Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Need For Speed, and Other Small Town Observations

"The Need For Speed" - I recall that line from "Top Gun", however, I think Maverick was referring to the speed that is a catalyst for a totally different sort of rush than I will be covering lightly here. Meth. Yes. I have tried it. Let's put that into perspective. I am almost sixty. That little mistake was forty years ago for me. As much as I yet enjoy a good buzz, these days, and yes for decades now, I am quite content for that buzz to come from a bottle of Chilean wine, or a snifter of brandy, while in the company of my mate or a quite small circle of good friends. The closest I ever come these days to substance abuse, is after one of my periodic episodes with dental damnation, or my occasional miscalculation of my age and ability when it comes to sports, motorcycles, and the like, and have trouble believing that I no longer need to try to fill that friendly bottle of Vicodin, just one more time..........As far as quitting the meth, I had sense enough to know, even at twenty, that it would kill me, so I stopped. Also, the fact that Peruvian flake was readily available, and actually quite socially accepted among the lawyers, architects, doctors, and professors I hung around with at the time, made it a bit more justifiable, at least in my eyes, to try that little diversion instead.......and speaking strictly for myself now, when I opted to stop that little habit, it was simply a matter of economics and desiring to seek gainful employment, and I have never looked back. Case closed. And yes, I do realize that is not the case for most everyone else who has dabbled in drugs, and I do consider myself fortunate, and I will rain merciless hell on anyone that I discover attempting to involve my children in even the most "innocent" of drug use. You may call that hypocrisy - I choose to consider it a well informed decision.......

Now as for the story that prompted this, I must defer to the Advocate's coverage of the meth lab bust in this morning's paper. While it has some points to chuckle at, is is a serious issue, and I for one, am happy those folks are out of business, and would like to see all the rest of them shut down as well.

The story was actually fairly well reported, I thought, though as is frequently the case at the Advocate, apparently the copy editor who came up with the headline for it, just plopped down the first thing that came to mind. In retrospect, they might have used the word"suspected", or "alleged", in place of the word "possible", don't you think? But then, anything's possible. I like the fact that the raid was a collaborative effort among the agencies involved, and in particular, the fact that the press was invited, and chose to accompany them.

Now for the "small town" part. I find some humor in some of the comments by readers to the story. Cop hater Zorro's(zero?) was totally out of line, but not in the least surprising, based on his track record of commenting.
Wh1t3f0x's little comment "I just watched the report on fox and in the video was the Rock 'N' Blues truck parked in front of the building. Did anyone else see that? I'm not trying to spread rumors I'm just looking for a reality check"........was just a hair finger pointingish I think, despite his "I'm just sayin'" disclaimer, huh?

Equally amusing, but actually believable, was rbguy, the club owner's disclaimer to distance himself, and go on record explaining the fact that his truck was photographed at the scene of the bust.......some quick butt covering and brow wiping and "please God, make this go away" went on in that poor guy's head, I am sure....
Fact is, I have known more than one drug dealer in years past, who was in the automotive service business, in addition to their little moonlighting operation. That does seem to help with explaining some of the excess traffic coming and going as the result of a drug operation. Being a speed dealer(alleged), I'd be willing to bet he could tear down and reassemble a tranny in record time, ya think?(I'd bet the Rock 'N' Blues truck owner agrees with me on that) On the other hand, maybe he wasn't a speed freak, or was just a beginner.....as most speed freaks I have seen in years past, tended to have a little slimmer waistline.......

I noticed where patientearth thought that a better photo could have been used to accompany the story. That's a matter of opinion I suppose, but aside from the aforementioned perplexingly pudgy perpetrator(alleged) in the frame, I found the sign leaning against the wall of his auto/pharmaceutical enterprise, to be a bit ironic. I reckon that as the proprietor of a legitimate auto shop, such a sign would be in order to not get wiped out by being held liable in the event of a fire, but considering the double duty the place was doing as a meth lab(alleged), one does have to consider the possibility of a rather untimely spark from one side of the room causing the other side of the room to put the entire operation into orbit, doesn't one? You'd think a mechanic would know that..........

12 comments:

Legion said...

Excellent observations Mike.

Could it be that the mechanics choice of a sideline business was influenced by his 22 yr old live in?

The relationship between the two might not have been going on long enough for the meth to result in any weight loss by the mechanic yet.

Then again, the mechanic should have lost some weight anyway due to extracurricular bedtime activities. lol

Edith Ann said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Edith Ann said...

Pilot, I love this. Yeah, the brains on the Advocate forum have been having fun with this. I do believe you are right about the guy with the truck on the property. I think that Zorro (usually anti-cop) and Zero (usually pro-cop) are two different posters. Zero has been M-I-A recently.

Regarding the dude’s girth, the first thing my brother said about it was the guy didn’t look like your typical meth addict. He’s got some life experience similar to yours, so I think the two of you know what you’re talking about.

I am with patientearth, though. I would have liked to have seen some video on this. They video everything else, so why not this?

And how helpful would that sign have been if the meth lab had exploded and blown everything sky-high? Would this guy have been absolved of all liability for the damage to others’ property? That’s funny!

Stupid is as stupid does.

Pilot said...

Edith Ann.....if you'll note, the photo in question was shot once the pajama clad pudgy was safely in cuffs. As video happy as the Vicad bunch is, particularly when it comes to covering chupacabra stories, and their own town hall discussion chock full of favorable survey "results" on their perceived credibility question, I am guessing one of two scenarios took place. Either they were told by the agencies conducting the raid to lay low until the "all clear" was given, or possibly the ATF or DEA guys briefed them on the potential hail of 9mm and .45 lead that sometimes coincides with drug lab late night busts, and they let discretion be the better part of valor, and stay safely in the van until the smoke cleared......

Edith Ann said...

I can't disagree, but I still would have liked Bill Clough to shoot video. He went along with Leslie Wilber.

Yeah, when the bigger agencies saw it was girls--KAVU sent Emily Collins--they probably told them to stay in the car...

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments. Your wisdom is showing. Meth is a killer. You were quite fortunate to live through it.;)

The Loon said...

Yeah. my same thought about the porky guy, that he'd not been using the product. I remember walking down the drag in Nuevo Laredo with a skinny friend a few feet behind. One of the sidewalk hustlers edged up to me and whispered, 'Diet pills, diet pills.' When my friend passed him, he said, 'Speed, speed.' That's low-level advertising targeted to the demographic.

Pilot said...

Loon - Ha! undoubtedly, were it me in that situation today, they'd be tripping over themselves to sell me black mollies too, rather than speed, but between you and me, I think we both are on top of that situation enough to not be caught.....well, you get the picture, ambling along the sidewalks in Nuevo Laredo, huh? As much as I'd love to drive the girl and my boys down to Horsetail Falls, and the mountains full of apple and walnut orchards south of Monterrey, I don't think I would be willing to run the gauntlet to get there. Having a Peterbilt tailing my bike by a bike length at 85mph on that old two lane road to Sabinas Hidalgo, seems tame by comparison, to the thought of riding through the border towns these days.....

CG-23 Sailor said...

I remember that article.

Besides zorro's typical anti-cop rants, I had to say something to Patient Earth.

She seemed to think that the purpose of reporters reporting was to entertain her rather than to inform her. Of course my comments have long since been deleted by the Christapo cenosors and that name has no gone away like several oth...

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