Police involvement

That sums up one of the reasons citizens get so frustrated with local government. Think about the only contacts with local government that most people have: pay property taxes, get speeding or parking tickets, try to avoid potholes or street closures … Generally the interactions are not pleasant.

When is the one big time when you personally need government’s help? When you have a disaster, like your house is on fire, or somebody just stole your stuff. In the former case, the fire department comes within minutes and does what they do, heroically. I am very impressed by, and thankful for, those lifesavers.

In the latter case, after you get ripped off, rather than the police arriving in a few minutes or hours, all you get to do is file a lousy report with Crime Check. You have just been violated, physically or emotionally, and all those Sergeant Fridays you have paid thousands of dollars in property taxes over the years to support are off writing more tickets, and are otherwise not available to help you.

The chances of getting your stuff back, I know, is about zero. Detective stuff sounds great — fingerprints, DNA samples, interview neighbors, etc. — but what you really want is somebody to give a damn that you just suffered what to you is a big loss, even if it was only Grandma’s costume jewelry. And that they might at least pretend to put a band aid on one of the more crummy days of your life by maybe appearing to find the perps who did this to you.

Dennis DeMattia

Spokane