Not meaning to bring everyone down on the Holidays but I want to jump up on
a soap box and complain about people's lack of respect for other people's
property. (Since January, I've had my radio antenna bent into a pretzel, my
soft top torn, a set of box speakers stolen, a tire slashed, and a window
broken out. Each incident done about once a month....I swear, I didn't know
she was married!)
But honestly, criminals have more rights than the so called victims today
anyhow. My father was in the heating/ac business for 40 years. And one job,
a strip-mall owner owed his company around $80k dollars (this was in the
early 70's when $80,000 was a lot of money). After repeated attempts to get
payment, the owner of of the mall sent a check which subsequently bounced
like a ball. When they contacted the mall owner's company again, they
literally laughed and hung up the phone..
My father's company then went to an attorney who said "Well, technically
you can't have him arrested, because he sent you a check. If he had denied
payment, then it's fraud. As it is it's only anti-trust." My father then
asked if he could take the equipment back. The Attourney told him "if it's
bolted down, then by legal definition it's his. And you could be arrested
for theft."
A day later at midnight, my dad was out at the strip mall with 5 trucks and
a crane removing the equipment from the guy's building. Luckily the cops
that drove by just assumed he was supposed to be taking the stuff.
There was another incident where someone had stolen approximately 40 units
of equipment in an apartment complex. (Turns out, the theif was an alderman
from a near by community). When my father's company tried to bring up
charges, the DA said "we're not going to pursue it, because we don't
actually have eyewitness testimony that he was the person physically
removing the equipment. His only crime was being in possession of stolen
equipment." The case was eventually dropped against the alderman.
This morning, I went out for coffee with another guy from work (he's
married with a child). The Starbucks was over-flowing with customers, and
the person I was with half jokingly said "Hey, let's steal some of this
stuff. They're too busy. They'll never notice." I looked at the $2.00 bags
of chocolate covered whatevers, and said "Why? We make $50,000 a year. I
think you can afford to buy that." His retort... "Because we can."
Not to sound like a gun-toting right-wing republican, but we live in a
"civilized" world that is so civilized that we are above penalizing people
for their infringing upon the rights of others. We hardly care if others
step over the bounds because we're told nothing will happen if they're
brought to "justice". Too afraid we're going to punish the innocent
accidently? Or too severely penalizing someone who is simply a "needy"
individual. In the end it's the responsible law abiding citizen that pays.
(Higher taxes, more insurance, tickets, tolls, interest..etc.)
Of course, my parents always used to tell me..."If you don't like the
feeling of burning your hand, don't lean on the stove."
The things we bring up at Thanksgiving. The soap box is free for anyone else.
And just so I don't sound like a complete death penalty, finger-pointing
radical, I'll share with you the comment that I often receive from
co-workers when someone takes their latest "liberty" on my spitfire. I
believe their exact phrase is...
"It's your own fault for owning 'that' car."
Terry L. Thompson
'76 Spit 1500
Maryland
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