PAX Centurion - May / June 2015

Page 16 • PAX CENTURION • June/July 2015 617-989-BPPA (2772) M ANYYEARSAGO, IF MEMORY SERVES ME COR- RECT, I recall commenting in the Pax about an article (I believe it was written by the great columnist Mike Royko) from the Chicago Tribune regarding the murder of 9-year old Laketa Crosby (1985?) entitled “When police are handcuffed, violence is unleashed.” This poor young girl was caught in the middle of gangbanger-scumbag gunfire in the infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects on the South Side of Chicago. Shortly after this savage inci- dent, then-Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne moved into the Cabrini-Green projects, refusing to be intimidated by the thugs and criminals. For those who might take offense at my use of the term “savage”, I refuse to use the term “trag- edy”: a tragedy is, by definition, a conflu- ence of situations and incidents which the victim(s) could not avoid and were not responsible for, such as a fire, tornado or flood. Savages cause mayhem and murder by their casual use of violence, uncivilized behavior and vile conduct. Laketa Crosby was the victim of murdering thugs, not a “tragedy.” Of course, with the Mayor came a legion of police officers and security. In short order, the scumbag-gang- bangers were gone, their hideouts were rousted, and relative peace was restored to a portion of the Cabrini-Green projects. But then came the contingent of civil-rights attorneys and shakedown-artists such as Chicago’s Jesse Jackson. (I can’t blame Al Sharpton: he was just in his formative years back then, beginning with the Tawana Brawley false rape-scam and the arson-murder at Freddie’s Fashion Mart in Harlem which he instigated and fomented. I am, of course, dating myself, but some might remember Sharpton before he became the MSNBC fraud and frequent visitor to theWhite House masquerading as a “civil-rights activist” that he is today…) And soon, after numerous complaints about police brutality and excessive force, the Mayor left the projects and the police withdrew. GUESSWHAT HAPPENED NEXT?? Well, the projects reverted to what they previously were; havens for gang-bangers, law- less conduct by thugs-on-welfare, and drug dealers. Ahmmm.. any surprise here…? The reason I mention this is simple: the more things and times change, the more they remain the same. What is happening in major “When police are handcuffed, violence is unleashed” Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland crime rates skyrocket: Geez, I wonder why....??? By James W. Carnell, Pax Editor cities such as Baltimore, Cleveland and Chicago is nothing more than an example of what happens when the police are handcuffed by mobs, politicians and the media. Pro-active policing becomes re-active policing, and understandably so. Police officers are human beings. When your work is unappreciated, criticized and second- guessed by management, political frauds and self-appointed com- munity activists, police officers respond as any normal person would: we adopt horse blinders and respond to calls only when required to respond by radio. Why take the chance of being somebody’s “You-Tube” moment when you arrive at an incident and are met with a crowd armed with cell-phone cam- eras, bottles and bricks? Aggressive, pro-active policing is discouraged by judicial and political fiat, and the conse- quence is….well… Baltimore ; where the merry, merry month of May, 2015, racked up 43 homicides and over 120 shooting in- cidents. (Thinking of taking the kids for a trip to CamdenYards?Yeah, I didn’t think so…) Maybe Gomer Pyle would have said it best: “Surprise, Surprise!” Now, the same residents who were complaining about the police us- ing excessive force are complaining that the police aren’t arresting the bad guys, the gang-bangers and the drug dealers. Geez, I wonder why?... “When the police are handcuffed, vio- lence is unleashed”. Unfortunately, the civil-rights lawyers and the ACLU-types don’t live where poor Laketa Crosby died or thousands of others who have perished in urban violence since her demise thirty years ago. If they did, they’d be the first ones on the phone to their political friends demanding that “the police do something” to end the violence. If the garden party inWaban or the art exhibit in Cambridge was interrupted by gunfire, there’d be hell to pay. Around here, the elitist liberals live in Newton and Brookline andWellesley and Cam- bridge. They write their articles from the ivory towers of the Boston Globe and then drive home to Lexington, Arlington, andWeston to second-guess and critique the actions of street-cops in Dorchester, Roxbury, Roslindale and Downtown Boston. It doesn’t take a degree from Harvard, Columbia or Princeton to understand what’s happen- ing in Baltimore or many, many other major cities: “ When the police are handcuffed, violence is unleashed.” It’s that simple….