3648 Sitting on my stool

Saturday, October 20, 2012

My girlfriend always laughs during sex---no matter what she's reading.

--Steve Jobs --

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The Queen asked on my post #3646 why I don't call the police about apparent drug sales in the parking lot.

Daughter says there's no point, that it might be dangerous to be (even if mistaken as) a rat, and the police don't do anything about it anyway.  They'll pull in, the dealers will pull out, and the cops let them go.  She's lived here a lot longer than I, and I'm beginning to see where she's coming from.

I read the weekly township police activity report (PDF link in an email).  In any given week in this small township the police are called out well over 250 times.  Arrests are made or investigations conducted for domestic disturbances, burglaries, robberies, unauthorized use of credit or debit cards, motor vehicle infractions, bar fights, blah blah blah, but you never see anything about drugs.  Never.  No prostitution, either.  (Oddly, about 1/3 of the arrests are for "contempt of court".  It looks like most people arrested for whatever never bother to appear in court.)

About the only time the local cops even check for drugs is when it's a traffic stop and they get pissed at the driver.

This is the summary paragraph from the most recent report:

Officers responded to or initiated 260 calls for service between October 10 and October 16, 2012, including 15 suspicious persons/vehicles; 19 alarms; 17 first aid calls; seven motor vehicle crashes; six thefts; one domestic violence incident, one noise complaint; one criminal mischief incident, four disorderly persons, four burglaries, and 71 motor vehicle stops. Officers issued 45 motor vehicle summonses.

I think the police are overwhelmed.  I don't know how many officers there are but I see the same seven names over and over in the reports.  Doing the math, each officer is handling a heavy caseload.  Drug busts are time and effort intensive, and given that known dealers are all over the place here (there are two homes on my short street where I hear you can get anything you want), busts are probably a waste of time.  Slap one down, another pops up.

Most dealers here operate out of houses.  You can tell where they are - they're the ones with a lot of traffic, short visits.  I guess they have lots of friends over for a quick cup of tea, eh?  Tea drunk on the doorstep.  I'm surprised that this parking lot bunch is selling so openly.

My major point was that I've never actually seen it right out in the open like that, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do.  The first time I realized what was probably happening I stood there and stared in disbelief - which I suspect is the wrong thing to do.

Of course for all I know they're actually selling thumb drive copies of their garage band's latest album. 
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