The City of Keller has gotten a reputation as one where the police are rather strict about enforcing traffic laws.  Perhaps to the point of being overbearing.  However, on the good side, criminals also know about this reputation and will often avoid the area.

The police are a bit sensitive about this, likely due to the number of complaints they get from people who feel they were unfairly stopped.  What I’ve learned, though, is that the reality isn’t quite what people are perceiving.

• The city uses tickets as a source of revenue.  It turns out that most of the money from traffic fines goes to the state.  For example, of a $200 ticket, only $50 is retained by the city.  So it’s a good racket for the state, but not so much for the city.  If the ticket is contested in court, the city will likely lose money because of having to pay overtime for the officer to appear (in Keller the officers are subpoenaed to appear, so it’s not like in Dallas or Ft. Worth where some people take a chance on court in the hope that the officer won’t show up).
• The police are engaging in racial profiling.  First, by law, they keep statistics of race/gender for every stop.  But aside from that, they showed us some videos of traffic stops and I also went on a ride-along last Friday.  In many cases, it’s difficult to tell how many people are in the vehicle from behind, much less their race, especially at night(*).  From what I saw on the videos and first-hand on the ride-along, the officers are stopping people because they’ve committed a traffic offense, not because of race or any other factor.
• The police are being too hard on people (usually related to the idea that tickets are a source of revenue).  The average ticket in Keller is written for 17mph over the limit.  In fact, they usually don’t bother to stop anyone for less than 15mph over the limit.  KPD gives a lot of verbal warnings and only writes up serious speeding or traffic infractions.

I was previously one of the critics.  It seemed to me that everywhere you looked the police had someone pulled over.  But now that I’ve seen what they’re really doing, it doesn’t bother me so much.  While I think most of the speed limits around town are set too low, I don’t think they’re 15mph too low.  And from my experience, there are a lot of impatient and pissed-off drivers out there that need a few reminders to slow down.

(*)  This is true even from “The Beast” (the nickname given to KPD’s black-and-white Ford Expedition by the sergeant I was riding with). 

On each of the last two evening dog walks I’ve noticed a motorcycle rider going south on Rufe Snow.  The reason I noticed the rider is that I happened to recognize him and he stood out because he wasn’t wearing a helmet.  Texas requires a helmet, unless you’re over 21 and have taken the MSF course or you show proof of having at least $10,000 in medical insurance.  I’m not sure that’s enough, since you can blow through $10,000 in a day or two these days.  But I at least like the approach.  If you choose to take the risk of riding without a helmet, then you should also assume the responsibility for your own care if you injure yourself while riding.

So why did I pay particular attention to this rider?  He’s the chief of EMS for our fire department.  I suppose if anyone is aware of the risks of riding without a helmet, it would be him…

There’s a cat that roams the neighborhood at night.  Whenever my dog detects the cat outside she goes a bit nuts, banging on the window and barking.  I get the impression that she’d dearly love to take a bite out of that cat.

In the meantime, though, she has found something that she thinks is the next best thing: cat poop.  I don’t know why, but whenever she finds cat crap she tries to eat it.  It’s a filthy and disgusting habit. 

At least she obeys my command to “Drop It!”  (although she does so very reluctantly).

Bitter points us to these doofuses who seem to be missing a few eggs from their coop.

It seems they’re up in arms about the treatment of chickens.  I’ve always preferred my chickens treated with breading and fried…  What?  They didn’t mean preparation?  Oh…

Anyhow, this bit was pretty funny:

Chickens are cheerful, intelligent birds. The mother hen tenderly cares for her chicks, and roosters protect their families and flocks.

Obviously, these people have never actually been around a chicken.  Chickens are stupid, disgusting birds that would just as soon eat poo as anything else.  I don’t often eat chicken, but I may have to make an exception on Wednesday, just to piss off these wankers.

I have absolutely zero tolerance for vandalism, so my sympathy meter is at a negative reading on this one.

Three of the five Pilot Point high school students accused of vandalizing a football stadium say the charges they face just don’t fit the crime.

