Logo

Here come the birds back home to roost

Write a comment
Star InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar Inactive
 

FromEditorsDesk TonyBy Tony Farkas
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The headline of this column is a paraphrase of the title of a story by my favorite writer, Harlan Ellison.

Without too many spoilers, it deals mostly with the subject of karma, or, if you prefer, the consequences of actions.
Seems this dandy played it fast and loose with the ladies, and cycling backward, he was accosted by his former flings and relationships and treated in the same manner as he had treated them.

I was reminded of this story in a very graphic way based on a video that going viral around the internet these past few weeks.

The video shows children, some clad in diapers and not much else, accosting and even assaulting police officers foul expletives and wishing them harm. The officers, to their credit, ended up walking away, without really engaging the youths.

A second reminder comes from the land of Starbucks, which will be shuttering stores, particularly in Washington, because of safety reasons, and will provide story managers more leeway into creating safe spaces for their customers and employees.

There’s more, like people fleeing metropolitan areas because of safety concerns, prosecutors not going after minor crimes because of staffing problems, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.

This all started with the defund the police movement and is striking the areas that embraced that ignorant philosophy the hardest, such as New York, Minneapolis and Seattle. The Seattle Police Department, according to new reports, is staffed at a little more than two-thirds of its force because of its cutbacks, and the results are predictable.

Further, since the majority of the population with little skin in the game, the ones that rely upon and revere the state, have adopted that same philosophy, parents have been teaching — actively as well as via example — hate for law enforcement, and children will do as mommy and daddy say.

Who could see this coming? If you’re not raising your hand, then you’re kidding yourself.

When there is no enforcement of laws, then there is anarchy, as was evidenced by the summer of riots across the nation. Couple that with the societal need for perpetual victimhood, a national media that eschews facts for ratings, and legislators who rush to pander to the pandered while outright ignoring the good and law-abiding, you end up living, a la “Stranger Things,” in the Upside Down.

Think about that. Lawbreakers are revered while law enforcement is reviled. This also applies to pretty much any issue facing our country today. Bad is good, right is wrong, and any sort of terrible behavior is condoned, and in many cases lauded, if there is a good enough excuse to play the victim card.

The results were predictable, and were predicted, yet still they come as a surprise. That’s ridiculous, and it’s karma, or the birds that were let loose are now coming home to roost.

This issue is dear to my heart, since I grew up the son of a police officer. I hate to think that in his 45 years of policing all the good he did and all the lives he touched are now deemed hateful.

Legislators can easily fix some of the problem by putting more funds into law enforcement for hiring and training. The damage done to the officers, though, will be years, if not decades, in repairing.

Say something here...
symbols left.
You are a guest
or post as a guest
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.

Be the first to comment.

Polk County Publishing Company