SNAKE vs NOBLE POLICE

Let us look at the latest in the ongoing saga of the story of three Noble, OK. police against a snake. If you recall from my last entry, a Noble citizen called the police to come and eliminate a snake in a tree by the birdhouse. Three police officers answered this call. One of the three shot at the snake missing at first, nailing the slimy perpetrator with the second attempt. Unknown to the officers, the first bullet traveled though the wooded area and killed a small boy fishing with his grandpa.


Cleveland County where Noble is located called for an investigation. Noble police department looked at the policies involving guns in non criminal situations. A couple weeks later, a 100 page report was generated on this particular situation. What could possibly be said in 100 pages that cannot be covered in a couple of paragraphs? How many words can one put around this incident. The officers answered a call en masse, shot at a snake in a tree and inadvertently killed a child in the process. Why three officers? We don't know. Why were the police involved in the first place when in the very town of Noble is a wildlife rescue and rehab preservation ready and willing to deal with situations like this? We don't know. Why was a firearm involved at all? We don't know. Why 100 pages? We don't know.


The District attorney for the County of Cleveland decided after reading this material that charges were in order so two of the three officers, a sergeant and a rookie were charged with involuntary manslaughter. His thinking, he said , was to be fair in looking at the case. If anyone else were shooting at a snake in a tree and accidentally killed someone, that person would be charged with manslaughter. As the story goes, the sergeant, a five year veteran of the department, encouraged the rookie to shoot which he did. You know what happened.


The family stated that they did not care if the officers received any jail time but just wanted to be sure that neither one of them would be law enforcers or carry a gun any time in the future. Seems like a justifiable sentiment. The remaining fact is that while this gun toting pair did complete the assignment and got the snake out of the tree, in so doing killed an innocent. Now the consequences follow. Apparently, the third officer was not directly involved in the solution for the snake and hence is not named in the warrant.


Sentencing has not taken place yet as the officers involved are expected to report to the courts in a couple of days. If nothing else, this case has brought to light the wisdom of wielding a gun in public places such as shooting in the air on the Fourth of July, or after a particularly wild celebration. Guns belong in holsters at best or better, locked away.

To Leave or Not To Leave

Erin has killed three people already. It looks a lot like the hurricane season is underway with a bang. Erin is causing a lot of rain and flooding as it makes her way up Texas to eventually die out as rain in remote areas. No one took this storm very seriously. But now, Dean is rumbling through as a category 4 storm, decimating the Caribbean and heading, they predict, toward Brownsville, Texas. Or it could turn north and head on to Louisiana and those parts.

The governor of Louisiana has issued a preliminary state of emergency just in case and several Parishes are holding evacuation drills. Some are thinking of the lousy year of 2005 culminating with not one but two deadly storms that annihilated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Who can forget Katrina? The levies and barriers have not been repaired yet to the level they were during the last major storm and now another could quite possibly be a repeat, a horrible reenactment of before. Let's hope it isn't so.

Some places however, don't learn as easily as others. Reports are that there are some local cities and parishes that haven't gotten onto the emergency preparedness wagon and are once again taking a wait and see attitude. For a population who only partially returned to live, you might assume that all of Louisiana and Mississippi would be on the edge of the bus seats anticipating leaving. Not so. FEMA is ready. After all, they still have all those unused trailers from the last fiasco. Buses are lined up. Bags are packed. There are only 13 out of 23 hospitals operating this year in New Orleans and some of the police districts are still operating out of temporary mobile buildings. Those who choose to stay behind will once again be on roof tops waiting for rescue which may or may not be available this time.

Given the errors in hurricane tracking, like any weather predictions, plenty could change from hour to hour. This storm could easily change directions. I hope not. I hope it fizzles out at landfall. But just in case, if I lived anywhere along the gulf coast, I'd be making vacation plans to say, North Dakota for the duration. The season is still young. The predictions are for a busy season based on the warming of the climates, ocean current, history, etc. Anything is possible.

