Topic: Politics
I am a foreman for a large landscaping company. A little less than two years ago I was working on the University Village Shopping Center project, which was under construction on North Nevada Ave. in Colorado Springs. Upon arriving at work one morning my crew discovered that our storage container had been broken into and a Jumping Jack compactor had been stolen. This is not a cheap piece of machinery with new ones going easily in the $3,000 range. I called the Colorado Springs Police Department to report the theft. The officer I talked to would not even come out to the site, instead taking a short report over the phone, citing the extreme workload that the Department was under. He did, however have time to spend 30 minutes basically giving me a lecture, (fund raising campaign speech), on why it is so important for citizens to vote for tax increases when they come up on the ballot. Ironically, I live in un-incorporated El Paso county, so I cannot vote for city issues anyway, I just wanted the Police Department to do their job.
Around the same time my wife and I went to a “community meeting” for the Security/Widefield area which was being conducted by the El Paso county Sheriff’s Department. Much to our dismay this was also nothing but a lecture on how the Sheriff’s Department is grossly under-funded, and therefore understaffed. Again, we were strongly pressured to vote for tax increases.
If memory serves me correctly this was also around the same time frame that “Girls Gone Wild” was in the Springs, and the Police Department felt the need to “investigate”. What they found, (surprise!), was willing women were flashing their breasts to men who eagerly and willingly wanted to see them. Of course the police had to stay and document all of the offenses in a detailed fashion.
Now a story comes out that Springs Police spent $700 recently at P.T’s nightclub trying to get to the bottom of serious offenses there. One officer deliberately got visibly drunk and acted obnoxious to ascertain that he would continue to be served. I must admit, I respect the integrity and dedication of this officer who was willing to subject himself to a night of drinking and watching naked women dance solely for the sake of “protecting and serving” the community. Basically what they found was that people get drunk at a bar, and the dancers are not prostitutes.
Is it just me, or does it seem like there is a severe distortion of priorities evidenced here?
Posted by thejameswest
at 11:27 AM MDT
Updated: Saturday, 30 April 2011 11:28 AM MDT