Seniors Steve Stratso, Josh Chacon and Matt Hatten are among five students accused of defacing Massey Stadium on the school’s campus just off Highway 377, and are facing criminal mischief charges.

The three students claim the vandalism started out as an idea for a senior prank; they cemented a basketball goal in the middle of the football field.
…
The vandals spray-painted graffiti on the track and field house, making it look like they were from rival Celina High School. They also painted disparaging remarks about Pilot Point coaches.
…
Pilot Point school administrators punished the boys with a three-day suspension. Additionally, they each paid $293 in restitution, were banned from attending the prom and had to help clean up the mess. Those who were baseball players were also kicked off the team.
…
“I think the punishment fits the crime,” Hatten said. “I think we all agreed on that.”

But, the police still filed charges against them. The teens said it’s double jeopardy.

“Everyone’s going to have their opinion about what we did, but all we can do is work to correct it,” Stratso said. “I think we have without the cops stepping in.”

Two other teens accused of the crime, Britton Foster and Drew Fuller, chose not to talk with News 8 on camera. However, the teens who did said they’ve learned a lesson.

“Not to do stupid stuff, and not to mess with other people’s property,” Chacon said.

Pilot Point police chief James Edland isn’t showing any sympathy for the students. He said a crime was committed in this case, and now that suspects have been charged it’s his responsibility to file those charges with the Denton County District Attorney.

These stupid little wankers destroyed property by CEMENTING a freakin’ basketball goal in the middle of the football field and spray-painting grafitti on the track and fieldhouse.  That kind of thing can end up costing quite a bit of money to fix, so I hope they get the book thrown at them.  I don’t see any “double jeopardy” here.  Punishments for this sort of thing often include both jail time and restitution as well as cleaning up the mess, so there doesn’t seem to be anything inappropriate about criminal charges being filed.

One of the things we studied in class when preparing to get our amateur radio licenses was the ITU phonetic alphabet.  This is also the same alphabet used by the US armed forces. 
In order to keep in practice, I’ve taken to using it to recite the letters I see on license plates of the other cars I see while I’m driving. 

As a side note, I’ve learned that our local police department uses a completely different phonetic system.  During our session on dispatch operations we were given a copy of it.  I’m curious as to why the police use a different system, though.  Perhaps it’s just inertia, but you’d think they would move to an international standard, especially now that so much attention is being paid to cross-department and cross-jurisdictional operations due to homeland security situations.

I caught this report on WFAA last night and I couldn’t help but wonder about it.

It can happen in a matter of seconds: a child’s innocence lost at the hands of a sexual predator.

More alarmingly, children who become victims usually know the people who sexually or physically abuse them.

But this News 8 special report focuses on a disturbing trend in Collin County. Stranger-on-stranger abuse is growing, especially at places where parents least expect it.

The man in the golf hat and glasses was clearly visible on the surveillance tape. A store employee thought he looked suspicious, shopping in the women’s section of what used to be Galyan’s Sporting Goods, uncomfortably close to three children. So, the store’s security zoomed in with its surveillance camera.

“He bends down and touches her buttocks,” said Frisco Police Detective Nelson Walter. “As she passes him, he thrusts his pelvic area forward.”

The children’s mother, who we’ll call “Jean”, was trying on clothes just a few feet away. When Jean watched, for the first time, the video of her six-year-old daughter being molested, she said it was nothing short of “scary”.

“There he is again,” she said. “He lurked around far more than I realized that he did.”

Collin County assistant district attorney Curtis Howard used the video to convince a jury that 51-year-old Robby Keith Pope was guilty of indecency with a child.

Howard said the tape shows Pope scoping out the store for more young victims, eventually following two girls to a rock climbing wall. He then puts his hand in his pocket and fondles himself as customers walk by without noticing.

“This guy doesn’t stand out,” Howard said. “He looks like every other shopper that’s shopping in this store.”

“To know he had access to my kids is even far more disturbing than I realized,” Jean said.

Robby Pope is serving a 50-year sentence; he declined to speak with News 8. However, Pope is among a growing number of sex offenders doing hard time for molesting children in public places.