I'd like to go north anyway for the summer,and I surely wouldn't wait and see. When we get tornadoes, we have minutes to evacuate. Hurricanes are the most anticipated storms there are. Get out of Dodge now and send postcards to those who don't.

NOBLE POLICE VS. A SNAKE

This is a story about a slapstick answer by Noble, Oklahoma police department following an emergency phone call from a Noble citizen complaining of a snake in the tree by the birdhouse. Could the police come and get it out of the tree and yard. On the surface this is funny. I don't even know what kind of snake it was but it obviously was annoying the citizen and probably the birds too. Funnier still is that 3 officers answered, 3 Noble police for one snake in the tree. After attempting to get the snake to come on down and go away, they decided that one of them should shoot the darn thing. And so it was that one of the sharpshooters shot the snake. He missed, so he tried again and hit the snake spot on.

I suppose the citizen was ecstatic, the birds relieved, and the officer proud as he put up his smoking gun. But the story continues. Apparently, the bullet that missed the snake traveled through a small wooded area and straight through the head of a small boy who was fishing on a lake wharf with his grandpa. He died instantly.

Why did it take 3 police officers to take on a snake,and was it necessary to shoot the thing, discharging a firearm in a populated area of the city. Noble is a small city not far from Norman, Oklahoma, the home of the great University of Oklahoma . It is close enough to that City of Norman to make life convenient and far enough away to live nicely with a family away from traffic and crowds. People often choose a more rural area to raise a family because of all of the crimes of city life such as drive by shootings, burglary, domestic violence, apartment complexes. Families want smaller stores, schools, neighborhoods and so on. Safety, they want to be safe.

This shooting was indeed a tragic accident. The snake is gone. The grandpa will never be the same person again, neither he nor the family. The Noble police officer will never be the same either. He is devastated and may lose his job in the end. The city of Noble revisited the use of firearms by professionals in the enforcement of their duties. Neighbors and friends no longer feel quite as safe as previously. And of course, the boy is gone forever.

The funeral was today and attended by just about everyone. The police Chief apologized on behalf of the entire department. The family now begins healing. I personally do not think that in most non violent situations, guns are a solution. Let the snakes, however, beware.

Where Have All The Children Gone

When many of us were in high school, we towed the line or else the wrath of the instructors and parents were visited upon our heads. Oh there were fights and wrestling outside class hours, but there were no knives or guns in double digit quantities. Most of the time the biggest concerns involved who dated who, who had new clothes, what make-up was the best, who stole whose girl or boy friend, who held what position on which team and who were we to massacre on the field on Friday nights. Remember that Fridays were group nights and Saturdays were date nights. And for the most part, nobody took their life in their hands going out at night.

It seemed to me it began changing when the war escalated and so many of out young men were drafted. Then as if a disease insidious and stealthy took over and the drugs abounded. Music changed to very dark lyrics and groups more likely than not dropped in and dropped out on Fridays. Kids from the sixties grew up and had kids of the late seventies and eighties. We gave our kids freedom we never experienced. Most of us had to work to make ends meet for the family. Schools changed. People sued schools over discipline. Groups became gangs, dropping out took over. Students ran roughshod over the entire place. Studying was optional. Weapons appeared. Fights abounded.

Now we have schools run by committee. No discipline. This mess has produced a plethora of children on antidepressants and Ritalin. Weapons appear in grade schools. Shootings, gang warfare, drive by shootings, mass killings at schools followed by suicide. Abductions and urban flight have made every parent personally deliver children to school or to the buses. No one walks to class any more. Children and parents retain the umbilical connection by cell phone.

We had a school fro the inner city move to a brand new building complex in suburbia in an attempt to "spread the wealth" I guess. children from the old area were to mingle with the children from the new area and they would all "take a house by the sea together" so to speak. These are high school age children. What has happened in the first year of operation is gang fights and school warfare. Many new area kids were pulled by parents and sent to private school. These kids are our grand kids now. We are so ready to pull a race card on either side, get the news involved, solve the problems with law suits, handicapping the schools to where no discipline is found. This school was built right next door to a small police district office. Some of the police moonlight as unarmed guards at the school. A fight broke out an it was the guard who was beaten to a bloody pulp and sent to the hospital and not a student. No police arms were used but plenty of guns and knives appeared on the scene.
Righteous indignation prevailed, firings happened, suits were issued, and next year, they will begin bringing in freshman and sophomores. As a consequence, more people from the neighborhood could not sell their massive housed fast enough leaving many "for lease" golf course front homes.

