Whew. We hadn’t seen drunk uncle Orangey in over 24 hours. He rarely misses any of his daily 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, & one bedtime snack, let alone all of them. But here he is chilling on his pillows. Actually looks happy & healthy. He’s grifting good somewhere else…
I meant, ugh, he’s back. Meh.
6 years ago MeanCat went missing for three or four days. We put up laminated flyers warning people that he was a very mean cat and please call us if he commits felonies such as home invasion, car jacking, and WiFi theft. He was actually staying with a neighbor who ‘adopted him’
One morning he comes bebopping and showboating around in the bedroom and I actually guffawed cuz he had gained weight and been brushed. And had a new iPhone and some credit cards, not sure what that’s about.
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Since no one piece can touch on even a fraction of the issues with local police work in America...I wrote four. Here’s the first, my thoughts of rejecting the warrior view of policing & embracing a neighbor view. Last June after George Floyd’s murder.
Here is the second, written during the outrage over law enforcement hiding not just their faces but also their names even as they act in all of our names. There are times for that; but accountability & transparency must be a foundation of our job.
Here’s the third: after the violent insurrection at the US Capitol, where I worked for the briefest of times in 2001-2002. On the horror of ‘shoot don’t shoot’ in that particular moment.
Annoying oak tree thread in bound: great time to unfollow. I warned you I was a truly terrible twitter follow...
So for years I’ve waddled around my neighborhood & taken countless pics of the ginormous live oaks all around me. Soon I’ll use my real camera to take some frame-worthy photos for a collection called ‘The Giant Oaks of East Savannah’. The title means it’s classy & stuff...
But today before it rained I waddled about to look at some oaks in the really interesting light. Here are some:
Not so giant live oak in park behind my house. But has great bones.
Found out my blathering for the @washingtonpost will actually be in print tomorrow for their Sunday edition. Now that would have made my old man giggle for sure.
I’ll be honest: this is the 3rd piece I’ve written for the Post on police issues & I am surprised by the reaction to this one. I liked the writing of the other two: had some lovey narrative threads & repetitions. This one was just raw: wrote it quickly. Felt kinda meh about it
So it’s a bit different in style I guess but not substance. It says nothing new or revelatory. It says what I and millions stress every day. “Treat your neighbors like they are your neighbors’. And it would be better if they were your literal neighbors but that’s a larger issue.
We tell drivers to pull into well-lit spots. If they go slow, the cops know what they’re doing and just follow them to the well-lit spot. It’s really obvious when this happens. IT IS NOT A REASON TO PULL YOUR GUN. If your gun is out, then bad things happen really fast. Also...
What is the point in pulling the driver out of the car? The original infraction was ‘no tag’ though it might have had a paper tag but let’s just say no tag). That’s not a reason to pull someone out of the car. Neither is a slow-speed anti-chase to a well-lit area. So I say again:
Compliance is not the goal of a police encounter. COMPLIANCE IS NOT THE GOAL OF A POLICE ENCOUNTER. Determine what the goal of the call is, the purpose of you being there, and work that issue. No tag? Ok. Wow. Maybe ask about it. Without your gun out. We don’t have to be this way
Day off is done. Ton of yard work done. Even started what will be a loooooooong project: chipping off the bark from our dearly departed giant oak. Tried out some stain to see how it looks. It’s gonna be lovely. But it’s a grind of a project. Figure I’ll do a little every day.
Meanwhile the koi have gotten huge and the stupid orangey fish (god I can’t believe I even have orangey fish) are legion. Hopefully a neighbor can take a few/all orangey fish.
Big Eyes and The Lady Orangey took a nap. They’re ridiculous. From day one they’ve been besties. And yes Big Eyes is turning more orange by the day. This is insanity.
The US has of course had issues with human rights and hypocrisy/and worse in foreign policy. But we still tried to point to our government as the model, saying ‘it works’. We are now trying to prove it does not work...and autocracies are using this to say their way is better
This is important. We elect a government that literally says government can’t work & who get paid to make sure it doesn’t. This is not unnoticed elsewhere. Or here. Democracy works if people work to make it work. We are in a spiral of proud dumb & the consequences are enormous
All China has to do is point to what we call governance or long-term planning in the US. We pass two week funding resolutions for our entire government. And barely can do that. We are making autocracy look better by making democracy look so bad. We don’t have to be this way