On the radio show last week, I apologized for not having more of the lighter side stories that people seem to love. That is because it was getting harder to find them. Little did I know that it would be exponentially worse this week. I even tried to find news articles about something other than the Kung Flu, but was let down by the international news sources that I frequent for that reason. Page after page of stories about the virus and the consequences.
That said, I'm getting really tired of shouting from the mountain top about the misinformation that is being put out by the media, politicians, and social media. I wanted this week's column to focus on stories that are not related to the pandemic. I guess it's going to be a short column, but I'll give it a shot.
The NBA announced their teams are cutting salaries of executives and upper management staff by 20% as a way to save money. Why aren't the players being asked to do the same? Or being paid at all? They aren't working either. OK, so I failed right off the bat at not having a story related to the pandemic.
Attempt numero dos: Cobb County GA where 3 men tried to break into a home. A 16 year old male was inside. He was able to grab his gun and repel the invaders, one of whom died from the wounds. A second man was hit in the leg and went to a neighbor's home, banged on the door and asked them to call police since he'd been shot. The third man escaped unscathed but was later caught. They have been charged with a laundry list of violations while the young man defending his home will not be charged. That should be a lesson to you would be thieves; people are at home, they are armed, and they have enough paper towels and bleach to clean up the mess. Dang it! A hoarding reference that technically is related to the pandemic. Strike 2!
Let's try again: Zachary McCoy is a restaurant worker in Gainesville FL. A few weeks ago he was notified by Google that he had to appear in court to explain why Google should not comply with a warrant served upon the company by Gainesville police. The letter didn't have much more information but his attorney found out that the police had previously obtained a ``geofencing" warrant. They were investigating a burglary at a 97 year old woman's house a year earlier.
Called a surveillance tool by police, the warrant obtains all location related data from Google, whether recorded by GPS, cell phone connection, bluetooth, and WIFI. The police then obtain names or other identifying information and start weeding through it to find suspects. Zachary rides his bike in the area and records it on a phone app. He rode by the subject house 3 times on the date in question. He was ultimately cleared by police but geofencing warrants are obtained frequently and are often not fought in court. That's scary. I did it! A non-virus related story!!
Laws are often passed to in an attempt to help people. Almost every time, there are unintended consequences that hurt someone else. The current restrictions in place regarding businesses and where we can or cannot go are no exception. Now that restaurants in NM are take out or delivery only, they are not serving nearly as much food. They are not throwing away much food, if any. That may seem like a good thing, but the reality is that some people are being hurt by it. Whether you like it or not, there are people who scrounge through dumpsters for food. Often they are homeless or are the very poor. (although there is a cottage industry that harvests the food and resells it) But now those people that get their food from dumpsters are going hungry. Governor, what are you going to do about that? Darn, strike three, another story related to the virus.
As I head back to the dugout, I'll leave you with this thought. We need to get these restrictions lifted. Get people back to work and keep the economy going, rather than kill it. Trust that the majority of people will do the right thing if they are at risk or family members are at risk. They do it during the flu season every year. There are people right now not able to go to the doctor, who suffer from something other than coronavirus, that may likely die because they aren't diagnosed in a timely manner. Each and every day you leave your house, you are confronted with dangers that can and do lead to your injury or death or those of loved ones. This pandemic is no different.