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The Case For #TattleTuesday in Tucson
June 27, 2016
— 1 Comment
Dropping the truth bomb
In Tucson we experience a major dilution of our tattle as it passes through needless layers of middlemen to reach law enforcement central. We report one thing and the bureaucrats report quite another, which results in chronic problems that might be solved by collecting really reliable intelligence in the first place. Pure tattle goes from your lips to the ears of the principal. It does not travel through the teachers, the students, or the PTA. Tattle, and the need to deliver pure, unadulterated tattle, is not only a basic human right, but a basic human instinct. To make use of this instinct one simply needs to direct and manage it professionally. A vessel, a place, and a time must be established for the task of collecting pure intelligence from citizens and using it to both prevent and stop chronic crime.
I am urging my police department to initiate a program on-line as well as in person at the station near me to give folks a chance to express themselves for ten minutes at ten a.m. each Tuesday. I am choosing this increment of time because they always say they are too busy to try new communication methods. They can’t possibly argue that they don’t have 10 minutes a week. Citizens in my neighborhood have gone to the station with evidence of black tar heroin in a vial and a report of on going crime near their home, but were turned away at the window of the cop shop and the vial of evidence was thrown in the trash in front of the two ladies. We need a system that works much better than that. We need to trust that what we report and evidence we submit is used to help solve the crime problems here. I think a funnel that directs intelligence to the attention of the police live on a regular basis will make a difference to the level of trust in the whole operation. I believe intelligence is the most valuable commodity police can have. It protects both them and us.
Betrayal and Trust
June 24, 2013
— 3 Comments
The decision to trust is a risk. Calculating risk should be a skill we develop and improve over our lives. The influence of relationships on our faith in others is central. Early betrayal can be a blessing because it can prevent deeper problems by showing true colors. Trust and the possibility of betrayal arise together. If we trust the government, or our spouse, or boss, we may find that faith has been misplaced. Few of us have the ability to accurately judge or predict the behavior of our closest companions. Being blind to imperfections is neither healthy nor honest. If we are honest we can admit our own imperfections, and our own potential to betray others. With perspective we can see how our national anger has damaged the entire society.
The rose-colored glasses version of America was a risk. The more we spun ourselves into the greatest country in the world, the more we found ourselves betrayed as a nation. The more we fought for our way of life around the world (whatever that meant), the more undesirable our way of life became. The more we declared war on everything from drugs to terror, the more ground we lost in the global trust department. Now American security is breeched on a regular basis in fairly spectacular fashion. It is lucrative, I imagine, for some, but it is becoming a badge of courage. If the seed of betrayal is trust, then it must also follow that after betrayal trust becomes mature and discerning. It is a cycle, gentle reader.
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