QUEST FOR CRIME! - Episode One
Masslive's Springfield forum had come alive with reports of a terrorized citizenry falling victim to dozens of muggings, rapes, and purse snatchings - all perpetrated in broad daylight, each and every day! (Egads!) The anonymous poster (of course!) apparently spends hours of his valuable time every day listening with rapt attention to every cry for help issuing forth from his trusty Internet-connected police scanner. His conclusion? Springfield is a den of depravity. A housing complex of horrors. A village of villainy!
After learning of the explosive torrent of crime riddling our once-fair streets, I decided to venture into the peril all by my lonesome, nifty camcorder in hand, to seek out the endless mayhem allegedly cursing us all. My heart racing, I prepared myself for the worst. Anxiety gripped my soul.
The resulting video may shock you. (Or it may very well put you to sleep.)
After learning of the explosive torrent of crime riddling our once-fair streets, I decided to venture into the peril all by my lonesome, nifty camcorder in hand, to seek out the endless mayhem allegedly cursing us all. My heart racing, I prepared myself for the worst. Anxiety gripped my soul.
The resulting video may shock you. (Or it may very well put you to sleep.)
posted by Bill Dusty @ 2/27/2007
6 comments
6 Comments:
It is astounding that the academy award went to Martin and not to
Dusty McGruff!
Perhaps you can do a night time cruise of springfield again in the Salty Dog nieghborhood, both now and in the summer,to further prove that Springfield is not all that bad,otherwise the Thursday evening concerts they have in the summer in this same area would not be so popular.
Thanks for a total waste of my time watching that video. zzzz :) But! as for being a victum & witness of "crime" in Springfield years ago, I had to watch. One year i was working up in the High Street area and my carpentry tools were snatched from 3 feet in front of me! Thinking I was in shape, I chased the crook 4 blocks and lost him. Only to return to where I was working to see the rest of my tools gone! In that same week, i was eating lunch downtown and our car was parked right beside the sidewalk and in front of the restaurant's window. As I was enjoying my meal, I watched 3 power tools taken out of the back of the car by one guy! This time I gave-up on the crook after two blocks. I was a little upset to come back to a cold sandwich. Keep looking Dusty McGruff(going to help to make that nickname stick!) sometimes crime is happening right under your nose.
On the Thursday night concerts: I've never been to them (I work nights), but if I can get to one while on a vacation, that would be a good video.
On Ken's trials: Dude! You fell for the ol' bait-and-snatch maneuver! First they take something trivial to make you go after 'em, then they grab the *good* stuff! Old school, man!
Oh well. Tough brakes. :-0
Also: I'd like to do a night one, but I'm not going to bother during the winter. It was tranquil enough during the daytime.
Thanks!
thanks for the video, bill. it cracked me up. i live in downtown springfield and walk my dog all hours of the day and night, without fear.
the real downtown crime is not of the purse-snatching variety. these days i'm frustrated by the imminent demolition of the carriage house on edwards st. it's a crime that the owner, webster a. collins, and his father before him let the structure deteriorate. it's a crime that the city did nothing about it. it's a crime that the historical commission has no power to be proactive--if you want to change a doorknob on your historic home, they'll debate it, but if you go ahead and change it without asking them, they're powerless to go after you. it's a crime that the so-called preservation associations in town have not taken any interest in the building. it's a crime that the museum association, in whose rented parking lot it sits, has not tried to obtain it. it's a crime that collins's lawyer can get away with saying things like "it has little historic value" and "collins offered it to storrowton village" and the republican will print those statements unexamined. (the carriage house is not even from the same era as storrowton. and it belonged to the family of our most illustrious mayor and lieutenant governor, haile.)
yes, duryea (dur-yay) IS "the car guy." boring old springfield is an INTERNATIONAL center of transportation history. duryea, hendee, george walter vincent smith, indian motorcycles, rolls-royce.... most of the technology of early autos derived from the CARRIAGE industry. this carriage house is sitting next to the soon-to-be new transportation museum. well, duh!! no historical value??? make the owner fix it up, or take it by eminent domain (maybe with those millions of $$$ the city and museums are hammering out ownership of??), put a couple of vintage carriages in it, and do real historical interpretation--instead of just a room with some old photos in it. hitch up horses to the carriages and clip-clop around mattoon street. wouldn't that be sweet?
this kind of beautification and vibrancy is what drives away crime, btw. peace.
Thanks, Cicily. The city needs more historically-knowledgeable voices like yours. (I'm a relative newbee.)
For folks who don't know, Cicily has her own blog at http://cicilycorbett.blogspot.com/
It's a good read. Check it out!
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