Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Grumpus

I'm never sure if days like today in which all of the news makes me see red or feel blue are because I'm reacting to the stories or viewing the stories from the wrong side of the bed. Y'all can form your own opinions...

Joe at Columbus Homes Blog recently wrote that one of the most notable features of Bexley was the omni-presence of our police force. I guess we're playing to our strengths, because we're adding 40 15 volunteer police officers, complete with guns. Don't get me wrong, nobody likes having their garage ransacked or having a car barrel down the block past the houses of a dozen pre-schoolers at one and a half times the posted speed limit, but at some point there's a transition from feeling safe to feeling creeped out, and we might be getting close. Perhaps we can be a little more transparent and just keep officers permanently stationed at Main/Parkview, Main/Gould, Livingston/Mayfield, Cassady/Delmar, etc. You know, keep a presence where it will do the most good.

Of course, I should be celebrating Earth Day. I'll celebrate it by asking: Is there lead in the synthetic grass that Bexley's students play on?

Moving down Broad Street, an important new development has occurred in the investigation of the Sexual Harrassment complaints at the A.G.'s office - 2300 emails between Marc Dann and Jessica Utovich have been released. This is important because Marc Dann is accused of assaulting Ms. Utovich. I mean, because Ms. Utovich has complained of harrassment. I mean, because even though there are criminal complaints and EEOC investigations going on, all anybody really cares about is who, if anyone, Marc Dann is boinking.

Finally, I would have thought that by now, everybody would have figured out that the Dem nomination system does not work like the Electoral College or the GOP nomination system. Pennsylvania works like this:

It is possible to win the popular vote and still get fewer delegates. It does not matter who "wins PA," and it only matters a little what the spread in gross vote totals is. The media has had four months to explain this to folks, but they've insisted over and over again that explaining how delegates are selected is "confusing" and "complicated," and have stuck with the winner/loser descriptions. I used to think that they were contemptuous of the public. Now I think that they're just lazy.

Enjoy your day.

4 comments:

Joe Peffer - Full Time Professional Realtor said...

Pseudo vigilante volunteer Police with guns? So long as they have to swear an oath I guess nothing could go wrong, right?

Now I know why Bexley is shelling out the big bucks for the shooting range in the new Police Station.

bkessler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bkessler said...

Hey grumpus - don't worry, reserve police force is primarily to assist with events like 4th of July, etc, where normal police officers otherwise have to be ordered into overtime. I'm not sure where the 40 officer count figure came from - that is nowhere near anything that has been discussed. Even the 15 reserve office count from the Dispatch article is stronger than what it will probably pan out to be, which is a handful of reserve officers available to handle events which require excess safety officers.

And here is how you should REALLY celebrate earth day - tonight council unanimously voted to pursue LEED certification on the forthcoming police station, and we're looking to break ground in September. So celebrate!

bonobo said...

Thanks for setting me straight regarding the number. Part of my brain insists that I read that number in one of the stories, but I know enough about memory to guess that mine probably failed me in between reading and writing. The tone of the article made it seem like a lot more than just the 4th, Labor Day, etc., with the minimum two days a month and experience being the main incentive. Regardless, 15 offficers at 16 hours per month is only the equivalent of 1.5 full time officers added. Double either the count or the hours and that's still less than a 10% increase. That does seem more reasonable than my initial impression.

Thanks also for the LEED news, that is good news.