Little Rock Police Admit Being Unable To Protect Citizens at “Eateries”

         Ok Shirley, I understand that wasn't exactly what the police spokesperson said, but the feeling was there. Cheez, get off my back on this stuff. Go do your own blog.

        But to get to the isue, Monday, June 27^th was a sad and somewhat alarming day for the good citizens of Little Rock. Per the local paper headline, actually page one in the “B” section, “Police say security is lacking in eateries”.

            The local paper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, explains it quite well. “After a rash of aggravated robberies at fast-food restaurants in June, police in Little Rock say the businesses can take steps to be less vulnerable.”

            Well, would you good and ‘at risk’ citizens, care to guess what the local police suggest? No need, I’ll enlighten you. “… Little Rock police Lt. Dana Jackson said that’ the stores could do more to prevent the robberies altogether. While nearly every restaurant in the city has some form of video surveillance system, Jackson said a security guard or off-duty police officer is probably more of a deterrent because its human nature to choose the path of least resistance. Why go there, [where there is a security guard?], when you can go two blocks over and 10 blocks down’, Jackson said.

            Now lets just review what the official LR police suggestions are:

1. Hire an off-duty police officer to protect the restaurant. (We can’t protect you ‘on-duty’, ‘so hire a cop’ at extra cost when ‘off-duty’ and we’ll teach those miscreants a thing or two. Well actually, just chase ‘em ‘down the street’.)
2. Encourage the miscreant to go rob an eatery down the road. (“Actually 2 blocks over and 10 blocks down.”) This would fall under the general business principle of ‘beggar thy neighbor’s competitive franchise’, or more accurately ‘burgle or rob thy competitor’. Could this fall under the ‘aiding and abetting a criminal offense’ law?).
3. Hire a non-police security guard. (I wonder if Barney is available since Mayberry is ‘off the air’ so to speak? For only a small monthly fee I would agree to hold the bullet for the security guard). You can’t just totally ignore this last option. A Mr. Todd Armstrong who has his own security agency, SES Group, affirms that “But the presence of a guard ‘usually get results’, he said”. (The adverb ‘usually’ in front of ‘gets results’ does give some cause for concern.)

Either to incite citizen concern or to warn them away from “eateries”, the following anecdote was given. “An employee of a Subway that was robbed June 18 said ‘there had been no training for such an even before it happened’. The employee,…, with one other employee when a black man walked in. During the robbery, the man held the knife to the employee and told the other to get money out of the register. ‘The [other employee] working with me just completely freaked out. Employees don’t always know the right thing to do, and it could have cost me my life’. When the man came back the next day in the middle of the employee’s morning shift looking for surveillance tapes, the employee quit, citing fears of a ‘third visit’.”

       My first thought was that the miscreant had to be ‘eat up with the dumbs’. Even if the police didn’t already have the surveillance tapes, returning to the ‘scene of the crime’ seems just a little dumb. You know, later line-up IDs and all of that.

Secondly, you would think that in the middle of the morning shift that the cook would have come rushing at the perp swinging a meat clever or pan of hot fry grease or something.

Thirdly, the newly unemployed employee should got to Hip-Hop Sportswear and apply for a job. They know how to handle perps at that place of business. (See blog titled “Do the Little Rock Police Suggest You Ensure That the Robber Isn’t a Killer, Before You Do What the Robber Demands?”)

I guess that I should go get my ‘concealed weapon carry permit’ unless I totally swear and avow to never enter another fast food restaurant. Apparently "Fast Foodery" has become dangerous in more ways then just caloric.

You Just Can’t Spend Money Like the Government Can!

          Some of you may remember that we had a rip-snorting recession and housing ‘bomblet’ hit about three years ago. In order to address the economic downturn and simulate the economy by adding new jobs, 2 million was the promise, President Hussein Obama conceived the Stimulus Bill. Well, he may not have actually been the intellectual power behind this, but he sure enough took credit for getting it passed.

