Lessons Not Learned

Another quiet weekend around here, that is ..... if you don’t count when I took a stroll down to the mail center yesterday to pick up mail delivered the previous day and saw this ....

It’s difficult to see through the security gate, but the left side has been torn down, mail boxes looted.

Looking for stimulus checks, I imagine.

I’d blogged, back in early March, about installation of the security gate and door, accessed by use of our common area key. I’d commented that we should be okay insofar as break-ins “for a while”. Emphasis on “for a while” because, looking at the dime store key handle, it didn’t look like much of a challenge for a seasoned criminal to pop, unscrew or pry loose.

It appears that’s exactly how entry was made.

Then

Now

When will this management group learn you get what you pay for ─ all that iron gate and a cheap key handle.

Returning from the Pain Cave this morning, "closed" sign removed from the security gate, I was able to get a better photo of inside.

Looks like management has been able to re-secure the bottom row of boxes.

The security people, who drive around the property once a night, don’t get out of the car. They just do a loop around the property, take off and their agency gets paid.

In the upper right hand corner of the photo is a camera. Doesn’t seem to be serving a purpose insofar as identifying the culprit(s).

With management personnel living right above the mail center ─ seeming not to hear the banging and clanging of boxes being broken into, management might consider a ring camera type set up, attached to the staffers, so they can't continue to ignore.

So there’s that.

And speaking of lessons not learned, there’s this ...

With the climate being what it’s been since George Floyd was murdered by Chauvin & Company, you’d think this Virginia Cop Joe Gutierrez would know better than to harass, intimidate, pepper spray, a Black man, let alone an Army Lieutenant for no reason whatsoever. Gutierrez went so far as to threatened to have Lieutenant Nazario's commission taken away if he lodged a complaint.

In the video, Gutierrez appears to be looking for an excuse to kill Lieutenant Nazario.

The Lieutenant was smart to have driven to a lighted area and kept his hands raised, even though Gutierrez ordered him to unbuckle his seat belt because, had he lowered his hands to do so, Gutierrez would have used that movement as an excuse to shoot. Like what was done a few years back to Philando Castile.

Philando was just a passenger, disclosed he had a license to carry and, when he reached for license and registration ─ as requested even though he wasn't driving and shouldn't have been asked, the cops murdered him.

As for threatening the Lieutenant's commission, now that the world knows this happened and the Lieutenant is suing, I hope he takes Gutierrez' pension, house, car ... everything.

Since the cops can't seem to manage their hatred, maybe they'd think twice if they were made to realize how much they have to lose if they don't keep their hatred in check.

Consequences should be part of their training.

I don’t even know what to say about the latest ─ the kid murdered for having a car freshener in his rear window.

Not sure this was even a real thing, I googled “is it illegal to hang air freshener in car”. Evidently, it is in California ... “You cannot hang items, or objects, from your rear-view mirror because it could possibly obstruct your view”.

I don’t recall reading that in the DMV book or seeing it on a test, but I bet it will be covered in the next edition.

At any rate, a further example of lessons not learned ─ the cop that chose to shoot even though the atmosphere is what it is.