10:50 – Like a lot of people, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the shootings in Dallas last night aren’t just the first of many such incidents to come over the summer. Initial reports said there were as many as four shooters, but recent updates say it may have been just one guy who hates whites and particularly white cops. If true, that’s good news, or at least as good as the news can be with 11 cops shot and 5 dead. The implications would have been much worse if there’d been an organized group of shooters involved.
This comes on the heels of news that almost 50 police officers resigned from the Dallas PD in the month of June, which was a record. They’re seeking jobs with small-town police departments, where they won’t be spending their working lives in a war zone. And who can blame them? One wonders how much longer big-city police departments will be able to protect their decent citizens.
When Barbara was watching Blue Bloods the other night, the subject of “broken windows” enforcement was raised, the idea that enforcing laws against minor crimes such as graffiti, illegal gambling, public drunkenness, and so on reduces the amount of major crime. That argument always sounded reasonable to me, but now I’m beginning to wonder if it’s not a bad idea. Perhaps we should leave the inner cities alone as BLM demands. Stop enforcing laws there. If people want to gamble illegally, sell drugs on streets corners, engage in prostitution, and so on, let them. Just make it clear that such activities are confined to ghetto areas, and that any attempt to expand them beyond those areas will be met with overwhelming force. If ghetto residents don’t want the cops hassling them, fine. Let them go to hell in their own way.
I just asked Lori, our USPS carrier, if she’d heard about the Dallas shootings. She had, and is very concerned about where the country is headed. She volunteered that she had lots of canned goods stocked up, but she needed to lay in a good supply of water and bulk staples. I told her I thought that was an excellent idea. Like many people who live in rural mountain areas, she’s by nature a prepper, and it sounds like events are kicking her preps into higher gear. She said she was prepared to defend herself, her land, and her supplies from all comers, and that if anyone bothered her either they’d end up dead or she would. I just replied, “You go, girl.”