State Fair Race Riots

I find it awkward watching and listening to accounts of the state fair race riots from outlets clearly practicing revisionism. Some absorb and report watered-down police propaganda without challenge. They refer to the incidents as "Fair Fights". I'd like to know in which universe an assault is referred to as a fight.

Don't forget more than a week passed between the events and the news reports.

We know the assaults were done by one racial group and the victims were of another. When a group of similar racial makeup that bands together and travels to another neighborhood for the common goal of deliberately assaulting people of another racial makeup, that's racial violence. In fact it's a riot by any definition. Numerous witness accounts, backed by at least one police report, articulated scenes with knives, fists and chants of "beat white night", a racially-flavored nod to "east side night". Fact or fiction? I think the evidence is compelling enough for the media to report it in that way.

I've spend hours listening to, reading and watching the evidence and I'm convinced that we have an issue that is hate-based and morally deprived -- and not one to which adding five squad cars is the appropriate police response.

Hate is primal and no "conversation" will quel the anger. What fuels this violence is not as important as the resolve with which it is met. We must put a brick wall between the attackers and the innocent population. We must smack down the agressors swiftly and painfully.

Police Chief Judy Bradshaw says the violence was random and unplanned, adding (after prompting from one reporter) that things just "got out of hand". These members of the community would be well advised to remember whose interests they're indentured to serve.

People want to spend too much time analyzing the root causes. I don't care who hates who enough to cause the violence. You can have conversations and discuss all you like, but when someone's rights are violated, we, the members of this community, must compel an end to it quickly and effectively, by whatever means or force necessary.

To the leaders: end the crime now and worry about feeling good about yourselves later.

Des Moines Police investigating one of its own

Reginald White was arrested for his involvement in the Aug 14 state fair riots. "Reggie" White is a Hoover basketball player, along with Dwight Sistrunk, whose mother is Lillie Miller-Sistrunk, Des Moines' first African-American female police sergeant, who asked White's arresting officer to reduce his felony charges (assault with injury) to a misdemeanor and be released. When the arresting officer declined that request, Miller stated she'd bond White out herself, which we've
now learned she subsequently did.

Are cops cost-effective?

I was shocked to discover several fallacies regarding North American law enforcement in reports, studies and court cases. One of the more notable ones is the general belief that a police department is thought to be a good investment.

A well foot-noted document by Roger Roots studied the constitutionality of cops generally, and along the way made some significant discoveries about costs, titling the section, "COPS NOT COST-EFFECTIVE DETERRENT".

Now that's a pretty blatant statement and one I'm sure most citizens would take issue with. So rather than simply trust the data at wholesale, I looked at Des Moines' police department budget for 2009 in search of some guidance on the issue.

The average cop's annual salary exceeds $100,000, not including side jobs where they act as security guards at convenience stores and bars.

What's an arrest worth?
I found, for instance, if you judge police effectiveness on arrests alone, they come at a cost of nearly $4,000 each. Pretty startling.

Cost of protection
If you'd rather look at the economic impact of police on residents of our city, cops' fees in relationship to the average family of 5 are $1,400 per year.

It's unnerving to realize that the police need more than $100 a month from every family. $150,000 per square mile every month? No wonder the government no longer wants citizens to police their own neighborhoods. And it makes me curious; can I look at alternative service providers? Will they guarantee that me and my stuff are safe? It's odd that we hold the cable company to higher standards than we do the police who have sworn to protect us.

Another well-promoted and self-perpetuated fallacy is that police work is extremely dangerous -- except that the numbers don't support the perception. A recent news story marking the 75th anniversary of the Iowa State Patrol had the number of killed state troopers since 1935 in the single digits. Construction is a far more dangerous job, but you never hear that on the evening news.

These things make you wonder how charities - that function solely for raising money for families of killed police officers -- manage to hoodwink their donors into coughing up cash.