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9/17/07 It's personal --
As you might expect, I go to lots of meetings - some
more productive than others. Last week, it was a meeting of a very
successful task force. As we were about to break up, one attendee threw a
curve ball at the DPD representatives demanding they do more to help kids living
in apartments. It was so completely off topic, we were all stumped for a
response. Well, until she concluded her demand with "It takes a village to
raise a child." I responded with "it takes a parent to raise a child".
She wants police officers to get comp time for any time they spend working with
kids. Never mind that we are 200-400 officers short of providing basic
response to citizen calls. She wants them to run after school programs for
kids living in apartment complexes, so the kids won't join gangs or become
prostitutes.
For that matter, why can't parents watch their own kids after school and keep
them from joining gangs and becoming prostitutes? Or at least provide a
supervisor (baby sitter, neighbor, etc.) for their kids until the parent
gets home?
Please don't talk to me about "latch key kids". I was one, too. My
mother was a divorcee with two kids and no child support back in the 50's.
Most of the kids where we lived (Washington Place Housing Projects in East
Dallas) were also "latch key kids". We weren't allowed outside until our parents got home. Instead we did our homework, so
we could go out and play when it was allowed. It was what was expected of
us, and so we did it. Personal responsibility starts at an early age. |
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9/20 Betty
Culbreath:
I, too,
was a Latch Key Kid with a little brother to pick up from day care
on my way home from school. We road the Harry Hines bus from
downtown. I walked from Harry Hines down Record Crossing Blvd. to
Briar Cliff Rd.
I went into the house, cared for
my brother, finished homework, cleaned
house and stayed in until my parents came home.
Sharon, you are right.
It's the parents. Both my
parents worked, but there were rules and
regulations regardless to their location.
We had consequences
when rules were violated. There was never
a police officer called to my home in my 18 years of living there to
control us.
DISD could use all it's
neighborhood schools for after school programs. This city has so
many resources and money going to waste that could be used to
promote quality of life issues.
If the DISD, Boys and Girls
Clubs, YMCA & YWCA's , Boy and Girl
Scouts, Park and Recreation put their
facilities and money in some type of co-operative programming,
there would not be a child without guidance and after school
program.
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It's not enough that Mayor Leppert wants Dallas taxpayers to get hit twice for
"educating" Dallas kids. We pay huge property taxes to the DISD, and we
get precious little in return. Regardless of whether
The Dallas Managed News
continues to spin happy talk for Dr. Hinojosa, he's an incompetent disaster and
needs to go. We are building new schools
all over town with gymnasiums. Why can't the DISD run after school
recreation programs in their gyms? It would keep the kids in their
neighborhood. It would keep them safe. The DISD has employees (otherwise
known as "teachers" and "coaches") who are trained to work with kids.
Police officers are trained to catch bad guys and protect citizens -- that's why
they are called "police". |
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9/18
James Northrup:
The DA should be commended for
looking at ways to reduce the number of gang members within his
jurisdiction. But not at the expense of his department's conviction
rate.
The number of gang
members, and criminals in general is directly linked to the number
of young people that - due to family circumstances - are
pre-disposed to commit crimes.
The only effective way to reduce
the population of that criminal under class is via family planning -
among the poor, the marginal families that
are most likely to have criminal offspring. That's
the conclusion of social scientists who
have studied this problem. Planned Parenthood does more to reduce
the crime rate than any other program.
The most effective "holistic approach" to reducing crime was
discovered in the book "Freakonomics" = family planning among the
underclass that is the source of most criminals = poor, uneducated,
marginals.
Simple fact is that when that
group's access to family planning improves, the number of criminals
drops (a generation hence) - in every study in every country that
its been observed.
The author's conclusion is that the criminal underclass is
predominately the result of having more children than you can
effectively educate, discipline, etc. = who are more likely to
become criminals.
Really want a lower crime
rate in Dallas County? Hand out free
contraceptives in the highest crime areas. Make abortion freely
available at all county hospitals.
The fewer unwanted
pregnancies, the fewer criminals.
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On DallasObserver.com's blog, UnFair Park, they were extolling the wonderful
plans of DA Craig Watkins to rehab young thugs and keep them out of jail.
I got severely chastised for
saying:
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is so stupid. Craig Watkins cares more about little thugs than their
victims. This
same philosophy has the County turning out arrested prostitutes as
soon as DPD officers can get them arrested and booked.
If you think you are
going to rehab a gang banger, you are a fool. Most of the crime in
NW Dallas is by young thugs. But, Craig Watkins cares more about
keeping them in our communities than in jail where they belong.
Next time your car is
vandalized or your house is burglarized, thank Craig Watkins'
altruism. At least the little punk who took your stuff is not in
jail learning to be a better criminal. |
But, you tell me where this has
worked. One person says it worked in "Smith County". Comparing
Smith County to Dallas County is like comparing Rhode Island to Texas. We
have more crime here because we have too many, over-crowded apartment complexes
that do not have facilities for kids. We have more crime here because we
have a bunch of irresponsible people making babies that they can't support or
control. Same mentality that makes jerks buy puppies then abuse or abandon
them when they get past the cuddly stage. No responsibility, personal or
otherwise.
Now, we have a District Attorney who thinks he was elected to serve the thugs
and rapists, rather than victims of crime.
