ok, here's the Stick. what, no Carrot?

ThePittsburghChannel.com
Federal 'Impact Team' Tackling Pittsburgh Gun Crimes

they'll call it collateral damage.
(...i live in Homewood. have been for the past 12 years. before that, i lived in East Liberty, for 15 years. i don't believe that long federal sentences will deter people from committing the violent acts for which the Impact Team has been assembled. these crimes are not being performed by people with much foresight or introspection.
after many years of waging a war on drugs with no real victory in sight, the federal police are coming back into our neighborhoods to engage the only combatants they have any chance of defeating.
Armed with the skills and weapons from the urban war in Iraq, our government is poised to bring their 'shock and awe' show into my community. the current 'patriot act' virtually nullifies any shred of civil rights that american citizens can lay claim to. and under 'patiot act 2, we'll wave goodbye to any chance of privacy, security or quality of life...jim)
Why is this invasion set to occur in my neighborhood. because no one will protest the use of extreme force against 'those people' in 'bad' neighborhoods. the DEA hasn't stopped the flow of drugs into this country. the local police have not stopped the successive waves of drug peddlers from working our streets. the ATFE can only make it difficult, not impossible, for weapons and munitions to get into my neighborhood.
my mind is reeling around this decision to flood my community with high-tech surveillance and black-clad 'spooks' who answer only to Ashecroft.
Just when i'd gotten used to the internal dangers of walking through my neighborhood, now i've got be on the look-out for federal-ninjas whose primary duty is to bring convictions against the people of my community.
of course i want the killing to stop. i'd also like the dilapidated and abandoned house next to mine to be demolished. but after 5 years, it ain't happening. i'd like the good people of Penn Hills to quit doing 40 mph on my Main street as the pass through on their way to work. i'd like a federal task force remove all the abandoned cars that have been allowed to die on the streets and empty lots in my neighborhood.
and while their at it, can somebody on the Impact Team stop the ice-cream truck guy from playing that same silly song so darned loud-in my neighborhood.
The logical argument is going to be 'if your not involved in criminal activity, you should have nothing to fear.
i'm a black man living in a low-income urban community about to be invaded by a federal task-force whose mission is to surveille, arrest and convict. i live in America-- i would rather take my chances on the streets than with the team from 'mission impossible 3'. i've got plenty to fear.
they'll call it 'collateral damage'