Rant: why bother?

Just a bit of a rant.

Saturday night, I headed over to Parkview Field to capture the fireworks.  The very first intersection I came to, Berry and Fairfield, a woman almost ran me over.  She had stopped, I thought to wait until I crossed, however, I was barely half-way through when she suddenly started into the intersection.  Luckily, she’d just hung up her cell-phone and noticed me and stopped.  I will say she was kind enough to apologize, which was appreciated.

Having averted disaster once, I cautiously resumed my journey.  At Jefferson and Ewing, a copy was stationed to help pedestrians cross.  Well, guess what?  The light turned red, and just as I was about to step off the curb, a car went flying by.  I’d had my eye on him, but thought he was stopping and certainly wouldn’t run a red light.  Guess what?  He did. The cop, and I’m not making this up, looked at me and said in an incredulous tone, “Incredible!”  Now those of you who really know me, know that I can be a real smart-a$$.  I almost, but caught myself, retorted, “No, what’s incredible is that you made absolutely no move to stop him or address the issue.”  Needless to say, I didn’t say a word and in fact, didn’t even acknowledge his presence.

The driver’s window was down and he went through the intersection and pulled into Taco Bell – making a run for the border, I guess.  I could absolutely not believe this guy.  What was he there for if not to protect me, the pedestrian from law breakers?  The light was solid red when the car drove through it.  The officer could have yelled at the kid to stop, he would have heard him.  He could have walked over to Taco Bell and talked to the kid there or issued a citation or whatever else should have been done.  But to do nothing?  If I were a conspiracy buff, I’d say it was the City out to rid itself of another insidious blogger.  HA!

Anyway, I went to take my photos and video and on my way back went through the same intersection again.  This time, traffic was a bit backed up and people were in the middle of the intersection because they couldn’t get through before the light had changed.  Again, what was the point of having an officer there if he’s not going to address that problem?  I can understand a reluctance when Ewing is closed north of that intersection, but come on!  You’d rather have pedestrians winding their way through cars anxious to move – red light or no red light?

Then, as if to add injury to insult, at Washington and Fairfield, I started through the intersection when a car with Illinois plates suddenly changed his mind, changed lanes and came screaming – and I do mean screaming – around the corner.  I was out of his way, but again, no caution, no slow down – just speed around that corner as fast as you can.

I just saw on one of the local media outlets websites that there was another accident downtown with severe injuries.  When are people going to learn that it’s not a speedway?  

Let me say that I do respect police officers and the responsibilities they have.  However, this was clearly out of line and frankly it was a waste of taxpayers money for there was absolutely no value in him being on that corner.

Related Images: