I know I've been saying that the police have been more aggressive lately, but this is ridiculous.
I had driven about two miles north on 8th Street tonight on my nightly journey home when I glanced in my mirror and noticed some red and blue flashing lights. I pulled over as much as I could to make way for the patrol car, which sped past me beating the speed limit by thirty or forty kilometers per hour. I started moving again, and made it about 200 meters before I moved back to the curb to allow another speeding patrol car to pass. After that officer sped by, I pulled back into the right lane and drove briskly to see what was going on. Hit a red light fifty meters on, but watched as the first car turned right on Omaha and the second went straight. A third car turned onto 8th Street from Omaha and followed the second soon after.
Right. To summarize, the police were everywhere. When the light turned green I drove on, but altered my route a bit to follow all of the commotion. Up the road, in the parking lot of our beloved Central High School, were eight or nine patrol cars and one red civilian truck. Three more cars approached soon thereafter. The arrangement of the cars suggested that the red truck had been involved in a chase of some sort, and that the police had set up a rather sizable roadblock on North Street (on the northern side of the CHS lot) to force it off the road. By the time I got there, the driver was standing outside his vehicle, hands on his head as several angry-looking cops pointed weapons at him.

This brings me to my point: it doesn't take twelve police units to stop one truck. The law enforcement community around here has been very a fierce one lately, especially about traffic stops. Crime is down, yet demand is up, and they seem to be taking themselves a little too seriously, especially since Tom Hennies retired as police chief a few years ago and went into politics then. Things were harmonious back then, and very transparent--the police even gave the local news outlets detailed statistics on crime trends by area. It was good. Now... well, between people being pulled over everywhere, squad cars driving through my neighborhood at night with lights turned off, and now such a fierce reaction to what was in all likeliness a simple evasion of arrest, I am growing a bit concerned with my town's public servants.

So that's that rant. Number 34, I think. For tonight, I have really nothing else... well, I guess there's this gem, which will help you price-shop for entertainment through Clear Channel. Lots of bands, all with their prices. I can't believe DJ Spooky goes for only $5k... and Shadow for twice that! I could almost come up with that much.