This country is completely out of control right now.

But this didn’t just happen overnight…

… and the question is what, if anything, can we learn from or do about it?

The riots we are watching on TV, “safely” in the comfort of our own homes, are nothing new and a similar type of disorder has been happening here locally, to a certain degree, for years…

HN has been observing our society from the street level longer than anyone, and what I observe may still shock some… but people who know our streets, sadly, are no longer shocked by anything.

“Gun play,” stabbings, robberies, the dealing of dangerous drugs with impunity… these are symptoms of much deeper issues.

I have been very fortunate in my 50 years on this planet. I have worked briefly for local law enforcement, taught in public schools, and lived all over this wide world. My studies in world history and extensive travels have given me insights and perspectives about where we’re headed as a society, and it doesn’t look good.

In recent years I have seen students actually push teachers around… and get away with it. I have also seen these same children give police a hard time.

One of the most telling events which indicated we were headed for trouble came when I saw local thugs pushing our police around… and our town responding by closing down businesses between the hours of 1:00am and 3:00am.

When watching the police standing back in last night’s riots in Baltimore, it reminded me of similar circumstances back here in Hyannis. It was frustrating watching lawlessness and people not being helped by the Baltimore Police Department, who for one reason or another, had their hands tied and needed to hold back.

Could we ever have civil unrest and riots here locally? I hope not. But, for what it’s worth, last night’s riots reminded me of some of the lawlessness and a lack of respect for the police and authority which I have also sadly been observing here on Cape Cod in recent years…

It reminded me of the following HN rant, originally published about two years ago. It rambles a bit, as most rants do, but it sums up my views on the subject of lawlessness and the pervasive lack of respect, which I believe leads to violence and chaos like we saw last evening in Baltimore. I’m republishing this rant entitled “Who’s running this town?” as “food (or Snickers) for thought:”

RANT: Who’s running this town?

(Originally published on 5/17/2013)
 

Hyannis – It’s 1:30am and I’m up, unfortunately, because I work late, and I’d really like a Snickers.

If I lived in Roxbury, I’d be able to go downtown and buy a Snickers.

If I lived in Brocton, I could simply run out to the local corner store.

If I lived in New Bedford, I’d be just brisk jaunt away from my local all night candy vendor.

In ‘Southie’ I could purchase a Snickers and just about any other type of candy bar.

Fall River, Snickers galore, all day long…

In fact, in New York City – you guessed it! – it’s a virtual Snicker-ama, 24/7! Despite Bloomberg, the King of Restrictions!
And it’s too bad I don’t live in one of those wonderful “high crime areas;” I’d be rolling in Snickers right now if I did!

But I unfortunately live in the People’s Republic of Hyannis, way behind the “Snicker Curtain.” Where it’s against the law for a Snicker Salesman to vend his treats between the dangerous hours of 1:00am and 3:00am. It basically sucks to me… at least during the hunger of the wee work hours.

Which leads me to wonder… Why do we have a “Anti-Nighttime-Snicker Law” in the first place?

I recently spoke with Town Manager Tom Lynch, and we were pleasantly chatting about the Town Ordinance which makes it illegal to open any store between the hours of 1am and 3am.

Lynch believed what I call the “Anti-Nighttime-Snicker Law” was adopted about 11 years ago, but he wasn’t sure.
The Town Council members who voted for this ordinance surely call it something else, but it still amounts to the same thing, “No Snickers for you!”

In fact your local nighttime vendor of tasty sugary treats will be penalized by a fine of $200 for each day he stays open between the hours of 1am and 3am.

In other words, if money changes hands between a citizen and a candy dealer within town limits, between 1am and 3am, the outlaw candy dealer is screwed!

Don’t believe me? Here’s the actual law:

Ҥ 115-1. Purpose; hours established.
For the purpose of controlling noise and promoting the public peace and to protect public
safety and nighttime tranquility, no person or business entity conducting any retail business
shall be open for business to the public between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. without
the prior approval of the Town Manager as provided herein. The term “retail business” shall
include food service establishments.”

I’m looking at this law, and like many things adopted by our council of fearless leaders, it’s amazing to me why they didn’t carry the restrictions even further.

Why not make it illegal for all businesses to ever open at any hour? That would certainly solve a lot of our problems. No noise. Plenty of peace. No traffic. Less Crime. More safety…

I can hear our fearless leaders’ admonishments now, “But wait just a dog-gone minute Robbie Ole Boy! You’re beginning to sound ridiculous. It would be absurd to restrict our local businesses, not to mention the rights of our citizenry. How would our “free society” function? You sound almost clown-like and idiotic. In fact, you’re beginning to sound a lot like one of us! Smarten up!