            Well now the State of Arkansas has just published its success in creating jobs from this stimulus money. But first some mind riveting facts:

1.      Arkansas was “awarded” $3.3 billion “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” dollars.

2.      To date, about $2.5 billion has been spent; about 75%.

3.      Arkansas’s Department of Workforce Services reports at in February 2009 Arkansas’s unemployment rate was 6.8%; as of May 2011 the rate is 7.8%, about a 15% increase in unemployment with the $2.5 billion spent.

4.      In February 2009 the state had 1,272,600 employed folks and 93,600 unemployed. As of May 2011 there were 15,100 fewer employed folks and 13,300 more unemployed workers.

5.      The cost “per job created or saved” ranged from a low of $56,181.00 per job to a high of $216,583.00 per job.

6.      If you were to divide $2.5 billion spent by the original 93,600 unemployed folks, you could have sent each of them a $1,000.00 check each and every month over the past 2 years.

In case you wondered where the states have been spending their stimulus funds, here’s where the state of Arkansas spent their ‘stimulus’ dollars:

1.                  Of the $1.008 billion given to Health and Human Services, $700 million has been spent on Medicaid.

2.                  Of the $740 million given to education, $509 million has been spent doing stuff.

3.                  Of the $836 million awarded for labor programs, $753 spent for unemployment insurance.

4.                  $364 million was given for highway programs of which $224 million is spent repaving highways and byways.

5.                  Of the $103 million for energy and weatherization programs, $45 million spent.

6.                  Of $131 million for housing and community development, $109 million spent.

So, of the totals listed above: $3.182 billion awarded to the state and of that $2.540 billion already spent. As mentioned, the results are employment down by 15,100 and unemployment up by 13,300.

            You tell me if the stimulus program was worthwhile. Those who favor it make the argument that “it would have been so much worse without it”. Those agin’ say it was a trillion dollars added to our national debt and produced very little short and no long term benefits.

            The Governor of Arkansas gave his opinion in the local paper on June 19, “Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, said he’s ‘not sure’ how much difference the stimulus money made in the state’s economy. ‘It helped some people’, he said.”

            On the other hand, “The stimulus in Arkansas ‘hasn’t stimulated the economy, that is for sure,’ said Senator Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee. But it did give Arkansas some relief on the Medicaid front.”

          One thing is for sure, for dangsure, we spent a lot of money and added about 10 % to the federal debt with this stimulus program. The good news for you dear reader, if you are one of the ‘old ones’, it won’t be you who must pay it back. It’s your kids and grandkids and their kids who will have to pay it back. I'm not quite certain how you wrap that inheritance bequest up and make it look pretty.

If The Citizens Want Tax Relief, Punish Them!

            Well at least that seems to be the instinct in Arkansas’s Governor Beebe’s Administration. To review some of the details for those of you who may not know, or even care; Governor Beebe became just a little upset when some obnoxious legislators took the initiative and proposed and then passed some tax reductions without his blessing and leadership. (He likes to take credit for this kind of stuff.)

            Turns out in the implementation of “fiscal responsibility”, (cutting taxes by $35 million), some foster parents will pay the price by having their monthly reimbursement for “room and board” reduced about 50% per child. To quote from the local paper, “The payments are being halved to help the Children and Family Services Division in the Department of Human Services stay within its budget.”

            The total budget cut for this Department was $1.59 million of which $275,000.00 was cut from the room and board for “therapeutic foster care homes”. These homes are for children requiring “extra care”. This reduces the monthly “room and board” maximum reimbursement per child from approximately $500.00 to $250.00 per month.

            So Governor Beebe, as the Chief Executive of the State’s Administrative Branch, seems OK with just slicing the monthly reimbursement to those good folks caring for “special needs” foster kids by 50%. After all, his budget was cut by $35 million in tax cuts, so some one has to suffer. Of course he could find the $275,000.00 in the AG McDaniel’s office. Seems the AG just keeps all the moneys the state receives from the class action lawsuits and spends it as he deems appropriate. Maybe “special needs” foster care falls under the AG’s definition of “appropriate”.

