Ebates Coupons and Cash Back

Sunday, July 20

Checkpoints Resume After Spate of Violence

I am irate right now; I'm sitting here gritting my teeth, wanting to yell and scream and shake someone, and ask them "What good is that going to do now? The people are DEAD! Why are you closing the barn door now when the horses are already gone?" It's ridiculous to me. According to the story, 3 men in a gold 2002 Dodge Intrepid were responsible for some of the shootings which occurred in Trinidad over the weekend. One young man who was shot and killed was 13 years old, visiting from out of town, and at the time he was shot, he was sitting on a fence talking with someone who was also shot. In other words, he was an innocent victim. No connection between him and his killers, it was just a horrible case of the young man being in the wrong place.

How do these government officials expect checkpoints to stop random incidents like this? You have 3 nuts running around the city robbing and killing people; you don't know what section of the city they might go to next, if they even stay in the city. You don't know what streets they might use, if they're going to change cars, nothing. How can blocking off the neighborhood that they've already terrorized and left in a shambles possibly help? With that having just happened, do you really think anyone but the dumbest and most desperate dope fiend is going to be out doing anything illegal? What the hell are the people supposedly in charge of this city thinking? Making this section of the city into some kind of gulag isn't going to catch that child's murderer, and it isn't going to prevent some other young innocent child from getting hurt!

Every time I see something about this, I get angry all over again. I feel like the Jews must have felt when they were imprisoned in the ghettos which used to be their cities. It makes absolutely no sense to put up these checkpoints and detain people from going down certain streets in their own neighborhood ; the damage has already been done! The police that are put to work manning those checkpoints ought to be pounding the pavement looking for those 3 guys in the Intrepid.

6 comments:

the walking man said...

It would belabor the point to give a run down on all of the children massacred by thieves and reprobates here in Detroit. The police never establish check points here after an incident.

I think the only reason for it is to "show the colors" it certainly does no good when it is after the fact, and it is a way oof skirting the unreasonable search and seizure provisions of the constitution because the actions of a minority are used to search for guns and such in every car passing through.

That said, I am of the mind that just about anything that takes handguns out of the hands of them that would use the damn things for violence against the innocent is not a bad thing.

Where do we draw the line and are checkpoints, which have made the national media, the way top go? Are they proactive? Are they legal? What other solution is there for law enforcement to skkkan large groups of people for illegal weapons?

I see both sides of the issue and I do realize that once a right is given up it usually never returns and it is that issue of rights that prohibits me from thinking checkpoints are a good thing.

Lori said...

I think checkpoints don't solve a problem. While they are manning the checkpoints, posted up in one spot, the people who actually committed the crime are far away, maybe doing more of the same. It is sad once your community gets "labeled". What if I were to come visit you? Would I get the usual hassle, "What are you doing here?" "Do you reside here?" I find that attitude unacceptable. In some neighborhoods they have something called Cards...(can't think of the formal name) If you don't live in a neighborhood, you are marked on the "card" and if you come back you are ticketed for trespassing. I think nowadays we have lost many of our original constitutional rights. The masses just aren't aware of it or don't care because it doesn't matter in their world. I empathize with your anger...

Wanda J said...

You would DEFINITELY get hassled if you came to my neighborhood! First off, they'd assume you were one of the deaf kids from Galludet across the street; the yos would look at you as fair game. The old guys would think you were tricking for crack, or an undercover cop, and they'd hassle you. And of course John Law would hassle you because he would think you were coming to buy drugs. All of which is NOT a reason to shut down the neighborhood and lock up the innocent citizes, not IMO anyway.

Wanda J said...

Walking Man, your first statement shows one of the biggest problems that I have with this whole checkpoiint thing: why here? Why in Trinidad, in Washington, DC? Why not in Detroit, or NYC, or Los Angeles? There are so maany other places where the violence is worse, so why here?

the walking man said...

Pookie actually DC is the place for a constitutional test but I believe that alcohol checkpoints have been proven legal. I think there it is being done as opposed to other places is simply because the DC police thought of it first.

Now what has the ACLU done beyond their original umbrage?

Wanda J said...

Would you believe, I have not heard anything (and could not find anything in the news) concerning the ACLU having anything to say about the 2nd round of checkpoints! I cannot believe that they would be quiet about it; aren't they supposed to be for people's rights? Or aren't the rights of those of us who live in Trinidad important enough?