Your Tax Dollars At Work

I noticed two Sacramento County sheriffs eating lunch today at a table just down from me. What I didn't notice then, as I noticed as I walked out into the parking lot, was that they chose to leave their vehicular unit running (presumably) with the AC running, too. It was a pretty scorching afternoon here in the central valley, yes, approaching the century mark.

Really, I don't care too much about these wasted tax dollars; these officers need to be comfortable, yes. No, it isn't the loss of a dollar or two of a non-renewable resource that pisses me off, nor is it that my Sacramento county is among one of the few counties designated as non-attainment for the 1-hour federal ozone standard, nor that I have to ingest their exhaust emissions as I ride my bicycle anywhere in Elk Grove -- it's the fact that if I were to do that in my driveway, to leave my car idling while unattended it would be a crime.

If the correctional peace officers association (and whatever organizations associated with law enforcement) fails to meet their annual goals for fundraising or charity or assistance for wounded officers' families, whatever, you can rest assured that it'll have been in part to me going out of my way to never offer an additional dime to these arrogant pricks. I wish I had the wherewithal to go back inside to chastise these men for their actions. I was with others and hadn't the opportunity, but I'm fairly well assured that it wouldn't have made one bit of difference, that they would have either ignored me (their most likely response after having heard my argument), offered that it's a function of security or responsiveness or some other bullshit retort.

It is for these sorts of actions that I, a generally law abiding individual, always votes down public safety initiatives. Always. I will continue to do so. I have blogged many times how firefighters spend the vast majority of their time responding not to fires, but to vehicular accidents, accidents that they've indirectly caused by the mandate that roads be wide enough to turn their big fucking firetrucks and allowing drivers to comfortably drive 65mph down 35mph streets. That the only interaction I have had with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department in the last decade is that they left a cruiser idling in the heat is enough for me to hold the entire "public safety" field in contempt.

This, along with that asshole CHP officer who told me, completely contrary to the law, that I couldn't take the lane on my bicycle, has left me with a lifelong disdain for law enforcement.

Disdain, even while I had the enjoyment this last Saturday night to walk from my housal unit 1.5 miles to the corner of Franklin and Laguna Springs to watch said law enforcement conducting a sobriety check point, the first I've ever witnessed on my Franklin Blvd. I sat at the bus stop (waiting for a bus that doesn't run on Saturdays) and got to witness the drawing of a few sets of handcuffs, the hauling away of a few cars for who-knows-what -- suspended licenses, expired registration, whatever. I would have liked to thank these law enforcement folks for what they were doing, yes. I worry about being plowed down by drunks on my bike, yes...which is why I never, never! ride at night.

I know it takes a certain level of ego and arrogance to perform their jobs; however, leaving a car running unattended for 35 minutes because "it's really, really hot outside!" represents the ultimate lack of judgement and lack of respect for their public funding. They can never count on me for support.