>From: Brian D Williams <talon57@well.com>
>Subject: Murder rate going up?
>Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 08:33:41 -0700 (PDT)
>
>From a brief in today's Investors Business Daily p A2
>
>The murder rate is going up in New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston,
>Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and Phildelphia. Experts
>are unsure if this is only temporary.
>
Actually, I strongly suspect all the crime figures. Local papers reported
not too long ago that many police departments have begun adopting policies
of refusing to take reports on all but "serious" crimes. The reality in
Santa Ana, CA however, appears to be that "serious" is likely more connected
with how much money is likely to be garnered via siezures, fines, etc. than
in how much damage it does to the individual victims, if any.
Last night, for example, someone decided to vandalize my motorcycle - this
happens about every other month, as my office is located right across the
street from the bario, whose gang reps can be seen regularly cruizing the
area in their "cars with a boom" or low-rider bicycles. Nothing can be left
out for even a minute without the liklihood it will be stolen.
So, at about 4:45AM, someone suddenly started pounding on the front door.
It sounded as though they were trying to break in. I was in the bathroom,
and, by the time I got there, they were gone and my motorcycle was lying on
its side against the air-conditioner which juts out of the front wall onto
the concrete landing. I had to pick the bike up - 630 pounds - to get it
off the air conditioner and prevent damage from battery leakage, etc., and
afterwards my back was hurting a little so I figured I should make a police
report, if only so that I could refer to it if I had to make a claim against
my property insurance carrier for on-the-property injury, in case the back
strain turned serious.
When I called the Santa Ana police, I get this idiot who uses every argument
he can think of to refuse taking a report. In the past, I have always
gotten good cooperation on these incidents. I made the mistake of
mentioning to this guy that similar incidents had happened repeatedly in the
past. So he starts asking me, in this unbelievably snide, sarcastic tone,
"and did your making a report ever, in all these incidents, result in any
arrest or get you any compensation. No. So what is the point of making
this report now?"
I point out that this establishes a pattern, in case the perps are ever
caught, and that, furthermore, I would like to have it on record if I have
to substantiate a medical claim later. Then he comes off the wall. "Well,
your injury has NOTHING to do with the alleged crime. We don't get involved
with that."
I ask, if it happened to an officer that he was in any way injured while
investigating or dealing with the consequences of a crime, wouldn't the perp
be charged with that, in addition to the direct act itself? No reply. So
now, even though I tell him twenty or so times that I'm not asking that
ANYTHING be put in the report about my injury, he keeps insisting that
because my private purpose in getting the report on file is to potentially
reference it later for insurance purposes, therefore he can't file a report.
Finally, after about twenty minutes of going round and round, he finally
asks if I would like an officer to come by. I finally tell him yes, if they
can get there in a reasonable time. He says that they should be there
pretty quickly as the shift has just changed. I stand on the landing for
the next hour and thirty minutes. No police. While I'm in the bathroom
again, they arrive (7:02AM) and then leave.
I crash out on the floor, exhausted. My planned trip to Mexico is now
pretty much off the table. At about noon, I call the PD back and get this
woman who is even more idiotic than the guy. She tries to tell me, in
addition to the erroneous diversion about my injury - she grilled me on why
I was making a report - that I should not be making a report anyway, as I
was NOT the victim! Who was the victim? ... You guessed it, THE
MOTORCYCLE is the victim.
This, of course, is the logical complement to the evil,unconstitutional and
vicious seizure policy by which the PD makes its money - about 50% of the
budget for most of the Orange County police, according to the Orange County
Register a few years back. If you're doing anything illegal in a car, in
theory they can seize the car as an accomplice. The car is then charged
with the crime. In order to get the car (or home, or business, or boat,
etc.) back, you have to petition the court and then PROVE in court that it
was innocent.
Now, this is turned around to its logical corrolary. If the motorcycle is
responsible for a crime, then obviously it can also be the victim of a
crime. I suppose that this is a great precedent for all those eager
would-be uploads and SI champions among us; however, I never got a reply as
to how my motorcycle was supposed to have reported its vandalizm. The lady
immediately changed the subject.
So, if someone torches my home, then, unless I was injured directly - and
not in trying to put out the fire or rescue my cat, etc. - the home was the
only "victim," and I don't even have the right to file a report. (Actually,
carrying this to next logical step, if I get burned alive, then it was the
HOME's fault, and it should be charged with murder, or at least as an
accomplice, and - naturally - seized, if there's anything left to sell for
the PD coffers.)
When I continued to press my demand for a report, the lady started implying
that I was making the whole thing up. Then she started accusing me of
engaging in "borderline criminal fraud" - as I was potentially planning on
using the report for an insurance claim.
After being cut off once and put on hold numerous times, with still no
report, I finally gave up. Obviously, the Santa Ana PD is no longer in the
business of assisting the citizenry at all.
Down the street from me, a few years back, there was a huge meth lab. When
they moved out, they left hundreds of boxes lying around outside, each
filled with 1,000 tab empty psuedophedrine bottles. I.e., they were so
confident of non-prosecution they make no attempt to conceal their tracks or
evidence. Wonder how much of a cut went to Santa Ana's finest?
Like I said, crime reports are suspect, perhaps more so now than ever.
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