UFOSeek Forum

In my travels, from time to time, I meet very interesting people. Not all of them are normal functioning adults, and would be considered developmentally delayed.

One such individual that I knew, was killed last night, by a hit and run driver, while he was crossing the street, downtown where I live. I came across the scene on my way home; police and ambulance personnel tending to 'somebody' on the ground.........I did not know who until this morning.

He was like many who would be considered 'marginal' and was known as ' a local ', quirky, talkative, annyoying. He was a shoplifter; everybody knew him, and saw him in and out of the courthouse on more than one occassion on one charge or another.

It occurred to me today how arrogant we are about our opinions on God and heaven and hell, and surely those with certain beliefs would condemn him to the latter, rather than the former. Yet, he had no awareness of his lot in life as deemed by others, he only did what he did, and was the way he was because he knew no better.

Was he less worthy of compassion, kindness, care and concern? Should he have been judged so harshly in life that we condemn him in death? Is our ability to reason and judge make us more worthy than any living soul who does not have that capacity?

I hope he is in a better, less judgmental, more loving place. Where those who are 'different' are not the fodder of jokes, diatribes and puffed up opinions on who makes the cut, and who is not worthy.

Rest in Peace Tommy,

Tim

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I have absolutely nothing clever to say......but I'm workin' on it.

Unfortunately you are only too correct Tim......such a shame and such a waste.

I do not see what condemnation has to do with compassion and caring, which I find more than a little annoying lately.

I am not so sure that it is simply a case of religious bigots condemning people who are considered marginal.....as an equal volume of condemnation comes from those who's church is the local pub, bowling alley, pool hall, casino etc.

Bigotry against the Tommy's of the world crosses all social and economic levels of our society.

The most extreme case I have encountered was in respect to money being collected to help people like Tommy......you know the routine.......knock knock, hello I'm a volunteer collecting money to help.......

The response was.....sure, I'll give you a very generous donation on one condition....you use the money to buy bullets to kill those rodents.

This was a guy with a good job and living a comfortable life style.....and he was an atheist, so what kind of a world do we live in? It's sick, so very very sick.

Thanks for that David.

Tim

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I have absolutely nothing clever to say......but I'm workin' on it.

I can find compassion for even a homeless man who was shot, 45 times, for having a fake gun in full view in his pants belt. The officer never even gave him the benefit of the doubt--they told him to remove the gun from his belt and raise his hands. When he did, they opened fire. When his loyal dog ran to his side when he dropped, they shot the dog and let it bleed to death on the street...

I find this totally out-of-control and appalling. Surely 16 officers could not ALL have been fear of their lives. The other homeless in the area are totally destroyed; this dead homeless person was someone who SHARED his daily collections with all in his homeless group. Yet, the case is "closed to the public scrutiny" and people are campaigning for a deeper investigation. Now THOSE homeless people are reporting daily raids, their few possessions being hauled away, and they are being hassled nightly and searched--some being hauled off to jail.

Talk about a Police State for the disenfranchized... and the person shot was A viet Nam vet who could only get one visit to the V.A. every 60 days,

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Some days are DIAMONDS; some days are STONES!

How tragic.

But people are not willing to spend their tax dollars on 'problem' people.

Tim

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I have absolutely nothing clever to say......but I'm workin' on it.

No they will not spend their money on problem people....but first you have to know what a problem person is.

A problem person is one who does not comply to specific standards of social discipline.

If you want to rid a state or province of crime and injustice you first clean up the police corruption. Once that is achieved crime statistics will start to fall sharply, because now the real criminals have something to fear........honest cops who have a passion to serve and protect all citizens equally.

What a totally radical idea!!!!

In my own personal experience, professionally and otherwise, I have never had a problem with a police officer. Sometimes attitude, reluctance, laziness, inexperience, yes- but corruption is not something that has ever been apparent to me. At least on a one-to-one scale. I have spent too many hours to count in various court settings, and see the process with faults, of course, but generally speaking, it is a good system with dedicated individuals from the cops, all the way up.

In fact, it is pretty hard on a small scale to last too long in a community if you are 'on the take'. Community police include many local sons, and everybody knows who they are.

The corruption level of any organization whether it be police, politicians, business owners, land developers, school boards, what have you, is always an element. That is human nature, and isn't delegated to one group more than the other. Anybody in a position of power can abuse that power, and cops are no exception.

Tim

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I have absolutely nothing clever to say......but I'm workin' on it.

I'm sure that has been your experience and for the most part I'm sure you are right, but my experience has taught me some very solid lessons in what is and isn't reality.

On a national level we have some serious problems, perhaps too serious to discuss on this forum.

Los Angeles Law Enforcement agencies seem to be plagued with bigotry and corruption, although it seems to be at the Precinct Levels more than at Parker Center, altho I'm sure there's some of it at the top, too. The gang warfare we have going on in many of our lover income areas tends to taint the overall good judgements of Officers who have to deal with the mean streets on a daily level.

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Some days are DIAMONDS; some days are STONES!

I don't envy policemen at all - they never know what they're going to come up against - and then there are always the ones who abuse their power. I'm like Tim - in my professional and private life they have been a big help - but we are a very small community.

As for the homeless - we have one such person, that the community is aware of, and he makes his money by collecting aluminum cans - so the community as a whole - saves their cans for him, or so people that I know personally, buy him McDonalds for lunch - unfortunately I don't think all the homeless are that lucky - VA hospital? They've been trying to get our Vets one here for years and they won't do it - so these people have to travel at least 3 hours after waiting for 90 days for an appointment - it's awful.

My deepest regrets for Timothy - Tim -

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What happened in Roswell......left Roswell