View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2008 > May > 20
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Dalton goes after Christmas lights in May offenders
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The city of Dalton has taken innovative steps to address a long-standing problem that, admit it or not, gets under the skin of every decent human being on the planet. Finally, someone is doing something about Christmas lights in May.
My lovely SWAT-certified wife considers this a reason to knock on the door and ask said resident just what the heck he or she was thinking. My wife, of course, has never had a whupp’in because she walked up to someone’s home and started complaining about something. I have. (An unfortunate incident involving several small farm animals and some of Mr. Latimer’s special holiday mix.
The details were sealed per the court.)
Anyway, I tread lightly when I cross onto other’s turf. The list of things that I will risk another whupp’in does not include complaining about Christmas lights in May—although, from afar, it does irritate me.
Does this violate the rights of someone who wishes to put up Christmas lights or decorations for that matter because they want to observe the Christmas Holiday year long? I don’t know. Why would someone want them up all year anyway?
As a parent of four and some-odd kids, I associate Christmas with purchasing things. I don’t care to celebrate that all year long. I like the Christmas music but after a month of it, I’m good. It’s not practical to keep the yard decorations past the holiday period because when the weather warms up, vandalism increases.
There’s nothing worse than waking up and finding someone placed a couple of pink flamingos in your nativity scene.
At some point, the need for a law has to have some practicality. For instance, the hot-debated “Sagging” law actually hinders law enforcement. I’ve said this before and it has merit. Chasing “saggers” is not only productive in terms of being able to catch them, but also brings much-needed entertainment value to law enforcement.
Saggers are actually so easy to catch that you have to pace yourself not to catch them too soon. When they start running, you need to chase but not overtake the sagger. It’s important to let the sagger feel like he has a chance to win the foot race. The longer you keep pace with them the funnier it is.
It’s like chasing a penguin. It’s crazy, wacky fun
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