            Oh, did I mention that the state has over 8,000 vehicles, many of which they can’t locate or determine who uses them and for what. At $30,000.00 each the Governor could find $275,000.00 by not purchasing NINE new ones!
            What Shirley? No! I'm not in some kind of "Mid-Summer Night's Dream". I'm, well, just a lovable ole optimist at heart. Some good spirited public servant will figure out how to pay these good folk foster parents for the R&B of these special needs kids.

LR Holdup Rash Continues

            Seems that the first quarters’ stats for crime in LR wasn’t a fluke. (See previous posting “Law of Unintended Consequences).

            The local paper reported on June 21^st per Lt. Terry Hastings “ given the rash of business robberies that have been committed in the past two months”; (May and June presumably). … In the first half of May, 28 of the 34 reported robberies were business robberies. LR detectives call the targeting of businesses ‘unusual’, because individuals are usually robbed more than businesses by a rate of 2-to-1.”

            It’s difficult to tell if this is good news or bad. It may now be less likely that an individual gets robbed, or is it more likely if the individual is at a place of business. Does the term “rash” mean more than expected?

            Does this mean that LR has a new class of robber who may think that a business has more money to be taken than from an individual? Or is it just that a business is open at a known location and the robber would have to locate an individual at random?

            In any case since ‘robbery’ means the use of force, weapon for intimidation, the increase versus business or individuals isn’t good news.

            I wonder if Governor Beebe has any concern that his new “Bring the Brigands to Arkansas” law may have some role in this?

Do the Little Rock Police Suggest You Ensure That the Robber Isn’t a Killer, Before You Do What Robber Demands?

            Through a convoluted convergence of cosmic events we have an interesting twist of fate. We have two shoot-outs in Little Rock on the same night with identical wounds but one wound is received in compliance with police advice and the other avoided by ignoring police advice.

In one, the clerk was shot in the back by a cowardly crook. In the other a clerk wrested a gun from a crook and shoots one in the back, resulting in the subsequent arrest of two of the three miscreants.

And what does Police Spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings have to say about these events? Per the local paper, “Hastings said the department urges business owners to exercise caution when threatened by armed criminals. Shootouts like the one at Hip-Hop Sportswear [this shootout was where the perp was shot] could have injured customers or bystanders outside the business, not to mention employees, he said. [Business owners] are not trained officers, they don’t handle firearms much and a situation can turn deadly pretty quick, Hastings said. A little bit of money is not worth your life.”

            Just for the heck of it, let’s review the details of both occurrences as reported in the local paper.

            Robbery #1: “… a 5-foot-8-inch black man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and dark pants held a Pizza Hut employee at gun point at … The gunman forced the employee,…, to the back of the restaurant and made him open the safe, police reports said. [Apparently having attended Lt. Hastings’ class on ‘Behavior when Faced with Crooks’ and heeding Lt. Hastings’ suggestion, the employee didn’t put up a fight; after all, you might hurt someone else. That didn’t happen here, he got shot.] When officers arrived, they found [store employee] shot in the lower back. … he was in critical but stable condition [at the hospital]..

