Point of Personal Privilege
Posted on November 25, 2008
It’s my blog and I will cry if I want to.
My dog woke me up this morning at 4 am, and then my mother, who is visiting from Chicago for the holiday, yelled from the guest room, “Tthere is somebody at the front door.”
I traipsed down stairs, opened the door and saw D.C.’s finest gathered outside.
“Sir, do you own a black Lexus?” I nodded yes.
“Well, sir, your tires have been stolen. All four of them.”
Another police officer walked up, almost laughing, “What is this? East St. Lous?”
I had to laugh. Nope, this is Capitol Hill, and I can’t believe it.
My car is by no means fancy. I bought it used. It has a few scrapes on it. It drives nice, but I usually walk to work, so it is really just a weekend car.
But we have a long weekend coming up, it would have been nice having it around for some errands. Now, it will be in the shop, probably till next Monday.
Crime strikes with all too regular frequency on Capitol Hill, and throughout the city and many suburbs.
Young kids commit most of the crime in and around Washington D.C. While violent crime hasn’t hit the numbers that engulfed the city in the Marion Berry days, it is on the rise, and with the economy tanking, it could get worse again.
Crime wasn’t much an issue in the campaign, but it should have been. Our current correctional situation is untenable. Basically, we send kids to prison so they can learn how to be better criminals. It makes absolutely no sense.
The war on drugs has been a failure. Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, Afghanistan all help supply the United States with illegal drugs. Mexico is falling apart. Columbia and Venezuela are close to war with each other because of narco-terrorism. Heroin is Afghanistan’s best selling product, and it produced by drug lords who have little interest in cooperating with the United States.
All of this has an impact on our streets (and possibly my car). A story in the Post detailed how high school kids in the suburbs of Virginia (white kids, by the way) have killed themselves by overdosing on heroin.
These kids bought the heroin from gang-bangers in Baltimore. But the drug trade is just as deadly in the District.
Mexican drug gangs bring in crystal meth from south of the border and sell in many parts of rural America. In much of the country, the crystal meth epidemic is the most dangerous security threat to the population.
And nobody is really talking about this issue. No politician is talking about stopping the petty crimes (like stealing my car’s tires) or the dangerous murders that engulf our streets.
I am annoyed at what happened to me last night, but I am angry at what our leaders have done to stop the crime in our streets. It is time to put crime back at the top of the agenda.