The Daily Item: Lynn police take aim at gang-related crime
This is nice but I don't feel safer yet. I question how effective this program or anyone costing who knows how much will be. This is not a policing or enforcement problem. It is an economic and moral one. Too many people with too little to do. The only way yo provide any kind of solution to this problem is through education. We've got to learn to be nice, to have respect of ourselves and our neighbors.
Textbooks and slide rules are expensive but common courtesy are free. I was walking downtown today, by the Blue Ox I think and I kind of stepped aside to let two policeman by. They were talking to each other about something. I don't know the particulars but there was no crisis and it definitely wasn't about official business. They never broke conversation. Not an "Excuse me", "Good afternoon", or even a "Hello".
An opportunity was lost. There was a chance for these officers to work on building a good rapport with their neighbors (my wife was with me) and it wouldn't have cost a thing. Now if these officers wouldn't take the time to exchange salutations with a poor, disabled poet, what do you think the chances are they would have greeted a tattooed teenager with his jeans sagging. Positive experiences now help prevent negative actions in the future. It's up to us to teach, we control what they can learn.
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