I was driving up 400 and a cop stopped me for speeding. There was traffic to my right so I pulled over to the left against the median wall. The officer was agitated with me and I didn't like his attitude. I couldn't pull over to the right because of the traffic. What should I have done? Was I dumb to do that?
Dear Dummy:
Having been there myself, I'm guessing the officer was a bit on the agitated side knowing that he was about to be run over. The only thing that would fit in that lane is a clown car so I'm sure half of yours and the cop's car, which of course is behind yours and will be the first one hit, was sticking out there to be hit by one of our fine drivers who just may be on his or her cell phone, texting something insignificant that could have waited.
Every once in a while you see a news story of someone impersonating a police officer. A young woman was robbed by a man who followed her and then pulled her over while she was on her way home. He asked for her license, walked back to his car, and then returned and took the contents from her wallet. She said he had a large knife in his belt.
This method is well documented all over the country. Years ago, Cherokee County authorities arrested a man who used a blue light to pull over and then sexually assault women. He placed a blue light in the dash of the car.
The term "Blue Light Rapist" has been used in cases throughout the country to describe this particular method of trickery used by sex offenders or robbers. Fortunately, In the case of the woman stopped in Barrow County this past week, all the man wanted was her money and credit cards.
Monday was like every other Monday except that everything at work was different and a bunch of other things, but other than that it was the same. I left work, went home after a short hour-and-a-half drive, and got the mountain bike. I ride the mountain bike because everything about it is rugged—like me. I’m a rugged guy.
I was riding my rugged mountain bike without brakes. I don’t need brakes. Brakes are for sissy-boys. I was riding my rugged mountain bike, the one without brakes, down the rugged trails. I was sweating like most rugged guys do, as I rode the rugged trails. I left my phone behind because rugged guys don’t use cell phones on the trails. They use smoke signals or just yell really loud.
For the next hour I ruggedly rode the mountain bike down the trails, working up a good sweat—not glistening — as I watched the other riders pass me, at a high rate of speed, on my left of course. Rugged isn’t necessarily fast.
Last week, the Gwinnett Coalition of Health & Human Services released their annual report about the kids of Gwinnett. More specifically, 32,273 kids from Gwinnett County. For those who did not see the report, the survey driven study discusses preteens and teens and their exposures and experiences with sex, drugs, gangs, and other wonderful topics that parents would prefer to simply avoid. You know how it works, if we simply avoid something, it will just go away. Or maybe it really never existed at all. Ahh, wouldn’t it be nice if raising children was just that easy. Well, hopefully this report might just be the wake up call that apparently some parents need. Because if you believe what the report says, reading, writing, and arithmetic have been replaced with smoking, groping, and doping.
Everyone else is writing about Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, respected historian from Tufts University. Seems he didn’t know that Kevin Leonpacher, Atlanta Police officer, was a police officer although he was wearing a UNIFORM that said POLICE on it. He said he didn’t know Leonpacher was an officer and, furthermore, jaywalking is not illegal in Britain.
Let’s just say that Felipe didn’t know that Leonpacher was a cop because he didn’t see the badge and the patches that read “ATLANTA POLICE” along with the whole uniform thing and a traffic vest that said “POLICE.”
Folks, Put your cell phones down a minute. I’ve just figured out something very important!
I don’t think that we are as multi-tasking efficient as we thought we were. We just don’t remember what it was we needed to do, want to do, and even what we did, while we were talking and it all has to do with our cell phones!
This has just happened to me and I need to explain it before I forget, probably again.
Cell phones are making us more stupid than normal. It’s true. We’ve fooled ourselves into thinking that we can multi-task day-to-day activity while talking on the cell phone. It doesn’t matter if you have a Bluetooth or any other dental issue, your cell phone has the ability to make stupid decisions for you while you’re on it.
About this time last year, I wrote a column called Dead Man Walking. The piece was in response to the increasing number of homicides that had occurred, and an attempt to see just who these people were that were being killed. It was not a scientific study on victimology by a long stretch, but more of just a curiosity to see if there were any commonalities among those who had fallen victim to a homicidal incident. In a short recap, we found that the commonalities were startling. The prime target last year proved to be Hispanic males in their early twenties who were killed by a firearm, and the majority of the deaths occurred in the Norcross corridor.
The occasions where I find myself still awake at an hour that allows me to catch the late night talk shows are very rare these days. As much as I appreciate the humor of Leno, Letterman, O’Brian, and the like, my body is not nearly as appreciative of their talents if it means losing sleep. I would refer you to my previous comments about turning fifty.
However, I recently was able to keep my eyes in the open position long enough to catch a portion of Letterman. And just my pure luck, who would the guest be on the one night that I was tuning in? Could it be Shakira performing her unique style of dance? If you have not seen it, you should. Could it be James Patterson talking about his next great book? All of his books are great. Or could it be Lucy Liu? Well... just because she is Lucy Liu - do not get me started. It could have been any one of these people, but it was not. My guest for this seldom traveled nocturnal viewing experience was Nicole Richie. Great!
Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. And as our world continues to get crazier by the minute, so do the conspiracies. Conspiracies are not hard to come up with. Lord knows, most conspiracy theorists have never been bothered by the fact that there was little or no evidence to support their claims. All that is needed is a few people who are convinced that a particular government (usually ours) is out to get them, a common interest in the conspiracy du-jour, and a means of setting the conspiracy a float. The internet has proven to be a very powerful aide in what was once somewhat challenging. Not any more! A quick Google search will pop out conspiracies like popcorn at a movie theater.
Video surveillance has come a long way from video tape and VCR machines. Now almost all effective systems are digital and can be monitored from any location thanks to your computer’s hard drive. Camera systems have come down in price and as a result, many individual homes as well as communities have purchased systems to aid in the overall security plan.
Any new business should include video as part of its start up costs. More and more, residential communities are looking at video surveillance as part of the security plan. Common objections to video security fall mainly into three categories: Budget; Responsibility for day to day maintenance, and The Big Brother Conspiracy
