Reading comments after Yahoo articles are, at best, a good way to while away time in need of being wasted or in bringing your blood pressure to near hospitalization levels.
Usually it is just full of mudslinging and name calling from one side of the the fence to the other with the other side retaliating shortly thereafter.
On occasion, rare occasion that is, it does serve up a few comments and stories that are priceless.
Recently there was an article over the dismemberment of a small town police force that had for years apparently been targeting the autos of the the poorer Latino residents for towing away just to make money for the the local towing guy who was buddies with the cops.
This went on until the oppressed could not take it any longer. The entire strata of the town raised a fuss about it and eventually brought the ire of the Gringo Federales down upon the supposed ‘protectors of the public’. The police have been limping pathetically since.
What was even better were a couple of the related statements offered by a couple of the readers:
(All comments are copied here exactly as they were written.)
Comment 1:
(The first article is poor in articulation, but brilliant in content.)
Scott 58 minutes ago
I got wrongly towed once over 20 years ago. I got a flat tired on a major, and pulled onto a side street to fix it. Unknowing I had flat spare tire as well, and took it to a service station that was a 5 minute walk away.I had to wait at the service station for 30 minutes until they could get to my tire. I return less than an hour later, and I find my vehicle gone. The person who lived in the house in front of where I parked came out to tell me the police had my vehicle towed, and that he didn’t understand why where I was legally parked.
I go to the police station that is a quarter mile away, and ask why I was towed. I was told it’s a popular short cut for people to get home, and they didn’t want my vehicle causing traffic even though there was not any no parking signs on the street.
There were other cars parked on the street that weren’t towed, and I knew I was targeted for no reason. The police fee was $50, and the tow company fee was $280. I’m told to pay the fees before 11pm, or the tow company will add $150 storage fee per day. It was only 4 PM, and I told the police I would be back well before 11 PM.
I knew where the tow company was a couple of miles away, so I start go to the tow company with my tire. By the time I get there it is night where it’s winter. I lift the bottom of the chain link fence, and slide my tired under it.
Then I hop the fence, and walk to my vehicle. I change the tired under the tow company’s nose, and then wait for a tow truck to enter the yard. Within an hour a tow truck enters leaving the gate open, and I drive right out with my lights off while the tow truck is backing a vehicle into a space.
It takes them 2 months to figure out that my vehicle is not in the tow yard, and the police of that town come to my home making threats with no backup from the police of the town I live in. Where they had no backup from my local police I knew they couldn’t prove if I took my vehicle without paying.
I told them to I would go to the newspapers saying that they were harassing me if they didn’t leave. They never bothered me again, and I have avoided that town since.
A few after that incident I find out from a retired police officer of a neighboring town that the officer that had me towed is cousins with the owner of that tow company. My retired friend was disgusted with the unlawful towing practices that officer conducted, and told me that officer was forced to resign due to multiple complaints of sexual harassment filed by civilians.”
Comments 2:
There once was ( notice I said “once”) a small town in Ohio right outside the back gate of Rickenbacker AFB that ran a speed trap. You’d come around a curve and the speed would drop from 50 MPH to 25 MPH and the speed sign was partially concealed by a bush.
Those of us assigned there were aware of it, and those in the know knew that it provided the paycheck for the one and only police officer . The first thing we would brief our new people was to watch your speed when you went through the town, still the police officer was living large from his proceeds.
This continued until the officer pulled over an IRS man on vacation. The offender evidently took the traffic stop personally because he went back to work and looked up the officer’s tax forms and then went to the City Hall to review the number of traffic stops during the previous year, or so the story went.
Anyway, the records and his tax forms didn’t jive. The speed trap in the town no longer exists and the officer is no longer employed there.”
Sad Summary?
These revitalize my belief in my fellow man and his ingenuity.