The nice near valley neighborhood we live in has been experiencing some burglaries lately. Although crime is down overall, we are being especially hard hit this year. Thieves are coming in through smashed sliding doors, skylights and splintered entryways. Even with burglar alarms going off they spend 30 seconds grabbing jewelry boxes and such. It is very unsettling.
Some in the neighborhood immediately want to put up gates. In my opinion there could be nothing worse than cutting ourselves off from the rest of Albuquerque. And it would cost a fortune as the HOA would have to pay for all of the public streets, sewer and water lines, the park, road maintenance and such. It will never happen. The only thing that will stop this activity is good police work, which we haven't seen yet, or the legalization of drugs that will no longer necessitate junkies breaking into our homes to feed their habits.
The reaction of some of our neighbors is understandable. But sometimes I sense a lot more going on in these situations. The ideas of gates turns the issue into one of 'us vs. them.' Them, being people that are not like us in economic standing, skin color, and security. I don't think we have a neighborhood full of racists because we are pretty diverse. But I think people are very angry at the instability of our political system overall which they feel helpless about fixing. They feel vulnerable and they want to build walls to protect themselves.
The reaction of some of our neighbors is understandable. But sometimes I sense a lot more going on in these situations. The ideas of gates turns the issue into one of 'us vs. them.' Them, being people that are not like us in economic standing, skin color, and security. I don't think we have a neighborhood full of racists because we are pretty diverse. But I think people are very angry at the instability of our political system overall which they feel helpless about fixing. They feel vulnerable and they want to build walls to protect themselves.
6 comments:
"legalization of drugs that will no longer necessitate junkies breaking into our homes to feed their habits."
Do you really think this would happen? All of a sudden thee drug users would have money? Not sure the argument makes sense?
We have long ago passed the threshold where over 50% of the population is zonked out of their minds on illegal drugs. These drug users have grown accustomed to breaking the law and getting away with it, breaking and entering to get your pawnable goods is a pretty safe bet.
What is contributing to the burglary problem is the fact that there are far fewer police actually patrolling neighborhoods on a consisten basis. There are 850 sworn police officers, with less than have of those actually patroling the streets of Albuquerque. The City Council has funded 1,100 poisitions, but the administration during the last 5 years had not been able to keep up with retirements and only gratuating 25 to 30 cadets a year. The college degree requirement has contributed to the reduction in the pool of qualified people. Now Berry wants to allow double dipping for law enforcement. Your thoughts on the double dipping would be interesting.
Here's the "college degree requirement" for APD:
"•Must have a high school diploma or GED.
•Must have 60 credit hours from an accredited college or university (minimum 2.0 GPA). College credit requirement will be waived if you have 3 years active military service or 5 years in the reserve/national guard. An honorable discharge is required, as stipulated on your DD-214. A general discharge will be considered on a case by case basis."
http://www.apdonline.com/police-officer.aspx
"In my opinion there could be nothing worse than cutting ourselves off from the rest of Albuquerque."
Amen - we just moved into the neighborhood and a big selling point was that it is *not* a gated community. There are plenty of those in ABQ. We didn't want to live in one because we like being part of a bigger community.
They say all politics is local. It is, even if people don't know it.
A lot of business near my house in the UNM area used to stay open late, but now they close early. The owners told me that they were robbed too many times, so they got tired of it and due to the lack of police officers on duty during the evening shifts.
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