            Robbery #2: About 8:30 p.m., [at Hip-Hop Sportswear], the store’s lone employee was confronted by three black women dressed as men, police said. While a ‘thinner’ and ‘more feminine’ black woman stood by the store’s front door as a lookout, two other black women dressed in all black approached the employee and pulled out a gun and a can of pepper spray, reports said. The women sprayed the employee, but the clerk knocked the black automatic out of the armed woman’s hands, according to the police reports. (In complete disregard of Lt. Hastings’ advice to not attempt to do such a thing). As the gun fell to the floor, police said, the third woman started firing toward the employee, who picked up the gun from the floor and ‘fired random shots’ at the women, hitting one of them in the back, according to police. (Isn’t it interesting that the employee, surprised at the attempted heist, probably terrified, hit with pepper spray, fighting with a perp, grabs a gun with which she probably has no experience or familiarity, fires off a round or two and hits one of the perps in the back and is characterized as having fired ‘”random shots”. Yet the third perp, in on the planned heist from the start, armed and obviously prepared for violence, calmly not involved in the fray for the loose pistol, fires several rounds at the struggling clerk and yet her shots, all of which missed, are not termed ‘random’ by the police.) “… who was shot in the back, was taken to[hospital]. Officers arrested [driver?] at the hospital. …[the one shot in the back] remained in the hospital… with a gunshot wound that was not considered life-threatening and had not been arrested.

            So the clerk who acted per Lt. Hastings’ advice is lying (face down?) in critical condition at the hospital with a gun shot wound in his back despite apparently having done all that the crook demanded; giving up money so as to not be harmed. The other clerk resisted an armed robbery attempt, seize the miscreant’s weapon and per the police, fired “random shots”, one of which “randomly” struck one of the miscreants in the back. In complete disregard of Lt. Hastings’ advice, the crook is the one in the hospital with a "random" gunshot wound in the back and the clerk is a bloody hero in my book and probably doing aerobics as we speak!

            The shooting range at Don’ Weaponry opens at noon so I must close out now and go practice with my Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm black semi automatic to improve the accuracy of my “random shots”. After all, one never knows what may happen when picking up a pizza. It’s getting dangerous out there since Governor Beebe passed the “Commit the Crime, Pay No Time” bill.

The “Law of Unintended Consequences”.

            Earlier this year Arkansas’ Governor Beebe led the charge thru the Legislature to pass his bill to free his newly identified “band of brigands” from potential jail time. Seems that if you have never been convicted of a violent crime, and are currently under arrest for a “non-violent” crime, beginning 2012 you will not go to prison. Why you ask? Well otherwise the State would be forced to spend money to build more prisons, hire guards, feed and cloth the miscreants and lose out on taxes that the miscreants might pay were they employed and law abiding citizens. The “Le” Pew Center in Washington was the intelligentsia force behind this assessment, which “The Beebe” and his cohorts adopted hook, line, and sinker.

And for the average over taxed law abiding citizen, not spending more money to build housing, guard, feed, cloth, and supply gym facilities for these “outlaws” seemed to be a good deal. So with that level of intellectual scrutiny, the law passed. Unfortunately it was probably written up in newspapers and widely distributed nation wide among those miscreants that could read. The headlines were probably something like, “Come to Arkansas, the Land of Opportunity! There You Can Commit the Crime and Pay No Time!” (No Shirley, I’m not actually, really aware of any such headline. I’m just putting my interpretation on what the average “non violent” miscreant that read of this new law might have thought.)

Getting a head start on this new liberal pleasing, progressive punishment theory, the State Department of Corrections jumps right out and begins to turn incarcerated “non violent” criminals lose from prison. Not by the thousands, just a few hundred or so. (Well, OK Shirley I don’t remember the exact number they released; but it was more than one or two.) Yes, it was in keeping with the new, more thrifty and humane treatment of “non violent” miscreants.

Well, would it surprise you to learn that the City of Little Rock just published 1^st quarter crime statistics and low and behold, crime is alive and prospering in that fair city? The local paper headline was: “Violent, property offenses up in LR. 1st quarter sees 8% jump in city.” (Should you ever become a crime victim, please note that you were merely on the wrong end of an “offense”, not really a crime victim. But I rant and digress simultaneously.)

Per the above mentioned newspaper article, “The official crime statistics released by the Little Rock police last week show that in the first quarter of 2011, property crimes went up 6.71% and violent crime climbed by 21.55% compared with the same months last year.”

