Steve Benjamin holds forth at the Gourmet Shop as Eva Moore of the Free Times listens.
Today, at the invitation of my good friend Jack Van Loan, I attended another Kaffeeklatsch with Steve Benjamin at the Gourmet Shop. He said many of the sensible things he’s said in the past about TIFs (he doesn’t think the city should go it alone) and restructuring (he’s for strong mayor, but believes this system can be made to work better).
But he waxed most rhetorical when talking about public safety making the point that there’s not much sense in having a municipal government if it can’t protect its citizens. And he disagrees sharply with Kirkman Finlay III, who he says maintains that the police department is fully funded. Mr. Benjamin says that may be, but it’s not funded at a level that Chief Tandy needs to protect public safety.
He got a little apocalyptic painting a picture of what might happen if, God forbid, there were a Columbine at a local high school. It would be especially horrible, he asserted, because the city police are ill-equipped.
I enjoyed his comparison of the city’s SWAT team vs. the well-equipped warriors of Leon Lott’s sheriff’s department:
Our SWAT team doesn’t have an armored vehicle. They have a bread truck. They have the same truck you see Merita driving around in… We’re not equipped.
He went on to paint a formidable portrait of how sheriff’s deputies are equipped:
His officers … carry 40-cal. Glocks.
They have 17 bullets per magazine.
They’re allowed as many magazines as (inaudible).
They carry two backup weapons if they’re certified…. three firearms at any given time.
They have assault rifles.
They have shotguns, all of ’em, in the trunk of their car…
The sheriff’s department has a helicopter, has a boat, has an armored vehicle…Our SWAT team doesn’t have cars. So if there is a critical incident, at a Dreher, or a C.A. Johnson, they’ve all gotta go back to the police department, load into the bread truck, and then go out there.
He then said that with such a delay, perhaps an hour, the carnage at the local Columbine would be horrific.
Well, I think he made his point strongly. But what I went away with was a mental picture of the terrible might of the sheriff’s department.
You don’t want to cross those guys.
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Why do politicians and the like always introduce people as “my good friend”? And are these people really friends in the sense of the word, or are they more like acquaintances? Could one pop in at the others house unannounced and not have it feel awkward? I see it all the time in interviews or on the legislative floor. It never seems like the introduction is just “”, it’s most always in the possessive form “my good friend”.
Would one be offended if another person used the same introduction as you do with the same individual? Would a fight break out? “He’s not your good friend, he’s my good friend.”
Do people ever introduce people as “my bad friend” or “my mediocre/least favorite friend”?
“” was “insert name” but i had it in
Jack sponsored me in Rotary. He was one of the first people to call me when I lost my job. He’s gone out of his way to help me in my job search. (And as an outplacement specialist told me at about that time, when you lose your job, you find out who your friends are.)
And Jack regularly refers to me as “my friend.” Of course, he does that with a lot of people. He shares that verbal habit with John McCain. I’ve often wondered whether that’s something that comes out of their shared experience at the Hanoi Hilton.
And if your definition of a good friend is someone at whose house I would appear unannounced and not feel awkward — well, there’s no one like that outside of my family. Civilized people let their friends know they’re coming. Once, they would send a note ahead and wait for a reply (“I intend to do myself the great honor of waiting upon you in the forenoon of the 18th, if it is to your liking. Yr most humble and obdnt servant, etc…”) People don’t do that now, but in an age in which everyone has a cell phone, there’s really no excuse not to perform the modern equivalent.
Dick Cheney referred to Joe Biden as his “good friend” last weekend. Sent a chill up my spine.
Jack does not refer to everyone as his “friend,” only those whom he considers his friends. He also sponsored me for Rotary, which makes me feel proud, if not special.
Kirkman is wrong, in my experience, about the numbers of officers needed. We have at times been unable to get an officer in our University Hill neighborhood because of some melee at a high school football game or so on. It has gotten a lot better with more officers, but only somewhat. Kirkman IS right about the foolishness of paying a lot of overtime, but the logical solution is to hire more officers who can be on regular time. If Chief Tandy says we need more officers, I believe him over lives-on-a-gated estate Kirkman.
Steve Morrison tried to split the baby by advocating for more prevention efforts like after school programs, but a lot of our criminals have left that barn already.
I guess I have a different view on “good friends”. Because my good friends know they’re welcome at my house 24/7/365 as I am at theirs. I don’t require my “good friends” to have a written invitation to stop by. Most do call, but if I see one of their cars pull up in my driveway unannounced, I don’t lose my mind.
Maybe we’re just not as civilized as you and your friends are. There are certain things in life that don’t don’t require such formalities to “good friends” who are as much family to me as my blood relatives. To each his own.
Oh, boy! Let’s really get going with the militarization of our police department. Let’s dress them in intimidating black outfits. Lets give them training in “dynamic” entry where they blow a door off the hinges, a millisecond after shouting “Police, open up!” Let’s make sure they wear masks so that plausible deniability can be maintained.
So what is wrong with the idea that city cops concentrate upon urban issues like traffic control, and call in Leon’s folks if something serious comes down? Leon is the sheriff of all of Richland County and the taxes we city dwellers pay should enable his force to supplement, augment and complement the city police. Why the expense of two separate, geographically and tax-district overlapping police forces — each wanting to be uber alles? For that matter, why not turn all law enforcement over to Richland County and pay one tax for police throughout the county? Duplication is becoming an increasingly unaffordable luxury.
Sheriff or Police Department fine, I just hope Benjamin doesn’t need the fire department, because Coble and his cronies have completely gutted that department, while still handing out money to every organization that asks for funding. How many other municipal (or other government) employees do you know that do not get paid for holidays?
You really hit the nail on the head, Walter–Steve Benjamin lives out in Woodcreek,at the end of a shoestring annexation almost in Kershaw County. The police response time out there is not going to be terribly great….
Leon’s team does a good job of responding in the less well-policed regions well within the city, such as MLK Park Neighborhood.
I’ll put the Richland County sheriff’s department over the Columbia police department anyday. But I’m just glad I live in Lexington County and don’t have to put up with either… we just have to put up with a mentally unstable sheriff who keeps getting re-elected somehow… I just blame Jake Knotts.