Friday Night Follies
Buckle up, kids. It's pop quiz time again. I apologize for hitting you with two pop quizzes in one day, but tough times such as these demand tough measures.
QUESTION: What do the following have in common?
Poverty, the lack of midnight recreational programs, the presence of midnight recreational programs, t-shirts, iPods, high gas prices, children, tourists, bayonets, law-abiding citizens, leaves, and convenience stores.
Need a hint?
ANSWER: Yes, they've all been identified at one time or another as contributing factors to the presence of criminals in our communities. And, just when you thought that list might be complete at last, along comes our favorite, all-knowing clairvoyant, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Yes, my friends, it's PAY PHONE CONTROL.
I.
Am.
Not.
Making.
This.
Up.
PAY PHONES CAUSE CRIME. I'm (almost) without words.
Upon seeing the pay phones had been removed, the drug dealers, prostitutes and gang members from that neighborhood immediately ceased hanging out on that particular corner, and returned promptly to school to get their high school diplomas and filled out job applications at Target.
Money quote:
Takes one to know one, Mr. Mayor.
(link via reader, David H.)
QUESTION: What do the following have in common?
Poverty, the lack of midnight recreational programs, the presence of midnight recreational programs, t-shirts, iPods, high gas prices, children, tourists, bayonets, law-abiding citizens, leaves, and convenience stores.
Need a hint?
ANSWER: Yes, they've all been identified at one time or another as contributing factors to the presence of criminals in our communities. And, just when you thought that list might be complete at last, along comes our favorite, all-knowing clairvoyant, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Disconnecting crime in Boston
Police and city officials and community groups seek restrictions on pay phones
Yes, my friends, it's PAY PHONE CONTROL.
I.
Am.
Not.
Making.
This.
Up.
They went after guns. Then it was T-shirts. Now, in Mayor Thomas M. Menino's effort to make Boston's neighborhoods safer, officials have targeted a new possible accomplice in city crime: Pay phones.
PAY PHONES CAUSE CRIME. I'm (almost) without words.
Last week, the city removed three pay phones from Roxbury that police suspected were sites for drug deals, Menino said.
Upon seeing the pay phones had been removed, the drug dealers, prostitutes and gang members from that neighborhood immediately ceased hanging out on that particular corner, and returned promptly to school to get their high school diplomas and filled out job applications at Target.
Money quote:
"It's another tool we're going to use," Menino said of the amendment.
Takes one to know one, Mr. Mayor.
(link via reader, David H.)
