givin an excellent description of the suspects by someone who was nearby the scene last night. I called the Codiac RCMP to give them the details. They told me someone would call me back on Thursday night. Probably too busy tasering squeegie people to be pestered with an actual crime.

It pains me to criticize law enforcement, as I support them as a good citizen, and on principle as a conservative. But time and time again, they continue to live up to every stereotype that their detractors paint them with. Only 2 months ago, a crazed man began to knock at my doors and windows at 4am. He screamed and kicked for 15 minutes before an officer arrived. I was informed that the lunatic screaming and kicking at my apartment just wanted to use the phone, and that I was over-reacting. The guy got a free ride home in a cab after he and the cop swapped jokes on the sidewalk. Late last year I watched as an officer man-handled some scrawny teenage kid with a big mouth at the Big Stop in Salisbury, throwing him violently against the counter when he could have been easily subdued by the 4 officers on the scene. The list goes on, but I can only honestly attest to what I have seen with my own two eyes.

Perhaps kicked in glass and people relentlessy beating on your doors and windows don't qualify as immediate action items to our local police force given the rising rate of more serious drug-related crimes, but when officers begin to pick and choose what crimes are more egregious and worthy of attention, they risk falling into a dangerous trap. As Rudy Giuliani - former Presidential candidate and the mayor who cleaned up New York - once said; "Murder and graffiti are two vastly different crimes, but they are part of the same continuum, and a climate that tolerates one is more likely to tolerate the other.”

Cordially

Joe