Guest Blog: Loitering Wars Update by Fred Carroll

Last month the Insider was privileged to get a guest blog by Fred Carroll on his take on the " Loitering Wars" he has observed taking place in Middletown. The original post is below with background information. Thank you Fred!

http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/08/guest-blog-loitering-wars-of-middletown.html

Below is Carroll's update in his own words:

Loitering Wars Update by Fred Carroll.....I walked into the five dollar cupcake place the other day and whilst ordering an Irish Car Bomb I inquired as to whether they ever considered naming a cupcake a Mexican Standoff in honor of the ongoing Loitering War scrum, which is currently in a "cold" state, or, "Mexican standoff". They hadn't considered it. Alright, cuteness thus dispatched, I'd like to say a few words about the history and background of loitering and loitering laws. In the good ole' Puritan times if you wanted to chill under a tree for a bit, you were well advised to pick an apple tree and bring a basket along for an alibi in case one of the brethren should see you "idling", as in "the Sin of Idleness". In more recent times anti loitering law has been used very effectively to circumnavigate Abolition; that is as a legal predication for rounding up Black men and throwing them on Cool Hand Luke style chain gangs and such.....all of which has absolutely nothing to do with Middletown's current "loitering problem", which at it's core is very simply a Quality Of Life issue - that is to say chronically dysfunctional people doing their dysfunctional business every day, all day, every night, all night. Salient to said dysfunctional "business" are drug dealing, prostitution, begging, and just generally being miserable as a result of the unfair hand dealt one by Life itself .....Said dysfunctional business is carried on without any regard whatsoever for anyone else who might also want to do business in the area, even when it's just someone else wanting to do some good old fashioned, honest loitering! Like me for instance, I don't dare get in the way of The Dysfunctional One's business, oh no, you don't want "interfere" with a drug deal, Heaven forbid! So when do I get to loiter, huh? And who do I complain to in the meantime?