Eating Cake

Please forgive the crappy title; nothing clever came to mind.  I have missed the last two sessions with the Seven Argives.  Anything having to do with crime, police, police directors, tends to get emotional.  Yes, there is crime in Trenton; there will always be some crime in Trenton.  When the Stewarts moved to Trenton back in 1987, it was not unusual to see groups of teens, usually male, hanging around street corners.  Lamberton & Furman tended to attract kids.  It was also not unusual to see a patrol car pull up, have a cop get out, chase the kids off. 

At time, there was also a mini station on Centre Street; there was a meeting at least once a month.  The president of the mini-station citizens group was a Miss Ella who lived in the Kearney Homes.  A police officer always came to the meetings.  One meeting got loud and nasty.  Parents claimed that the police were harrassing black teens hanging on street corners. 

Having a big mouth, I said, "I'm glad the cops are harrassing these kids because (1) they should be in school and (2) respectable people do not hang on street corners. 

The complaints about harrassment continued to the point where the cops just didn't exert themselves anymore.  Now the cops have to hear about the rising crime statistics. 

And, in closing, we could have five thousand police officers on the force, and we would still have crime.  The lack of police does not cause crime.  Anti-social behavior does.