Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain

[XLFD]

To understand how this world works, you often have to remove the layers of the onion that veil the reasons why things are the way they are.  Those who would claim to be powerful often erect barriers and curtains to retain their power and protect themselves and hide their motives.  This is nowhere better illustrated than in the classic film, The Wizard of Oz. 

 

Dorothy makes the following statement to a disembodied malevolent looking face above a grand display of pyrotechnics:  "If you were really great and powerful you would keep your promises."

 

To which she receives the answer:  "Do you presume to criticize the Great Oz!  You ungrateful creatures!  Think yourselves lucky that I'm giving you audience tomorrow, instead of 20 years from now.  Oh (noticing that the curtain has been lifted by the dog Toto).  The Great Oz has spoken!" 

 

 

"Ohh (replacing curtain).  Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.  The Greatest Oz has spoken!"

 

And then bold citizen Dorothy comes up and confronts the humbug, and for the rest of the film, the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz uses less than powerful means to help Dorothy's companions achieve their desires, effectively by empowering themslelves.

 

This brings me to an event that happened in Waldo.  Where's Waldo? 

 

 

Waldo's in Florida; some of you may drive by it if you visit that state.  It has a reputation as being one of the nations biggest speed traps.  Among cities with less than 50,000 population, Waldo ranks third in this scientific poll of speed traps later mentioned in the article.  The mechanism of the speed trap seems to be stretches in which the speed limit changes as much as four times in less than a mile.

 

Waldo's reputation as being a speed trap area goes back at least as far as the 1970s, but you wouldn't hear of this from their visitor's bureau or even the officer that may stop you when you fail to decelerate quickly enough.  Until just recent, when five of the seven Waldo police officers came forth at a Waldo City Council meeting and told about their quotas.

 

Five members of the Waldo Police Department told the City Council Tuesday night they were under a quota to write traffic tickets, which is a violation of Florida law.

The officers outlined a long line of grievances they had against police department command staff and city administration.

Before a packed room, Officer Brandon Roberts told commissioners they were required by Chief Mike Szabo to write 12 speeding citations per 12-hour shift or face punishment. Roberts explained his claims with the help of an electronic presentation and printed emails as evidence.

“We're doing this with a heavy heart,” Roberts said. “We would never want to go against our fellow officers but we have no faith in our chain of command.”

Waldo has long been notorious as a speed trap. In 2012, the Alachua County town of roughly 1,000 residents was rated the third worst speed trap in the country, according to a poll conducted by the National Motorists Association.

Documents provided by Waldo state that roughly half of the city's $1 million budget comes from an item listed as “police revenue.”

Roberts made his presentation after the City Council voted 3-2 in favor of reinstating the agency's fifth officer, Roy Steadman, reversing a decision City Manager Kim Worley made last month to fire him for insubordination.

Worley suspended Szabo on Aug. 12 pending the completion of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into what Worley described as an alleged violation of police procedure. Neither Worley nor FDLE officials have been willing to elaborate on the charge, citing the active investigation.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140826/ARTICLES/140829639?Titl...

So to bring it back to topic, who is the man/men behind the curtain in this case?  Is it the Waldo police force that actually catch folks and write them tickets?   Nope, these guys are exactly what they appear to be, doing exactly what they have been trained to do, apparently.

 

Is it Police Chief Mike Szabo?  He did allegedly give the WPD officers their quota requirements so he must be the one.  I will grant he's behind the curtain, but there is a curtain even beyond him.

 

 

Does that curtain hide the Waldo City Manager Kim Worley?  It surely does, as you will note that half of Waldo's revenue of $1 million comes from "police revenue".  If Waldo were to discontinue this speed trap, the city would lose nearly half of its total revenues it has been relying on-- which would make many difficult decisions ahead for Ms. Worley's budget, including cuts on their sizable police force for a town of 1000 folks. 

 

But even behind her is another curtain, just like there is behind most every City Manager.  Do you know who is behind this one?

 

 

Why it is none other than the audience that heard the officer's grievances:  the Waldo City Commission.  Throughout the years, the commission has undoubtedly seen the benefit of having their revenues doubled by a speed trap, and having Waldo benefit from the misfortunes of non-Waldo residents driving past their small burgh.  Without the speed trap, these citizen legislators would have to depend primarily on revenues from the 1000 citizens of Waldo. 

 

So can they actively go against continued enforcement of the Waldo speed trap?  That answer may be a 'no', since once the citizens are aware that their taxes may go up dramatically as a result, it may become a politically difficult issue to come out against the trap.  

 

So once again, the citizens (Dorothy and crew) have the ability to empower themselves to correct the problems, but probably won't because of all the layers of curtains they have to go through to get to the modest Wizards of the Waldo City Commission who have the ability to begin the process.  Who themselves will likely float away without them in a hot-air balloon. 

 

But like Glinda the Good Witch did, we should remind the good people of Waldo who have lived off the largesse of unfairly-imposed fines for too long:  "You don't need to be helped any longer. You've always had the power to go back...".  Lest they be found to be behind the next curtain.

[Willy]

The reality is that the town of Waldo has been living beyond it's means. They could easily run the town on $500,000 but have found it easier to live on $1,000,000. If this situation is not condemned and corrected by pressure applied by the locals then one could say the entire town is corrupt. This is how bad people stay in power. They get support from those under them who are also benefiting from the proceeds of corruption. That's how leaders like Obama stay in power.

[XLFD]

I liken it somewhat to the practice of creating a high tax rate for non-homesteaders for towns/cities that have a lot of landowners who live elsewhere.  Those who get little or no benefit from the local services and schools get the bulk of the tax burden and effectively will almost always get their taxes raised when non-homesteader tax increases comes up on the ballot, since the only ones who would vote on such measures are the ones who will pay a lesser share of the taxes. 

The people who would vote 'yes' to raise non-homesteader taxes are exactly the same people in Waldo who would balk at getting the speed trap situation fixed.  It may actually represent a majority.

[NYC]

Speaking as a non- homesteader who is constantly getting screwed on property taxes - the citizens will without a doubt go with the flow, it's far more palatable to get operating revenue from outsiders than actually paying for the services they receive.