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DA: Man wrongly
convicted in '82 rape;
He could be 14th cleared after DNA points to
another
September 16, 2007
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas
Morning News
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The Dallas County district attorney's office says that a man sent to prison for a 1982 rape and burglary was wrongly convicted and that it will work with his attorneys to have his name cleared.
DNA evidence shows that Steven Phillips did not rape a woman he was convicted of sexually assaulting and burglarizing in two separate trials.
But he would remain in prison unless cleared of another sex crime. He pleaded guilty to eight and was found guilty of three other sex-crime charges in the early 1980s.
... Mr. Phillips had no criminal record from before the string of sex crimes, although he admitted to police that he had been a peeping tom. ...
"He hasn't lived a perfect life," Ms. Morrison said. "He has done a lot of work to become a better citizen." ...
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Wow! Don't you feel safer
already knowing that DA Watkins is turning Steven Phillips back on our streets?
I remember those sexual assaults PHILLIPS DID in 1982. Women were afraid to sit
out by their apartment swimming pool alone or even to take their clothes to the
laundry room. After Phillips was arrested and convicted, the assaults
stopped. Probably just a coincidence.
We have a problem in Dallas
that may not be fixable. Part of our problem is Dallas being the county seat with
the county jails located in our city. When DA Watkins turns out the thugs
and prostitutes that he thinks can be rehabilitated (translate, that he doesn't
want to keep in jail or prosecute), they don't go home to
Irving or Carrollton or Farmers Branch. No, they stay right here in
Dallas, where the action is, where there's an abundance of cheap apartment
complexes.
Irving is condemning and demolishing old apartment complexes that are not being
maintained. Not going to happen in Dallas. We are doing one new
good thing this year. It doesn't involve apartment properties, but the City
Manager and City Council have agreed to require landlords to register their
single family houses as rental property, so those houses can be inspected for
safety and legal occupancy limits. Whether that actually happens is
another story -- but at least we have the tool now.
Back to the apartment manager who wants DPD officers to mentor and baby sit her
tenants' kids. What we ought to do instead is require apartment
property owners to provide an outside area and a "club room" for kids to gather
after school with an adult supervisor furnished (and paid) by the apartment
owner. It could be a way for a teacher to make extra money in the evening,
or even a part-time job for a police officer. The difference in my plan
vs. the apartment manager's plan is that Dallas taxpayers don't have to pay for
baby sitters for irresponsible parents. Neither Dallas nor DISD taxpayers
have the legal exposure of some irresponsible breeder suing the City because
someone molested their kid.
We require multi-family properties to provide certain numbers of parking spaces
in order to have a certificate of occupancy. Why can't we require they
provide outdoor and indoor space for children to play and study? Why is it
everyone else's responsibility to entertain these kids when we are already being
taxed so heavily by the Dallas Independent School District?
If it's anyone's responsibility other than the people who made the kids to
mentor and entertain them, it is the school district. They are trained in
child development methods. I bet there are lots of teachers who would like
to work in an after hours program, away from the bureaucracy of a school.
Think about how many ways Dallas taxpayers are being hit today in the name of
"the children" of irresponsible parents.
We have the Mayor wanting City Hall to teach reading to pre-schoolers so as not
to miss that "window of learning". Those of us of a certain sensitive age
started school at 6 years old, and we learned to read and write quite well.
It was the rare exception for any child to attend kindergarten. Why should
we have to pay twice for a child to be taught to read?
We have apartment managers wanting the DPD to provide baby sitters for their
tenants' kids. Why not demand the DISD provide after school programs in
every elementary school's gymnasium? The kids would be in a presumably safe place
until their parents came to pick them up, rather than trasping alone to a park
facility. Most park recreation centers are open to all ages. A
school facility could be restricted to students and authorized adult
supervisors.
Dallas homeowners subsidize apartment complexes as it is. My neighborhood
is probably typical of most single-family neighborhoods around town. We
are bordered by aging, run down and over-crowded apartment complexes. Our neighborhood
elementary is overwhelmed with children from those apartment complexes.
Our crime stats are almost 98% generated from (inside) the apartment complexes.
Few kids from my neighborhood attend our neighborhood school.
Apartment properties are a business. Apartment owners are certainly not
altruistic providers of housing. Dallas taxpayers already subsidize them
at several levels with our over-crowded schools and over-worked police officers.
If it's anyone's responsibility other than the parents, it is the responsibility
of apartment owners to provide mentors for the children who live in their rental
properties.
The fact is -- irresponsible people are making babies, expecting someone else to
raise the kid after they stop being cute and adorable.
The fact is -- slum landlords are renting apartments designed for single
occupancy to families with multiple children (sometimes a single unit to
multiple families with multiple children), expecting someone else to entertain
and control the kids when they are too big to keep inside.
I don't know about you, but I am tired of being told I'm responsible for fixing
(paying for) someone else's mistakes.
We have a District Attorney who doesn't want to prosecute. We have a
Sheriff who can't run a jail. We have a school system that cannot educate
our children.
Last week, Councilman Dwaine Caraway was on Tom Pauken's radio talk show.
He has caused a bit of a stir by insisting on more police presence in his
district. I called in to ask him about DA Watkins turning out petty
thieves and hookers faster than the police can arrest and process them. He
said DA Watkins is wrong, and that practice is hurting Dallas. Councilman
Caraway suggested that the City of Dallas may have to build some jails of our
own if that's what it takes to keep the bad guys away from decent citizens.
Now, that's some double dipping I can support. At least, we would be
getting something for our money.
sb
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