Cheers To Living Dangerously

What is it about our global society that encourages incorrigible behavior?

After the untimely death of former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela's great grand-daughter Zenani Mandela, need we a refresher on the lawlessness of partying with illicit substances?


While I in NO WAY condone the actions of former Officer Johannes Mehserle of the Bay Area Rapid Transit, I am very concerned about the tone of the discussions I have been reading.

Nowhere have I read that we should, as a society and as a community, be having very detailed conversations about personal responsibility.

With this deficit, we are not only dishonoring Oscar Grant, but his peer who are also coming of age.

What sort of society encourages maniacal partying and riotous rambunctiousness that can only lead to a very negative outcome?

People seem to feel that in a free society, we are free to do whatever we want without consequences. But it is the law of nature that every occurrence leads to an outcome.

If you decidedly place your hand in a vat of hot oil, you will burn the skin off your digits.

If  you party, consuming large amounts of alcohol in a group with undisciplined persons behaving unabashedly, you are inviting catastrophe.

While many police departments project that they are there to serve and protect, the truth is, they are there to maintain order.

On the fateful night, like many other nights involving crime and police, Oscar Grant made a decision. This young man made a decision not far from many decisions he made about his life and how he desired to be perceived and reacted to.

He did not deserve to die on the street like an animal by a trigger happy rogue who had probably never pulled his weapon.

He deserved to be an educated, contributing member of society - the same way every being deserves when they draw breath into this world, but that is not what happened here.

Someone made a call that there was unrest. That tax paying citizen is who the BART officer was employed to serve.

Our wicked thought patterns have dis-serviced many on many occasions. Court dockets are packed. I have entire blocks where every household has someone being supervised.

As a 20 year law enforcement officer, I have often wondered why folks think it is okay to celebrate birthdays by overindulging in alcohol and behaving wildly?

It is a right, of course, but in knowing you are doing so  ...  knowing you are not on an island, why risk your health, livelihood, and that of others to "celebrate" your birthday???

Case after case sits on my desk where people have Under The Influence cases because they were celebrating something.

REALLY?

Your birthday celebration killed an entire family, was it worth it?

In the case where we drink uncontrollably for hours celebrating a new year without our family, what are we truly saying about ourselves?

The truth about young men in America, of all races, is that they are sad assessments of manhood.

Many do not stay in school, they drink in access, use drugs, shoot, gang bang and promote sexual promiscuity.

Where are we in giving them tools to be productive citizens?

At 22 years old, do you really support allowing your young man to be out on public transportation while his young child is home without her father?

Gangs, guns, drugs, and the women who support them, are the symbols these young men embrace.

My caseload reflects very little racial disparity. Ignorance knows no shade.

When something cuts loose and sails into the media, we get emotional and enraged. Why??

It makes me sick. These things happen all day every day. Unruly youth and the big, bad police.

Each morning I wake to greet the unlawful who have maimed, disrespected, raped and pillaged. (yep, exactly what our country was founded on - and we the guilty perpetuate it.)

Society does not greet them but casts them aside for government and social agencies to deal with.

Human nature, I find daily, is most often ugly and vile.

How did Oakland respond? Riots. Most inner cities do. These metropolises give nothing and expect honor.

Where was the riot when Oscar Grant was making decisions about his life. Where was his mother when he chose to engage in criminal acts. Where were the voices and disgust when he really needed to hear them?

Society, you really need to act BEFORE someone dies. Engage our youth to behave responsibly before they pick up the gun or sell the drug.

A party can be party without cases of alcohol and illicit substances. Celebrations can be enjoyable without spilling out wildly into the night. People can expect reasonable services from agencies.

But seriously folks, teach accountability, responsibility and that when you put yourself in questionable circumstances, and at the mercy of someone else's hand, you may not live to comment about it.

(Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

It is sad but true. Where were these outraged voices when Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV was savagely murdered in front of his father over his motorcycle? I think we as a community need something to do. Question is will you, community, rise and meet the burden or simply wail and stomp and then go back to sleep.