Okay your Royal Highnesses, you win. In the name of peace, tranquility, and safety, let’s leave the business restrictions and law making to yourselves, the “experts.” But answer me this… why the restrictions between 1am and 3am?

According to Town Manager Tom Lynch, he believes the law came about because large unruly difficult to handle groups were congregating outside of late night retail businesses. That because of changes in the world, ‘like having to take your shoes off at airports,’ we as a community needed to adapt. To be fair to Mr. Lynch, he had nothing to do with adopting this law. He just inherited it. (He also had nothing to do with having to take your shoes off at airports… and neither did the law abiding citizens of Barnstable by the way…)
But Lynch basically understands the law came about because of late night thuggery, and to that degree we both found common ground.

Here’s what I know from writing for HyannisNews.com years ago: From what I recall and witnessed years ago before this law, was our police patrol officers were being outnumbered and essentially overwhelmed by these unruly late night “after hour” crowds. It was a major headache for cops, dispersing rowdy bar crowds only to run into the little “darlin’s” again down at the local 7 Eleven, looking for munchies like so many hungry bears trying to counter-act the effects of the buckets of booze or whatever illicit narcotics they ingested throughout the evening.

It was a mess.

And it’s better now, according to Lynch. Problem solved. Right?

Wrong…

Still skeptical, I thought to myself, ‘why am I bitching?’ Oh yeah, I’m bitching because I don’t like any law that further restricts or punishes the good law abiding citizens of our community because of the loud angry actions of a select group of intoxicated idiots.
 
I think everyone would agree it isn’t fair when a late night thug infringes on our liberties. And I don’t believe any member of the Town Council intentionally set out to infringe on our liberties when they dreamed up this stupid law. After all, they’re just well intentioned big government high power policy jockeys, it’s not their fault.

“Control freaks” is perhaps a better name for these policy jockeys. I have other not so flattering names, however “control freaks” is the nicer way to put it.

You see “control freaks” deal with problems in a certain unfortunate way. One that usually results in an unfair shortsighted policy like “Anti-Nighttime Snicker Laws,” where the good people of our community lose a customary privilege, right, or way of life, all in the name of solving a very real problem.

Why do they do that? Well, it usually amounts to creating a sweeping “band aid” type solution that won’t inconvenience or make things harder for themselves.

To quote a town hall secretary, “why would anyone want to do their shopping at that hour?” This being said by someone working a cushy “9 to 5” job, feeding at the trough of public funds, while overlooking the town green, full benefits, retirement fund, paid holidays, vacations… to be fair, this particular public sector employee probably doesn’t understand what it’s like to work during the nighttime hours, needing to buy diapers, gas, and some basic necessities after their shift. From the tone of her voice it unfortunately seemed like she didn’t even care. She has her cushy daytime position for life, how dare someone not as fortunate as her challenge the lofty establishment that lines her wallet, the red brick White House of Hyannis.

In fact, how many times have you been brow beaten or looked down on by one of the multitude of condescending town bureaucrats in our ever growing city of town buildings, cramming up space like church properties inside the Vatican? Sometimes it seems like there’s no room left for the rest of us dreaded and hardly tolerated private sector folks. (I could write a book on the stories I’ve heard about the arrogant bad attitudes toward the citizenry by some of these lofty bureaucrats… and another book about what will ultimately happen to those bureaucrats when there are more public than private sector people paying taxes… perhaps more on that later.)

My point is that people inside of town hall need to be more considerate of the needs of the people trying to do business here. The very people who pay their salaries.

In this case, we had crowds behaving like thugs who essentially changed the laws for the people who travel during the late night hours. Moms, store owners, nurses, doctors, cops, firefighters, factory employees, snow plow operators, reporters… all law abiding citizens, lawfully up during the hours of 1am to 3am are the ones expected to change, not the thugs…

… and I guarantee you, the thugs and criminals are not going to change.

Basically, the thugs win and we lose. To that extent they run this town/city.

Punishing the good citizens with just one more town ordinance does not make a lick of sense.

People who defend these restrictive-type laws say things like, “Deal with it.” “It’s a new world.” “It’s a sacrifice we all have to make to be safe.” The comfy town bureaucrats are always the first ones to throw in the towel… to give up the fight… to take something away… to over regulate the citizens instead of dealing with the real problem, in this case the thugs… always at the expense of our freedom and way of life!

And do you blame them? They have it made! If you were given a choice about working harder at your job or eliminating your responsibilities, what would you choose?

So how would a dreaded non-public sector worker handle the problem of thugs causing late night problems outside of legally operated late-night establishments?

Thanks for asking… here’s the correct response: Most private sector folks would come up with a solution that would not infringe upon or take away anyone’s rights or way of life. One that puts the necessary change back on the loud, rowdy, thuggish minority who are actually causing the problems.

I would simply handle the problem no different than we would at any other hour of the day.
 
I’ll say that again, slowly… I. would. simply. handle. the. problem. no. different. than. we. would. at. any. other. hour. of. the. day.

I learned years ago, from actually residing with criminal thug-types on Penikese Island as a teacher, and from actually working for a bit in local law enforcement… I learned that most thugs only understand one thing, strong and immediate consequences for their actions.

Therefore, the solution is two-fold. One, support the police by providing more patrols during certain hours. Never tell cops they have to back off or back down. When the thugs get tough, support police to be tougher… at any hour, day or night.
 
Our current police force is doing an excellent job with what they have, fighting crime and locking up the thugs. But aside from more officers, they could also use a bit more support from other areas of the system. Which leads to the second part of the solution…
 
Part two, the liberal Judges who are not doing their jobs by letting serious violent offenders back out on the streets of our family neighborhoods need to be called out on their ineptness. Instead of punishing the innocent citizens with new overbearing laws every time the Judicial part of the system fails us, we need to spend more time going after the source of the problem, the inept and ineffective Judges themselves.

If we’re in a ‘law making mood,’ why not make laws that make Judges more accountable. Require Judges to spend more time out seeing what it is really like living in high crime neighborhoods. They need to see what the citizens and police are actually up against. They need to stick their fingers in the holes caused by bullets and knives. They need to feel and learn the benefit of doing their duty to keep us safe by keeping the thugs where they belong, in jail. They need to be more responsible to us than they are now.
 
Right now it seems as if the Judges are on the side of the criminals.

When the Commonwealth recommends a high bail for a violent offender or dangerous drug dealer, a good judge needs to be able to envision the rest of us out here trying to raise our children and go about our business. He needs to do his job and use all of his powers to keep us safe.

The other night I responded to a scene where at least 14 bullets were fired at a home in a family neighborhood. Thank God nobody was hurt… this time. I hit the streets and tried to find out what actually was going on. Names came up, and each thug mentioned is no stranger to the criminal justice system. Each name had an impressive list of past charges and convictions. Sometimes the only reason their names came up in first place in light of recent “gun play” is because #1. they have been involved in past shootings… and #2, this one is my favorite, they were known to be at large in our community and not in prison where they belong at the time of the shooting.
 
I know in some states Judges are elected. To that degree they are more responsible to the community as a whole. That may not be possible here in Massachusetts for numerous reasons; for example we have a huge bar association, a disproportional number of lawyers, and more law schools than there is common sense.

When it comes to laws or actions restricting my liberty, I become angry as hell. Not at the store owners who want to safely operate a business between 1am and 3am, and certainly not at the law abiding citizens who want to exercise their right to be out and about during those hours.

I’m not even that angry at the thugs. Yeah, they suck and should never be allowed to endanger or inconvenience the rest of us… but they’re thugs after all, and thugs will always do what thugs do best, cause problems unless caught and put in prison where they belong, made to face the immediate strong consequences for their actions.

No, I’m angry at and placing the blame where it belongs, on our non-elected liberal Judges who are not using their power to keep the rest of us safe. I’m also angry at our town bureaucrats passing the buck by putting more restrictions on the rest of us, essentially not doing their jobs either.

Things need to change.

People need to stop sitting idle watching as their freedoms are quickly whittled away. It’s a time to speak up. Because one thing is for certain, there will be more and more thugs… and there will be more and more liberal Judges and irresponsible bureaucrats unless we, the silent majority do something about it.

In the meantime, in lieu of Snickers (save those for me…), please send all forms of encouragement and support to your local police officers on the front line of the war on thugs. Let your elected officials know that there are better ways of dealing with a problem than limiting our freedoms and handcuffing our police officers. Write letters to Judges who protect the criminals while not considering the safety of rest of us.

In the meantime, get rid of this stupid short sighted ordinance that makes it illegal for law abiding citizens to do business 24/7.
 
It sends the wrong message. It tells the thugs they win while we lose… and innocent law abiding citizens should never lose to those who choose to break our laws.

4/28/2015

Robert Bastille,


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