Am I the only one who feels I am in Gotham City, with the great unveiling of the new Bat-Copter at the airport?
I just received the latest Winnipeg Police Services News Release. In it, Selinger is committed to "public safety and crime prevention initiatives". Katz has given the WPS the "tools necessary to reduce crime in our city" believing the helicopter will keep the citizens of Gotham City, I mean Winnipeg safe. And Police Chief McCaskill says it's "an exciting day for the Service", believing the copter will "improve the safety of the community".
I am feeling safer already .... No I'm not!!! What I am feeling, is that there will be a new noise in the North End keeping me up at night. Not only do we have dogs, all night parties, sirens, cars without mufflers, but now we are going to have the noise of a helicopter overhead. Somehow, I don't think the helicopter is going to make our City and our Streets safer. It does not run day and night, it only goes in the air when needed. And how long does it take to wake up the pilot, get him to the airport, get the copter running and in the air, and going to the area of interest. By the time the helicopter gets to the crime scene, there is nobody in sight except the police, who have already been scouring the area, and the canine unit with a dead scent.
I don't think we are spending our money wisely on this one. I think we could have done far more good with the funds going into social programs, or more Police and Cadets on the streets, or more 911 operators.
But, what's done is done. We have a new helicopter that will patrol the City from the air. It will shine it's light down on us in search of criminals. And the City will be given that false sense of security that it needs.
I wonder how they will notify the helicopter to take to the air. Maybe "Help, someone just stole my purse ... turn on the Bat Signal".
Crime will continue as it did yesterday, Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.
The sirens every night and now the 'copter.
ReplyDelete"Holy noise pollution!" Batman.....
I absolutely agree with your take on the helicopter. I think it is a feel good thing, I just can't see how it is going to be useful for Inner city crime. I would support more cadets, more dogs and more police officers who actually walk the beat and really stroll it, chat to people get to know the people.
ReplyDeleteMost of the crime in the city is around drugs and addictions and dysfunctional families where kids have never had a chance. I could bite people who say we need to be hard on these kids...all they have known is hard and often brutal. At one time both my daughters were probation officers, the kids liked the institution, a clean bed 3 meals a day.
I have less faith in what I call the Poverty Industry (social agencies),they do so little , they can't even clean up the back lanes behind their offices, after 4.30pm and weekends the workers are home with their paycheques in the suburbs and all we have left are the cops.
I honestly don't believe it will reduce crime a whole lot. At best, it is a reactive response after crime has taken place.
ReplyDeleteUnless the helicopter is in the air all the time, they will be hard pressed to prevent or catch people in the act of crime.
I have to agree with you. Just how many law enforcement people could have been hired so there would have been a larger overall visible presence in the city for the start-up costs of the 4.5 million it has cost all taxpayers. And we didn't even really get a say in what we thought was best for our communities. Reality is that a best case is this thing can be in the air in minutes if the pilot and crew are standing by, the weather is good, no incoming flights on the two active runways. Even so they are saying a potential air time of only 20 hours per week. What a waste of our hard earned cash for city of winnipeg BLING.
ReplyDeleteCold uncaring bureaucracy is the main culprit here. Consider that this generation is the first generation in the history of mankind were kids are killing each other. In a society that does not respect family values we are bound to have problems that require a useless helicopter to replace the human touch we had before the digital revolution. We are moving away from interaction daily and losing our ability to truly interact with each other on a human level.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with crime and the criminal mind that lead us to this helicopter problem in the first place, is one of basic human need. All humans on the planet earth need one thing to become good functioning people that are an asset to our society. That one thing is love; without it we experience the problems we are currently having with crime. Helicopters can't love people but people can. Love is a need that all of humanity has and we can insure that each and every one of us gets to feel love if we pull together one community at a time, one city at a time, one province at a time, one country at a time, one world sharing with each other out of love.
It all must start somewhere why not Winnipeg's north-end...?