Incredulous

From time to time, J. shares with me choice tidbits from the police blotter at the highly-regarded university in the northeastern U.S. that we lived near for many years. Here are three excerpts from the last week, which add fuel to my suspicion that Americans are becoming more and more anxious, more afraid of each other, more confrontational, and more whacked as a result.

Nov. 12, 7:15 p.m. North Main Street Hanover Police received a report of an assault near Baker-Berry Library involving two 19-year-old male Dartmouth students. One of the students allegedly attempted to steal the other student’s red hat. After the student wearing the hat had reportedly walked away, the suspect confronted the student again and allegedly assaulted him. Hanover Police is still investigating the case.

Huh? (And while we're at it, shouldn't that be "are still investigating?" I mean, it's the Ivy League and all.)

Nov. 17, 6:34 p.m. King Road Hanover Police received multiple calls from individuals who observed flashing lights in the sky and thought they appeared suspicious. Upon investigation, the police learned that the lights were from F-16 military jets on a refueling mission.

(Forget the UFO suspicions; sure, it's perfectly normal for F16s to be refueling over small towns these days, why the hell not?)

Nov. 18, 7:12 p.m. Lyme Road Hanover Police received a report of suspicious activity when an individual was observed in a sand pit beside his car. When police officers arrived, they learned that the individual was a Dartmouth professor performing research on crickets.

Whew! Now that was really a close one.

Comments

[hal lewis]

The United States has become an ungovenable country. You are correct fear is up the top, It seems inside the beltway (Washington) is an different country. Everything they do (and I include the press) is make sure they are invited to the next party............so offend no one.

A civil liberty attorney and a newwoman walked 6 blocks in NYC from their office to a restuant and counted 90 cameras on the streets and buildings. I live in a small city and we have them on our streets paid for by Homeland Security. Every where you go you are spied on and it give me the creeps.

We are in a panic. I's like you can't breath. Hopelessness is rampant. One in three Americans know someone who has lost their job. And the figure of 10% plus unemployment is a phoney. It was fix up a few presidents ago to make them look good. The same with the Cost of Living figure, a phoney.

One last story. In a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre two judges in the juvenile court sent over 5000 kids to a privately owned prison in PA and the owner paid then millions for the inmates. After they were caught and tossed off the bench the PA Supreme Court threw out all the cases, all 5000. Each case took about 2 minutes and the kids had no lawyers, which violates PA law. Many familes have been destroyed and the kids are having a very difficult time trying to return to society. The DA gave the two judges a deal of 7 years in jail but a Federal judge refused the deal. So the two are going to trial before the same Federal judge.
The kicker on this story is that it received very little coverage nation wide and only one radio program covered from the the side of the children.
The kids did not seem to matter it's like well they must have done something wrong.

[Dana]

The last one is super funny.

[Beth]

Hal -- the story you tell is tragic and horrible. When we're in the U.S., we count the cameras too. I can't believe Americans have simply rolled over and allowed this to happen without a whimper, but there they are. And the number of people who see what's happened, and talk about it openly, is getting smaller and smaller. Obama is a great improvement but he is not going to change some of the fundamental things that are wrong, and getting "wronger" by the minute.

Dana - yes, it is funny, but also just incredibly stupid, indicating the level to which paranoia has risen in the society. It's only a short step from there to false arrests and harassment of people who are doing absolutely nothing but being individuals, slightly outside the mainstream. But your'e right - I'll try to keep a sense of (black) humor about it!

[Vivian]

Okay from the large picture to the small (grammar) I would say that on the Blotter, Police is singular because it refers to the agency, not a group of officers. There is something un-frightening about these reports being available to the public. It feels, um cricket...

[laurie]

that last one is pretty funny. and i guess i see things from a slightly different perspective. i do not feel watched nor ruled by fear and paranoia, and i don't feel particularly whacked. i do think that there have always been busybody neighbors who call the police at the slightest thing (a man in a sandbox? what could he possibly be doing there?) and there have long, long been "neighborhood watch" programs where people kind of look after each other. i guess that doesn't seem creepy and wrong to me, but sort of comforting, in a way, to know that if something goes terribly wrong, someone might notice and help out.

[Peter]

W.B. Yeats, from "The Second Coming" (1921)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/The_Second_Comi.htm>Here's the rest. It just seemed to fit.

[Peter]

I beg your pardon. After reading news for a while in Cleveland, you really do get the feeling the end of the world is at hand. Then the sun comes up and you have to start all over again. I absolutely have to give one other link, to what I think is the best police blotter report in the world, from the Arcata Eye, http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=2&topic=7>"The mildly objectionable newspaper for Arcata, Calif."