Sure we shined a light on some of the police issues and abuses, and don’t get me wrong, police abuse should be investigated and handled appropriately. It’s now mainstream news and the public is very much aware of it now, so it’s a victory right? The news hasn’t been handling it very well IMHO though, because they seemed to have turned the public against the police in general. They’re not reporting all the GOOD the good police officers out there are doing. All the positive things being stopped or handled by the police. The mainstream news is just so geared towards the bad, the corruption, the few bad apples in a sea of good apples. I get it, bad news sells, it gets visitors to your website and draws in that much needed advertising money. But it skews the public view, makes the police seem bad and that’s sad. But hey, we’ve pointed out police brutality, corruption, the abuses, the bad apples. We’ve won right? Victory? Maybe a Pyrrhic victory.

Due to multiple moves over the last several years, and a strange policy with Nextdoor (like a localized Facebook, focusing on neighbors, your neighborhood, and the surrounded neighborhoods) where if you move you can’t change your account to a new neighborhood but instead have to create a new account, I now have 4 different nextdoor accounts all parts of very different neighborhoods. I mainly log into my latest nextdoor account, because that covers my current local neighborhood. You know what I’ve noticed over the last couple of years? A large spike in posts from negihbors about very suspicious activity in their neighborhood (like people wearing masks and walking around parking lots at 2am type of activity), vandalism, porch pirates, cars getting broken into and items stolen not only in parking lots or alongside the road but in their own driveways, even posts about home break-ins. Some neighbors are asking for any photos or videos neighbors may have but some even have photos and/or video and they’ve submitted it to the police. But you know what? There’s nothing police are doing about it.

At first I was concerned, but I figured this was just a “local” problem. So on a whim I logged into my other 3 nextdoor accounts, from my old neighborhoods in different counties and states, and looked at the crime & safety postings from neighbors and have also noticed a sharp increase in reports over the last few years. This took me days of reading and I was not left in a good head-space after reading all this. And the comments sections? Police aren’t able to do much, if anything, about it. Other than take down a report. Lots of neighbors have reported their once-safe neighborhoods going down hill lately. It’s disheartening.

So some quick googling and a few news articles and a few reddit posts later to see what reporters and normal people believe the cause is, and it seems to be because the police/sheriff are so short staffed they’re having to focus on the bigger crimes. That’s the general consensus anyways. The police are focusing (rightfully so) on violent crimes, and crime waves and such. They have to de-prioritize the smaller crimes, just take a report and push it into the back-pile. They’re not able to spare an officer to investigate. I mean, a couple of guys walking around a parking lot at 3am wearing masks should warrant a police response right? But nope. 2 different incidents reported on nextdoor from 2 different neighborhoods states apart, but the local police (or in one case sheriff’s office) never sent an officer out. But hey, we won the “war” on the police right? Defund the police. Black Lives Matter. All that good stuff, now the police have the spotlight of the public, and the media, on them so they have to behave. But so much of the people are against the police now, that not a lot of people want to be a police officer anymore. I mean, would you want to work a job where your every move, every word, is scrutinized, checked, double-checked, etc. Where everyone seems against you, and where the pay and benefits is not equal to what you have to deal with?

It’s going to get worst before it gets better, but I really do hope it gets better. I’m trying to be an optimist, maybe as it gets worst the public will realize that all this hate and distrust of the police was maybe not such a good thing since they can’t walk out their front door w/o being afraid of getting mugged. Maybe the politicians and law makers will realize that they need to pay these officers better and give them more benefits. Maybe people will actually begin cheering and smiling when they see a police officer patrolling a neighborhood. Thanks Mr. Officer for keeping this neighborhood safe.

Stay safe out there everyone. Might be time to invest in some personal defense items like pepper gel or stun guns or tazers etc. and dash cams and doorbell cams (not for help in filing a police report, but it may help defend you when you have to take action against the ‘bad guy’). Recording video of the bad guy isn’t really going to help any more, not right now, not until police get more staff, but if you’re forced to pepper spray somebody and/or hold them at gunpoint, or God-forbid shoot at them, that video may help with your defense. Because the few remaining officers are under such pressure to still close cases, to still charge people with a crime, that they may not be as sympathetic to helping you, an honest citizen, out of a bad situation. They need to charge somebody with the crime, even a crime against some suspicious characters, in order to quickly dismiss the incident and without video evidence, you could be in trouble. So stay safe, document and photo and video everything (for your own protection) and good luck my neighbors.

Filed under: Personal - @ 2023-04-04 7:17 pm