“The number of ‘Part 1’ offenses, which include homicides, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and arson… an increase of 8%. Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said that there are always ‘ebbs and flows’ when it comes to crime in the city. But such an increase in the first quarter hasn’t happened since 2004…. Thomas said that there isn’t any single driver behind the numbers and that the arrival of a few armed people from outside of town can throw crime rates into the black.” (Emphasis mine). Wow! Really? And just why would we have an influx of miscreants this year? Certainly there is no correlation to the fact that now if you “Commit a Non-violent Crime, You Pay No Time”! Of course the real up-tick was in Violent Crimes! Isn’t that just the way things work. You give a few miscreants a break and they go overboard!

          Do you really believe that those “few armed people from outside of town” read the new state motto, “Commit the Crime and Pay No Time”, and thus moved to the “Land of Opportunity? Well only time will tell, but this just might be the early “chickens coming home to roost!”

         Beebe’s “Band of Brigands” just may have jumped the gun by a few months.

Arkansas Democrats Are an Undesirable Bunch, per Columnist Pat Lynch

             Well OK, he didn’t exactly say that. What he did opine in his weekly liberal rant published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette newspaper on Monday June 20^th was “Arkansas Democrats are, generally speaking, nothing but a bunch of gun-loving, tax-hating, social conservatives who are totally infatuated with big corporations and the well-to-do.”

            As a registered Democrat I take total offense at this description. I am not “infatuated with big corporations and the well-to-do”!

            I will confess to being infatuated with Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin; but that is purely on prurient grounds plus the fact that their lives seem to mirror their professed ideals and values, which is rather quaint for politicians. But big corporations and the well-to-do have no special appeal for my infatuation.

For example a large number of our political incumbents in Washington are “well-to-do” and “infatuation’ is not a word found on my list of words of what I think of most of them; Barney Franks and Chris Dodd come to mind.

            Secondly big corporations include such august names as AIG, GM, Chrysler, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others. Nope, “infatuation” is not a word that comes to mind when I think of big corporations.

            I can only wish, hope and pray that Mr. Lynch is partially correct; that “Arkansas Democrats are, generally speaking, a bunch of gun-loving, tax-hating, social conservatives”. But alas I fear and despair that even here he may be in error.

But lacking any statistically valid data other than the fact that the citizens of Arkansas threw out Senator Blanche “Obamacare” Lincoln and drove “Uber” liberal Congressman Vic Snyder into retirement, I’ll accept Mr. Lynch’s premise on these three characterizations. Three out of five ain’t all that bad. In baseball that earns you millions. And for a liberal to be that close to accuracy is almost beyond belief.

(I’ll have to stop writing now and strap on my concealed weapon and head for the Tea Party rally.)

Oh, in the interest of complete and open ‘blogging’, I must mention that Mr. Lynch is a personal friend of mine. Well, as personal as a “gun-loving, tax-hating, socially conservative” can be with a progressive liberal; think Jews-Palestinians. Although I’ve never inquired, I always assumed that he was a Democrat until I read his description of one. Mr. Lynch certainly isn’t characterized by the first three; not certain about the last two, but he probably leans in that direction.

Hurry Up and Spend the Government Money or We Will Lose It!

            The City of Little Rock’s Political Leaders were all in a tizzy and panic recently. Seems that they have to take over some “Habitat for Humanity” projects or risk losing some Federal Stimulus dollars. What a shame. Rather than let some charitable group do the work, we’ll spend tax dollars to do it. Forget the fact that the City isn’t in the home building business or have folks staffed to build houses. Let’s hurry up and spend that money!

Well of course the projects are all well meaning and for a good cause. They are to replace houses abandoned in neighborhoods where folks no longer wish to live nor take care of their homes with new houses in neighborhoods where folks don’t want to live nor take care of their homes. Can’t you just see the rush of potential buyers stampeding to get in on these purchases.

Are you aware that the number of “meth labs” in our state are now growing? Not only is the total number increasing, but due to the risky nature of the business, many blow up or burn down even before the NARCS get there. Maybe these “meth heads” are in need of additional locations to set up a new business enterprise or re-establish an old one. Maybe some enterprising entrepreneur will buy one of these newly “City built” houses for his residence/business.

