I thought it was pretty ironic as I am putting together an article to blog about money for public safety when there is a knock on the door from Springfield police asking us if we know where our Nissan is.
Apparently, our Nissan decided to take a trip to sweet home without us.
The vehicle was recovered by sweet home police as the perpetrator was in the act of trying to steal another vehicle.
Springfield police said that Nissans are now higher on the theft list and along with Honda's.
having a police officer come to your door and tell you that when your cars is missing is a feeling that is very hard to describe and it makes me even more angry that we do not have officers patrolling the streets as much as we do patrolling the freeways.
Does this mean that I will now support the initiative for public safety? No!
solely because they are not responsible with their money. The county commissioners of rather spend money on the fairgrounds than they would on public safety.
Don't get me wrong, I think there should be in increasing public safety, and I would be glad to support it even on my low income if I felt that they could be trusted to use your money wisely, however when I read in the paper Registerguard in which it seems like they are totally out of touch with what the public's desires and what it can afford.
suggesting a sales tax or a tax on business sales may temporarily raise money for public safety but in my opinion it will have a devastating long-term effect on the local economy. I also believe that once a sales tax becomes established in one county it will not be long before a sales tax will start showing up around the state. I read an article the other day about another city talking about a local sales tax although I cannot remember exactly which city.
As I have said many times before, when it comes to budgeting and money, it is still "right pocket, left pocket, it is all the same pair of pants." there are "unnecessary" projects that can be cut to provide the necessary services. Necessary services and basic services should be the priority of the state's budget. We need public safety, roads, and basic services before we need to worry about funding for the fairgrounds, skateboard parks, ugly looking funnel at bus stations, etc.
well, I'm off to sweet home to retrieve the car.
4 comments:
wow, that's scary. glad that you got your car back
you know, back in the old days, when people depended on horses for day to day transportation and work, if you were a horse thief, you got hanged. The rationale was that, as people so depended on their horses, you were endagering a person's very livelihood, or even a person's very life, by depriving them of their horse.
today, people need their cars the same way people 100 years ago needed their horses. sure, most people, especially in the city, can get by without their cars: you can take the bus, car pool, even walk if you live close to work. but people today still rely on their cars, and for some people, loss of a car is devastating. Imagine if your livelihood depended on your car (delivery driver, travelling salesman, realor, etc.). Then imagine that you aren't in a financial position to afford a rental car, or you have to wait weeks or even months for your insurance to kick in. for some, car theft is as devastating today as horse theft was 100 years ago.
So I say, we need to seriously bump up the penalty for stealing cars.
The theory of our lame punishment today is that cars have a dollar value, so car theft has a comparable severety to other property crimes. but the dollar value doesn't reflect the actual cost to the victim. if you have a pension plan worth a hundred grand, and the CFO of your company embezzles some money and steals ten grand from you, that's bad. That's a property crime that causes you a real loss of thousands of dollars. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not THAT bad. So it is logical for the crook to spend a few years behind bars, but not the rest of his life.
In contrast, if you are a poor worker just getting by on a day to day basis and you are dependent on your 1979 Volare (blue book value $200) for your livelihood, a car thief can devastate you. So what if the value of the loss is only a few hundred dollars? That thief might cost you all your income!
So we need to modify the sentencing, and make the minimum penalties for auto theft considerably higher than they are. I'd like to see a first time car thief get a minimum of two years per vehicle; a second timer get five per vehcile; and a third timer be eligible for a "three strikes and you're out" life without parole.
I think that might seriously cut down on auto crimes.
Oh, and if the criminal who gets caught is an illegal alien, then give them the time in our prison, followed by deportation with notice of the crime given to his home nation.
This is exactly were we are at today.
Being a student, I am living on loans and savings.
The car that was stolen was grannies and she is on fixed income and cannot afford to replace the car, and I don’t have the money to buy her another one.
I have also been in a situation where my car was used for my income and it may be again.
I agree with you about the penalties need to be increased, or at least being enforced
in fact isn’t it a class A felony over $1000. course who is afraid of the feds as proven by the INS.
Car thief has become such a common place, that they don’t even investigate anymore. The car was not fingerprinted or anything.
Personally I would like to see the penalties return for car theft to be the same as steeling a horse.
We got lucky this time. Were out $130 in towing fees and the car suffered only minor damage.
You're lucky your car was only slightly damaged. When my car was stolen a few years ago, I got it back months later and it was trashed, locks ruined, seats replaced with torn, worn out ones of a different color, dash torn out and ignition broken. The car was found broken down on Row River Road. I went and stole it back from the thief. Even though the thief left evidence in the car and the police knew who stole it, I was told that they would not pursue the issue. They said I could sue the thief in small claims court.
As far as the County not using it's money wisely, check out the RG on 11/14/05. The county's HR manager says we need to raise the salary of the county administrator by 16.7% and also create a new position of assistant administrator with a pay range of 88,000 to $123,000.
Vote No, No, and No to any new tax plans until they put public safety as the top priority and then let us vote on all their other pet projects.
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