9-1-1 as a 'Product'

 In the past week, I saw this discussion taking place....where folks were talking about the impact of calling 9-1-1, getting the police out to handle an immediate problem, and how chaotic situations are multiplying.

I grew up in a fairly rural area of NW Alabama in the 1960s/1970s, and frankly....the only occasion where my dad called the sheriff for an issue.....was the theft of a saddle.  That was it.  

If you drew a circle around the farm for five miles.....sheriff got called to handle drunks who whacked mailboxes....cattle who'd broken out of the fenced areas....threats by drunks on kin-folks....and cheating husbands who'd been kicked out of their house.  That was mostly it.

If I'd gone to the nearest urbanized area (20 miles away, the county seat)....the police force mostly handled traffic accidents....an occasional house-break-in....Halloween toilet-paper rolls....college dorm parties that got out of control....and one or two murders a year which were mostly where one relative cut-up or shot another relative. 

In the 1990s....things probably progressed up two or three notches.  Drugs played a major part in this.

Occasionally, you'd start to notice that you had a bad cop, or a cop who was tied to the drug scene themselves.  

In the past twenty years....in this rural region....9-1-1 gets called a fair bit.  Murders occur in the rural county on a regular basis, and mostly all connect back to some usage of drugs.  Home break-in's are way up....compared against the 1980s.....but a lot of these are worthless items stolen (a 8-year old chainsaw, a $300 6-year old mower, prescription drugs worth $100).  

If you go to some place like Memphis, Atlanta or Knoxville....there's probably thirty 9-1-1 calls (from each city) from Friday night to Monday morning....where a wild situation is being described by the caller (maybe at some bar or hotel), and the police are told ahead of time.....this is just not a 'safe' situation they are driving into.  

A lot of these calls relate to an argument that has arisen from the wife or ex-wife, and the potential threat from a husband/ex-husband....who might be drugged-up or a bit drunk.  

Maybe politicians don't think in this manner.....but 9-1-1 calls have become a product that is depended upon by society to a great degree.

Rural areas now affected?  I would suggest since the 1980s....most all rural areas are affected by the 9-1-1 calls, and more usage of drugs.  Police are affected by this.  You could get twenty calls from the 9-1-1 team over a week, and might luck out that they were accident-related, or lost kids.  But as each one of these violence-prone calls occurs.....you get drawn into more of these threat situations, and just keep wondering.....will you walk into a mess where you have to shoot some kid dead because of a stupid threat, or the kid holding a knife while under the influence of drugs? 

Improving?  No....that's the one part of this situation....it can only get worse.  

Can You Gerrymander in 2021/2022?

 It appears that around eight states will have to redraw district lines in the next 18 months, with some losing a district in the state, and some gaining a district.  

So, here's the chief problem....up until 2016, you could be pretty sure about the voting tendency in various towns and counties....leading the guy to draw the lines being confident that he could make the new lines iron-clad for the Democrats....or Republicans.

Now?  You have to wonder about the voting tendency from 2016 and 2020, and ask yourself how sure the lines can be.

In some cases....particularly Florida....it's going to be awful hard to redraw the lines and ensure Democratic districts stay Democratic.  

The odds of court challenges delaying the district drawings?  I would suggest virtually all of the states in the redrawing business will face court action.  

Joe Biden's Speech

 I sat this morning and watched the 'tape'.  So my five observations:

1.  On a couple of rare occasions, the camera crew screwed up and showed the audience seating....with about fifty-percent of the seats empty.  It was rare, but it just left you with an odd feeling.

Now, I will say this....if you'd handed me a ticket to the 'show'.....because of Covid....I would have turned the ticket down myself.

2.  Alertness of Joe Biden?  I would probably give him a '9'.  There was no stumble with the speech.

3.  Joe did hype getting vaccinated.  Odds of this speech topic making any difference?  Zero.

4.  Joe did talk about 'bread crumbs'.....police reform, immigration reform, more taxes on evil corporations, drug pricing reform, etc.  But it was mostly chatter and no serious suggestions on how things would go.

5.  Mostly a 'shopping-list'?  Well....yeah.  A year from now, you can drag up the hour-long speech and ask what actually got done, and it's probably less than 10-percent of what he chatted over.

As for how many Americans watched the speech?  I have my doubts that he got more than a quarter of Americans to watch.  I would categorize myself as having mostly zero interest in any SoTU speech...mostly because nothing ever gets done.