Sulphur Police Caught in Push and Pull War between Distraught Citizens

2346 08.29.20 Speed Media

Some Sulphur residents are urging Police to take action regarding debris after Hurricane Laura shredded Louisiana like a Hendrix Gibson. In the past 2 days since Laura, many roads in the area have been cleared and made relatively drivable by those who are working charitably those who are actually responsible for clearing debris. This progress in this type of major disaster is unprecedented, but a select minority of residents are still unhappy.

One resident inaccurately refers to a figure of a 10.75% tax rate that she believes is going to officers who reports say, make 58% less than general contractors who are charged with the job of clearing debris. when the fallacy is presented to this woman, she decides to ignore the correction and tells the person that they are “missing the point”.

What is the point Yvonne?

I’ll break it down for you. With a state capital average of 272 citizens per 1 officer (fully staffed, no pandemic, no major disaster), police departments in Laura’s wake are extremely understaffed and unable to efficiently protect properties from looting despite LEO staging areas being erected in the immediate area to assist. The Hurricane did not skip over the houses of those LEOs, and many are leaving their evacuated families and destroyed homes unattended to serve the community by combatting the 15 looters per 1 officer stat that they are faced with, on top of an increased amount of calls regarding trapped and overheated citizens, burglaries, domestic violence and clean-up related injuries. Emotional drivers, unexpected road obstacles and gawkers have also increased wrecks in the state.

Hindsight is 20/20. If you want officers to find the time to abandon their duties, quit causing emergency situations for them to respond to.

One resident brags:

State Troopers however, unlike city officers, are LADOT, rarely answer city complaint calls, patrol against looting, and have more time to clear roads, as doing so is a common job for the Louisiana Department of TRANSPORTATION and development. They are trained to do so, and make a significantly higher amount of money because of the unique duties they perform and the broad jurisdiction they cover.

The state looks like a bomb went off. Officers are far more understaffed than contractors. Officers can not have donated help from other states.

Louisiana Residents: In the comment section, answer the following question; would you rather Officers patrol the streets for looters, run detail on previously looted property, or abandon their jobs doing that to assist the 500+ contractors arriving from other states to clear debris?

Instead of the typical disclaimer, Speed Media does have an opinion on this. We do not promote excessive government nor Law Enforcement presence in communities during any other time. During a natural disaster, we need organization. We do not need electricians pulling cars out of ditches, tow trucks paving roads, firefighters repopulating the aquatic life and police officers cutting down trees. If you’re not going to spend 24/7 patrolling the streets, protecting resident properties, and leaving your home and family unnatended, please do not advocate for officers to abandon their duties. When this is over, resume your normally scheduled complaints. Now is not the time to convince officers that they need to neglect their job description, as they would be burned at the stake for doing so. The <1% of taxes that small town local LEOs pay and receive is dictated by the whims of the people who hired them. More than 80% of residents would rather have officers protecting the properties they were hired to protect.

Now is not the time to take your anti LEO rhetoric and faulty-tax-statistic driven confirmation bias for a test drive. Officers are doing all they can during this emergency. If you don’t believe them, buy a 550$ digital trunk tracker and tune in to exactly how understaffed tac 1/2 deputies and local officers are. There are thousands of crack heads without product right now, willing to do anything to get it.

Do you want police to pick at debris when homeowners are being pirated or do you want them to do their jobs? If you want them to abandon their duties, you need to check your confirmation bias because you’re just looking for a reason to hate your locality. There are plenty of reasons to buck against the system. This isn’t one of them, and using this as such damages your credibility.

This isn’t the time, Sulphur.