It’s a phrase right out of a “The things Parents tell their kids” show, but this was no show. A drug deal was going on right before their eyes on a smartphone. In a police station. Windham’s, to be precise. As in “Hey, y’all, I got it – you want it?”
- A concerned citizen about his community: I have time for that!
- A Dad trying to look out for his daughter and family: I have time for that.
- A Windham Police Detective wanting to protect and to serve: I have to make time for that.
And a Windham Police Captain that has better things to do, so it seems: “We don’t have time for that.”
That’s what was told to the Detective when he went in to tell the Captain about this story. He got shut down completely – he had to return, hat in hand. It went from “Protect and Serve” to “We don’t have time for that.”
A crime in process, blatant as all get out; just look at the freaking phone! There, on the screen in front of them, were all the clues necessary to find, arrest, and nail a dealer with the poison, right before their eyes.
A crime dealing with High School teens therein – supposedly a “drug-free zone.” “Children” because teens are legally minor children and the School is legally responsible for them under “in loco parentis” reasoning.
New Hampshire is in the thrall of an opioid/drug epidemic and the off-putting response is “We don’t have TIME for THAT“? I really do wonder what was of more import than to the Captain?
When I was told the story the first time, I thought it was a slam dunk. You tell me what you think after listening to the next installment of this emerging story:
After the first and second posts in this series, the phone started to ring – concerned residents called Tom, a School Board member called Tom, and a Select Board member called Tom. He got stopped doing errands by people asking questions, got stopped on the street by people telling their stories, got stopped in stores with “what the heck is going on in there?”.
But did Windham Police Chief Lewis call to get details? After all, he’s in charge of Windham Police Captain Smith, right? Right. But he’s also the one that took Windham out of the County Drug Task Force. Rumor has it that he was invited to re-join a second time – and refused. I guess he had no time for that as well.
But Tom did get a call from a County Sheriff’s Department Captain Chief Deputy – HE made time for that! I do wonder if Chief Lewis got a call as well?
I wonder if his bosses, the Select Board, took the time to call him as well? What’s the over/under, that they will before this week is over, eh? And I’m betting that the over/under will be FAR better than Captain Smitty gets a much faster “call” from Chief Lewis.
I think that the odds are, naturally enough, that the parents and residents are going to be ballistic over this “Don’t have the time for that” attitude. It’s a “not my job”, a “got better things to do”, a “bigger fish to fry” attitude. None of these are sufficient reasons for a town employee to believe, contra the New England Patriots ethos of “do your job”, to NOT do their job.
So what will the voters say – Town meeting isn’t all THAT far away, is it? And how will the voters’ elected representatives deal with this attitude?
I’m betting they’ll be making time for this.
Sidenote: breaking this story may be “good” for GraniteGrok, but I really hate having to write this story in the first place. Just yet another symptom of the breakdown of the wall that is Civil Society. Yet another brick removed.
To Be Continued…
