Thursday, June 01, 2006

The Prowler in My Yard

I'm having sort of an interesting day. I've been sitting here in my kitchen reading Heidegger and drinking coffee. Anyway, I looked up and there was a man in my backyard. Well, I was a bit surprised, to say the least. My first response was to stand up and wave, which was pretty stupid. So, my instincts are apparently not good. I have cat-like reflexes, but only if we're talking about a new-born baby cat- a drunken new-born baby cat who is blind. Anyway, luckily, my second impulse was to duck back into the house and call the police.

So, the fellow walks through my yard and jumps our fence, through a neighbor's yard, and over their fence, through another yard, and stops at the house on the corner. I saw him lift himself over five fences in all. But, apparently, he covered the whole block. So, he's pretty much ready for the Olympics. The reason I know he covered the whole block is that the lady on the other end called the police too.

I'm glad that the police got here as quickly as they did. Generally, I've had good experiences with cops. There are a few times that I've been hassled, and my friends have gotten beaten up by the cops a few times. But, for the most part, I'm fine with the police force. I don't like a number of the laws at all, but that's the fault of legislators. I definitely don't like Dirty Harry cops, but I've found them to actually be the exception, and not the rule. And I do think the cops need to be more accountable to the people they serve and protect. I'm actually not opposed to the idea of neighborhoods electing their cops. But, the important thing is that I'd much rather have a police force than private citizens handling prowlers. My neighbors are great, but I don't kid myself that there are people here who would have just shot the guy. And, for all we know, he could turn out to be a mentally ill person who is off his meds.

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