There is a city ordinance, Sect. 8-157b, which prohibits leaving unwanted appliances on treebelts unless the owner “has first arranged for the collection of the appliance by the city or a proper appliance removal contractor and the appliance is placed on the treebelt or within said right-of-way no more than 24 hours in advance of its scheduled removal.” Sgt. Eric Hall of the city’s community policing unit, reports that when his officers encounter items left on a treebelt, or when such items are reported, the officers will usually first advise the responsible resident to remove the item. If a resident does not comply within a reasonable amount of time, Hall said, citations will be issued.
Erika Hayden put together a well-written article about a police shooting in Springfield and questions about how it occurred and mental health questions regarding the deceased who was shot to death during the confrontation. So what happens? As expected, you have some goof responding to that article stating Hayden “rambles”, the article Hayden wrote is “embarrassing”, and Erika is the “perfect candidate for the Citizens Police Academy”. Don’t people realize what’s going on in this country? Some cops are out of control and all of them need to be retrained with the notion that they are dealing with civilians who pay their salaries and should be held accountable for their actions. On top of that, there are way too many former military personnel coming back and being equipped with military hardware to interact with a civilian population. Guess what? This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan! Hire people who have the discipline to do the job but weed out the ones who think they are still at war or at least mix in criminal justice professionals without military history. That way there is some type of diversity in hiring practices and a different mindset altogether on the police force. Look what’s going on in our country. You have a NYPD cop who executes Eric Garner with an illegal chokehold despite the fact that Garner, a husband and father, was just trying to make a buck selling loose cigarettes. Garner gasped out “I can’t breathe!” a dozen times but that cowardly cop, who suckerchoked Garner from behind, never let up on the pressure until Garner was dead. Garner should have ferociously fought back and perhaps he’d still be alive today instead of submitting to his own killing. The subsequent farce was played out that the officer was justified in Garner’s death and the Mayor tried to calm tensions only to have the disrespectful cop union rep blast him for doing his job and some infantile officers turning their backs on him at public appearances. Then there’s the Missouri case, the Cleveland case, I could go on and on, but I don’t have to. It’s on the news every night. There isn’t a need to go into how dangerous a police officer’s job is because I’ve looked it up. As a workplace occupation, a police officer’s job is 16th on the hazardous scale on chances of being killed on the job far below being a fisherman (1), a logger (2), or even a truck driver (11). People aren’t drafted into being a cop and they can leave that position any time they want to if they can’t handle the job or its too much for them and some do. Maybe the person who wrote against Erika Hayden should start a “Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Academy” instead of strafing her over the coals for insightful thinking and writing. Keep up the good work, Erika, ask the tough questions and don’t be discouraged by doltish remarks or retorts!