They’d been hyping this story for the past several days as a “must see” for parents.  But is there really anything new here that we didn’t know, other than that someone actually caught the molestor in the act on video?  What parent didn’t already know that molestors are everywhere and will take any opportunity to go after a child?

I know that my sister is very vigilant about this with my nieces.  Although I wonder if her time in the L.A. area (and the high concentration of pervs there) didn’t have something to do with it.  Perhaps the people in Frisco somehow think it can’t happen up there in their nice upscale retail joints.  It often seems that people simply don’t want to think about these things.  As if that will somehow keep them from happening or by thinking about them they’re being overly paranoid.

I would say that when it comes to protecting kids from pervs, a bit of paranoia is a good thing.  But then I’ve become quite a bit less sensitive to being called paranoid since I’m a gun owner.  It’s a stone that is frequently cast by the uninformed and the GFWs and it no longer bothers me.  Perhaps more people need to be paranoid…

This week’s flurry* of complaints about Best Buy and its constant demands for personal information reminded me of something I wrote a while back.  Specifically, we need a button or pin that indicates to nosy retailers and pushy clerks that we’re not interested in upselling, credit card offers, loyalty or discount cards, or giving up our personal information.  It could be as simple as a small button that says, “No Thanks!”  The button would serve as a readily identifiable indicator that this person will not respond positively to whatever the retailer is pushing and that the best way to satisfy this customer is to speedily and efficiently complete the transaction.  As I mentioned in the original post, it would serve as sort of a mobile “No Soliciting” sign.

* The flurry isn’t really a surprise, given the way Best Buy operates.  All you have to do is mention Best Buy to someone and more often than not you’ll get a horror story or at least someone who is unhappy with some facet of the experience. 

Some links:

• Will Collier (on VodkaPundit)
• James Lileks
• Kim du Toit
• GeekWithA.45
• SF Alpha Geek

This article on GM’s woes prompted me to write about something I observed to myself the other day.  Frankly, except for the Corvette, I don’t see anything in GM’s lineup that reaches out and grabs your attention.  It seems like GM cars have no soul anymore.  And I say this as someone who owns an Avalanche.  I like my truck (or SUV, or whatever it feels like being today ).  But Avalanche owners are a strange lot anyway…

As an example, consider Chevrolet’s lineup of (regular) cars: Aveo, Cobalt, Impala, Malibu, Monte Carlo, and Cavalier.  Whenever I see these cars the phrase “bland, dull, and underpowered” comes to mind.  These cars have no soul.  Now I will grant that the SS-R and the Corvette are nice and I’d actually like to have a Z06.  But these aren’t really “daily drivers.”  What I think Chevrolet really needs is something that is usable as a daily driver, adequately powered, and just, well…, different from the rest of what they’ve been putting out lately.  I will admit that I don’t know exactly what they need, but (like the courts have said of porn), I’ll know it when I see it.  I suppose a good example of this would be the Dodge Magnum.  Yes, it’s a station wagon, but it’s a cool station wagon.  For the first time in more than 10 years I considered giving up my truck for a car. 

It will take this kind of approach at GM before I would consider doing the same for one of their cars.

I’m suffering from IMPD, which is a malady I’ve invented.  IMPD stands for Instant Message Ping Disorder.  IMPD is that twitch you get when you hear another ‘ding’ or ‘bling’ (or whatever sound your IM client makes) because you know it’s yet another interruption to the task at hand.

We’ve had a company-wide IM system for quite a while now and it has become a requirement to be online if you’re working.  If the IM system is acting up some people even send out emails to let people know they’re offline.  I’m sure it’s great for the project managers and other types, but it’s a real pain in the ass when you’re trying to get work done.  It’s even more annoying when someone wants to BS when you’ve got important stuff to do (or worse, when you’ve got three or four other IM sessions going on).

My most favorite annoyance?  The person who IM’s you to ask “Are you busy?”  They’ve already interrupted me so they might as well just ask their damn question.

I’ve tried changing the sound the IM client makes in the past, but I’ve learned that the new sound will eventually grate on my nerves just as badly as the original.  Unfortunately, these days I can’t just shut the damn thing off.  Still, I’d dearly love to take a fire axe to the server the damn thing runs on.