This front page headline from yesterday's Brunswick News is now not indexed on the electronic version. Perhaps the paper has some shame?
The Commissioner talks about "the perception of crime" and a "sense of safety" and suggests people walking around are the problem?
Well, she's probably right. All over the country, people who have been habituated to living in cages (with and without wheels) have learned to fear pedestrians. We could call it an epidemic of pedaphobia, except that term refers to the fear of children. So, let's call it "walkaphobia" since it's use in baseball is rather limited. Walkaphobia, you'll understand, is related to agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces, which, one could argue, our culture of fixed and mobile cages was seemingly invented to address.
"How do you contain hundreds of millions of people without depriving them of the sensation of motion and risking a revolt?"
Car culture was the answer and that's now evolved into the culture of obedience. And that's now a big challenged because "the patrons of that facility are not staying there during the day but rather seem to be on foot taking advantage of other opportunities they find for food and shelter."
People on foot are a menace. Wasn't that the lesson of Ferguson, Missouri? Wasn't that the problem with Occupy? All over the country people are coming out of their cages and discombobulating the power structure.
Of course, the real problem in the City of Brunswick, Georgia is that it's a ghost town. So, a pedestrian here and there and even a swarm of school children stick out like a sore thumb.
The answer isn't to harass pedestrians, but to get more people on the street. Let's start by getting the cops out of their cages and walking a beat. They'd all be healthier for it.