Boy, I would hate for the city to lose access to these tax dollars and have them revert back to the Federal government where they just might be used to lower this year’s deficit.

           Shirley, of course I’m dreaming.

“All You Need to Do is to Stand and Fire 3 Rounds a Minute.”

             My precious wife has told me “when one’s memories outnumber one’s dreams, one has reached old age.” My son recently told me “getting all religious is a sign of old age.” The calendar confirms the accuracy of both their statements as regards me. So forgive me this rumination on life, but I’m suddenly compelled to share it.

            Public Television in the 1980s or 1990s ran a series called “Sharpe’s Rifles” based on a series of books by Bernard Cornwell. The protagonist was a soldier, Sharpe, promoted to officer status from the ranks in the British Army fighting the French under The Duke of Wellington in the early 1800s. All but the times were probably fictional, as the British probably didn’t promote from the ranks to officer status. In any case, Sharpe was played by the British actor Sean Bean.

            In this particular episode he had been given a group of raw recruits from the slums of England and was to turn them into a special group of “riflemen”, hence the name “Sharpe’s Rifles”. Sharpe was dressed in what seemed to be an 1800s “Robin Hood” outfit. Appropriate to Sharpe’s beginnings as the son of an unmarried “lady of easy virtue” also from the slums. And since the officers paid for their own uniforms, about all that he could afford. He was not highly regarded by his peer officers as you can imagine. The scene to which I’m slowly meandering was just prior to a French attack. Sharpe had been training his troops for some time and was now standing in front of them to give them a pep talk and orders as to what and how they were to comport themselves in the upcoming assault by the French.

            The troops, (all in their early teens?), were standing at attention in uniforms about two sizes too large and with the tall British hats that were resting on top of their ears. Eyes were wide open; think of a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching 18 wheeler. Their white crossed canvas belts sagging from lack of man sized chests inside the uniforms. Shape tells them what they are about to experience. (The following words are mine as I don’t remember the actual script, but the content is consistent with the scene).

            “All you have to do is stand and fire 3 rounds a minute.” (An incredibly fast rate of fire for the muzzel loaded rifle of that day; and indication of the training they had been given and the knowledge and skill that they had attained.)

            “You will hear the French drums and see their guidons as they approach. All you need to do is to stand and to fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “You will hear the sound of the cannon firing and the explosions of their shells. The smoke will almost blind you and choke you. But all you have to do is to stand and to fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “You will hear the screams of pain and the shouts of men around you being blown apart. But all you need to do is to stand and fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “You will feel the fall of the comrade next to you as his body hits yours and his blood splays across you. But all you have to do is to stand and fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “Your bones will shake and your bowels will loose and your heart will race and you’ll want to flee. But all you have to do is to stand and to fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            Here Sharpe pauses and looks over his men. Then he continues, “I know that you can fire 3 rounds a minute. The question is, Will You Stand?”

            That’s the question that each of us must answer, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. As each temptation arises, the question isn’t can we fire the 3 rounds a minute. Nope, we all know the right thing, the honest thing, the legal thing, the moral thing, the honorable thing (our 3 rounds a minute) that we should do. It isn’t our skill, our knowledge, our ability, or our training that’s the question.

            The question that we each face is the same as those teen-aged recruits faced; “Will You Stand?” Under the pressure, under the desire, under the fear, under the whatever; "Will You Stand" and do that which is the honorable, the required, the needed, the sacrifice of desire to duty.

            I often wonder what might have been different for me and for my family had I seen that scene when I was very young. What would have turned out different if I had only understood the difference between the skill and knowledge of  “firing 3 rounds a minute” and the integrity of “Will I Stand”?

            Yes skill and ability are important, and the world is full of those that posses them. The difference between men is those who “Stand”!

            The question for us all, “Will You Stand?”