The long way around the block

Dogs and Homeless People. I can pass by a dozen homeless guys on a dozen different corners every day of the week. I might, maybe, peel off a buck or three and slip it out the window to one of them, maybe. But you put a homeless guy with a dog and I will not only slip em a few bucks, I'll run to the nearest fast food place and pick up their lunch. Just ask this guy and his Saint Bernard, who left me about 15 bucks lighter, dinner included. I've got a theory as to why the added prop of a dog evokes a sympathetic reaction from me and it's pretty simple; I love dogs, at times more than most people. The homeless guy doesn't know that, he is just trying to get a few bucks for some grub and probably booze. The dog is just his companion. But it triggers a reaction in me.

I'll tell you what prompted me to write this; the economy. I'm seeing more and more homeless men and women, posted up on some corner, with a sign that I rarely if ever bother to read. Shit is just going to get worse. Jobs are being lost at an alarming rate with no end in site. The long and short of it is that there will be an increasing number of homeless people who have more in common with you and I ,than they do with the current crop of homeless people. When I say You and I, that doesn't mean we are the same type of people, because we aren't. There is a big difference between most of You, and Me. That difference is a big one, and it's also the reason that many of you take time out to read this blog. You would never turn to crime as a last resort, or you believe you would'nt, which is just as admirable, after all, it's the thought that counts. For most people there will always be other recourse short of stealing or begging. But once someone crosses that imaginary line, it becomes easier to cross again. Doesn't mean it's not wrong, it just is the way it is. That's the difference I'm referring to . That difference is going to determine if homeless guy decides to beg, borrow, or steal for a living.

Here is a purely hypothetical situation. I get thrown out on the street tomorrow. I'm jobless, can't find a job, any job, my family turns their back on me, my girlfriend drops me like a rock. Is there anyone in their right mind that believes I would go stand on a corner begging for pocket change? I wish I could tell you that is exactly what I would do, but it isn't. If my back was to the wall, my ego alone would prevent me from begging. I like to think I would have a moral battle waged inside my head and heart, but in the end, I'd fall of the Felony free wagon. Now that's not going to happen, but if it did, that's what I'd do. It's what I know, I did it for over 20 years, and as a last resort, it's what I'd do, for better or worse. I would feel some guilt, not unlike the guilt of some former drunk who falls off the wagon after 10 years, and much like that drunk, the guilt wouldn't stop me from doing it.

Now my point to this too long post, and it's probably not what you are expecting. With the economy going in the tank, there are a whole lot of guys like me, and a whole lot more that make me seem like Little Lord Fauntleroy, who are going to find themselves in the situation I just gave you. They probably work some menial job, and have managed to keep their noses clean. What happens when they lose that job and find themselves in that suddenly non hypothetical situation? Will they swallow their pride, maybe get a dog, and beg for change? No. Will they revert to the former life of crime? You bet they will. And trust me, it's already happening. With the economy tanking, crime will inevitably rise.

Wayne Cauthen our city manager wants to cut the police departments budget by 12 million dollars. This isn't news, I'm just slow to get to it. This will take 225 cops off the street. Now Wayne gets a pretty fat slice of cake, his contract is well in to the 6 figure range if I'm not mistaken. Maybe Wayne could cut his salary, give till it hurts. After all, thats what he is asking the Police department to do. That's what he is asking every single man woman and child in this city to do. There is one difference, I'm just proposing that the city manager give up some cheddar, a little coin. Wayne wants the police and people of this city to give up safety, security, and in some cases, he is asking people to give up living. That's what is going to happen. People are going to die because of these cuts.

The day they take 225 cops off Kansas City streets due to budget constraints, is the day the Perfect Storm will be born. The bad economy is going to bring bad guys out of retirement, with fewer cops to even out the playing field crime rates will soar in this city. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that divided by 3 shifts, we will be light by 75 cops on the street at any given time. That's 75 cops who won't just happen to be close by when they are needed most. That's 75 cops who wont be there to protect and serve. And why won't they be there? Because our city manager is lazy, he wants to cut every city service across the board, quick, simple and easy. Our murder rate this year was one of the highest in recent history. And the best that our city manager can come up with is to cut the single most important budget in this city, public safety. Wayne Cauthen should have been a Weather Man, they get paid to get shit wrong too.

And thats how we go from a homeless guy to a city manager. The long way around the block.