MEDIA,
ELECTED OFFICIALS
SWEEP PUBLIC
SAFETY CONCERNS
UNDER THE RUG
IN
TRAFFIC LIGHT
CATASTROPHE
Reporters Trip Over Each Other to
Protect Elected Officials from Criticism
24 hours later, I have yet to hear one politician, anchorperson, or reporter note the serious implications Montgomery County's traffic computer failure has had on public safety.
While the resulting traffic jams are outrageous enough, time wasted is merely a minor issue in comparison to the danger to the public. Imagine you are having a heart attack, and you are in an ambulance stuck in mile after mile of traffic on the way to the hospital. Imagine a house on fire, and fire trucks crawling to get there as a result of this traffic light debacle.
This is just the latest in a series of incidents which has revealed our elected officials' dangerous weakness on public safety issues. Whether it is the inability of the county to operate emergency communication systems during a water main break, or to make a simple computer fix, the fabled "experience" the local media always praises in our elected officials is clearly, and definitively, the wrong kind of experience. As President Obama would say.
Then we've had the matter of the executive and certain members of the council repeatedly trying to undermine and cast shadows upon our police department. That is one of the most dangerous tactics I have ever witnessed in the history of Montgomery County. They've also shut down an education program that was designed to allow public safety employees to expand their minds and career skills. The same sort of educational and artistic pursuits the executive and council have advocated for others at taxpayer expense, they will deny to our police officers and firefighters. They've even tried to take away retirement benefits from disabled police officers injured in the line of duty. There appears to be no limit to how low this council will go to get more money for the people and interests who got them elected. Even when it means reducing public safety.
Ike Leggett stated last evening that he [now after all this] has a $35 million plan to upgrade the traffic computer systems. Well, not only do we have no money at this time... ...but the county just spent many times $35 million to buy the Webb Tract!
So let's get this straight... we spent tens of millions to purchase the Webb Tract so the elected officials could pay back the interests that got them elected before replacing an ancient computer system that controls every traffic light in the county?
Once again, it's Politics First, Safety Last for our politicians.
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