tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post1770797044072842320..comments2017-04-13T04:47:21.148-06:00Comments on Pro Libertate: My Amerika (first in an occasional series)William N. Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368220509514750246noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-66674069738288340302007-02-13T08:52:00.000-07:002007-02-13T08:52:00.000-07:00Dixie, when my parents, sister and I lived in Oran...Dixie, when my parents, sister and I lived in Orange and Anaheim (late sixties to early seventies) we lived in apartments, and judging from my dads pay stubs that I stumbled upon recently I was surprised we survived at all. Poor would be an apt description. I never knew it but we weren't well off even though we lived in what is today a very expensive enclave. <BR/><BR/>And its easy to not pay attention when you're slaving to merely live day to day. Even in the town I presently live in I can see that because people are too burdened with merely making a "living" that they haven't the desire, nor time, to sit on every crooked official. There are plenty of them but I suspect its all by design.<BR/><BR/>This is one more reason to flee the large metro areas and head for the hills.DrFixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15912619928812368990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-76254733052463601492007-02-12T19:52:00.000-07:002007-02-12T19:52:00.000-07:00This is the epitome of extreme; yet this thug and ...This is the epitome of extreme; yet this thug and his thuggets, when not flingin' some hapless person around about a jail cell that is, are <I>still</I> being paid to eat donuts and pretend to play the Andy Griffith skit at the expense of OC taxpayers???<BR/><BR/>Amazing, Will. So, even with some media exposure as you described, am I to assume there's been no mass citizen outrage? If there hasn't been a roaring outrage expressed by the commoners* to protest this kind of savagefest, orchestrated by mere county mounties to boot, then I have little sympathy.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps, those folk are so enthralled with living close to richie celebs that they think they'll get the same kind of kiddie glove treatment as well, come an encounter with state's men. They forget that only Hollyweird's own are handled with kiddie gloves in encounters with the "boyz in blue."<BR/><BR/>* I hate using that term for those who reside in a place like OC. The majority of the populace in that locale can hardly be classified as "commoners," as one would even liberally define the term.dixiedoghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09845646940134894119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-69003614727058403482007-02-12T15:27:00.000-07:002007-02-12T15:27:00.000-07:00Holy Cow Batman!I lived in Orange up until 1973. ...Holy Cow Batman!<BR/><BR/>I lived in Orange up until 1973. At that time I had pretty fond memories but lord almighty it sure sounds like another corrupt snake pit.DrFixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15912619928812368990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-7398534491765034892007-02-12T15:26:00.000-07:002007-02-12T15:26:00.000-07:00Holy Cow Batman!I lived in Orange up until 1973. ...Holy Cow Batman!<BR/><BR/>I lived in Orange up until 1973. At that time I had pretty fond memories but lord almighty it sure sounds like another corrupt snake pit.DrFixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15912619928812368990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32869165.post-38799834500276128772007-02-12T14:19:00.000-07:002007-02-12T14:19:00.000-07:00Mr. Grigg,As a resident of beautiful Orange County...Mr. Grigg,<BR/><BR/>As a resident of beautiful Orange County currently transplanted in New York while I finish up my education, I take umbrage at your characterization of one of our "hometown heroes!"<BR/><BR/>Wait... no I don't.<BR/><BR/>I can't claim I have studied and paid attention to the apparently widespread corruption amongst Orange Country/Newport Beach police organizations (I think I was too young to notice/care when most of this stuff was going down) but I certainly do have memories of gross incompetence on the part of our law enforcement officials.<BR/><BR/>I think the best example of this was an "incident" that took place about 2/5 of a mile down my street from my house.<BR/><BR/>A disgruntled local handyman held the resident of the home and her caretaker hostage, beat them with the blunt end of an axe and then lit the house on fire, attempting to roast them alive inside. A passerby familiar with the resident noticed trouble through the front window of the house and called police.<BR/><BR/>The two women were rescued, but by the time the authorities had shown up, the house was engulfed in flames and the assailant had fled the scene... not via the streets on foot or in a car, but rather down the sheer cliff face which the house was perched over and then swimmingly through the "Back Bay" aquatic wildlife preserve/turgid, stale, polluted backwater marsh habitat below.<BR/><BR/>All this despite the presence of a police helicopter (the ol' "ghetto bird" that patrols our skies morning, noon and night, to the point that its flyovers occur more frequently than those of the 757 airliners traversing the flight path above my house... oh yeah, did I mention we live underneath the main takeoff/landing route of all air traffic at Orange County's John Wayne Airport?), harbor patrol, 2 K-9/detective teams, innumerable other uniformed officers and, last but not least, NBPD's very own SWAT team?<BR/><BR/>The home ended up collapsing after the fire was finally tended to by the firefighters who refused to fight the fire when they first arrived, claiming they had been shot at by the suspect (no such thing had actually occurred) and which I assume was what prompted the SWAT team showing up.<BR/><BR/>As I later found out, the only reason the man was tracked down after managing to elude a veritable army of law enforcement officials at the outset was because he had carelessly lost his wallet in the thicket of brush at the base of the cliff, and had even more carelessly left a receipt to the local motel he was staying at in same wallet. Police waited for him to show up, which he did (probably to take a shower and relax in front of the TV after a hard days work of tying people up and burning their house down around them), at which point they finally proved competent enough to nab him.<BR/><BR/>I think the best part of it all, however, was the announcement that came on over my local high school's loudspeaker system after students started noticing the Baghdad/Mogadishu-like cloud of thick black smoke emanating from the deeper inside the neighborhood and began to worry-- "There has been a terrorist incident in Dover Shores [my neighborhood] and the police have sealed off the neighborhood [quite poorly, I'd imagine, since the suspect managed to escape!]. No one is allowed in or out of Dover Shores at this time. If you live in Dover Shores, please do not attempt to return there at this time." All prompted by the authorities involved, I am sure.<BR/><BR/>A beautiful mansion on the corner of my street was at one time inhabited by a man, who has since gone to prison, who embezzled millions of dollars from the local NMUSD school district. Really classy stuff.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.nbpd.org/crime/statistics/default.asp" REL="nofollow">Check out our crime statistics!</A> Really deplorable spate of rapes on the peninsula, and of course my neighborhood has always been ripe for a burglary or two... one year, in a space of about a month, three different women were burglarized in their own garages after returning home, in broad daylight. You'd think the police would step it up with a few more patrols after the first crime went unsolved, but nah.<BR/><BR/>Probably too busy giving tickets to children who weren't wearing their bicycle helmets as they rode away from school. NBPD has always been pretty good at that. When I was about 10, I just about had a heart attack after a motorcycle officer lurking behind a hedge-rowed corner WOOOOOOOOO-ed me with his siren to get my attention after I "ran a stop sign" on my bicycle on the way to the local elementary school. It was 8:30 in the morning, it was freezing (relatively for an OC-winter) outside and having been forced to ride to school for the past three years of my life I knew the terrain well enough to know the streets weren't going to have any traffic at that time of day.<BR/><BR/>Still, the wise civil servant thought it better I be late to class that morning so I could get a stern "warning" about the recklessness of my actions. Next time, it would be a ticket!<BR/><BR/><BR/>I don't hate the cops, and I know most of them are good people doing their job (which a lot of the time can be quite dangerous for them), but that doesn't mean they should get off the hook anytime they screw up, either.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Oh, and there's also the fact (which I am sure is a problem/exists in many other communities as well) that most of the NBPD force aren't actually residents of the community, so you get that whole "occupying army," "screw you buddy I don't have to treat you nicely because I'll never run into you at our kids' soccer games" dynamic too.Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16192780977787646373noreply@blogger.com