It is no wonder home schooling abounds. But with home schooling, where is the socialization to be learned. Are we growing a crop of social isolates whose only contact with a "vbf" is on line with text? Leaving what is left to fend through the war torn vistas that are high schools now. Where boot camp needs to be the pre-high school course. So it has come to two worlds of high school teens-the isolates and the grunts. Heaven help us. These are our future. These are the people who will inherit a bigger less physically well generation to do something with. We are placing our lives in the hands of man made social misfits for the most part. Will mass suicides crop up among the elders of my generation? What legislation will abound concerning society in general and the sick and elderly in particular. Will the decrease and demise of the future generations spell disaster. Can a handful of fairly normal kids make it to adulthood with some sense of ethics and sincerity?

I don't know. I just know when I opened my patio door and saw a dozen or so dead goose eggs that had been smashed on the ground by a bunch of bully children old enough to break a clutch egg to reveal a small fragile life form now dead all over the yard, my heart ached. Not just for the goose family who stood by while the massacre took place leaving small corpses of goslings who will never grow, but for the children who felt it necessary to perform this ritual killing. Today animal cruelty, tomorrow people cruelty. Where are the parents, they are at home polishing their guns and suing somebody who yelled at their kid the other day probably.

This is me reporting from the front lines of the neighborhood signing off with a heavy heart and a frightened soul.

"WHO SHOT THIS 8MONTH OLD LITTLE PERSON?"

This is the first post for my new blog and sad to say it is a sad one but hopeful. Or maybe a Quixotic one. Either way, I am sick and tired at this time of my life in the land of the brave of hearing about children and innocent families being shot during gun exchanges or drive by shootings either random or revenge. What ever do children do to folks that makes them throw away commodities in our cities? A disproportionate number are of course in poor racially integrated, poorer sections of cities and towns where necessarily, surviving is a challenge every day the sun comes up. If it doesn't come up, chances are good the person died in his/her sleep either naturally or violently.

Folks in these neighborhoods, one of which I am rapidly falling into the category, are poor. The trash seems never to make it to a bin. The gutters are clogged. The homes old and falling apart, many are rentals with absentee landlords/ladies/persons. The daily grind to find assistance to supplement a meager if non existent income is a full time job. Red tape is high on the NASDAQ as is runaround and rudeness. Lines are long, offices are hot, windows don't open and funds are low. Being told to find help at a community church is a usual response. Somewhere is help, but finding it is a riddle few can crack without a little assistance from some savvy street guides. How do I know this? Because for the past month, my income has fallen to zero and I am now one of the chosen poor.

But I digress. All too often I her sirens in the night that suddenly stop and come into my complex. Now and again it is a harmless domestic noisy member, but more and more it is for violence, assault and shootings. Never, under any circumstances part the blinds and peek. All doors remain tightly shut. To quote old Cpl Schultz " I know nothzing, I see nothzing"!

But then this child got shot up. She was the only one hit during a drive by shooting. No neighbors peeked at the rat-a-tat-tat raking through the house across the street and down the way. Neighbors saw nothing, know nothing. They are mute with fear and terrified of revenge if anyone talks. So if this baby survives, which is real iffy at this time, she will never again be the happy gurgling 8month old she was earlier in the evening. If she survives.

I have started a petition at the following site

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/246010629

and would appreciate a visit and a signature. It doesn't matter if you are in my state of Oklahoma or not. The terrorism is every where in every city town and state. Take the signatures and send them to your Governor. Start Small, Get Big.

Thanks in advance. Hold your babies tight, they may not make it through the night.

mary g