Do You Feel Lucky?

The title is best-known as a line from "Dirty Harry," that quintessential 70s flick featuring a less-wrinkled Clint Eastwood, gritted teeth and such. He utters it as he--the San Francisco rogue cop who's a loose cannon no one can control and stays on the force because he's so awesomely copperific...yadayadayada--points a .44 Magnum at some low-life's face, letting the perp know that although bullets were fired from said gun, there might or might not be another one ready to fire.

Of course, the punk don't feel lucky, man, and Harry don't get to blow the low-life to Pasadena or El Segundo, depending on which way the wind is blowing. And We all know the punk was right: it's too big a gamble on mere luck when your life is at stake.

But.

Take murder in Puerto Rico. (No, I will not do the Henny Youngman line...please.) As of June 2012, there were approximately 2,280 unsolved murders committed in the past 4 years alone. That averages out to about 570 a year...on an Island averaging almost 1,000 murders annually over the same time period.

First conclusion? That roughly 58% of Our murders are going unsolved.

Second conclusion? There's a lot of punks who are feeling increasingly lucky.

Now I'm not saying the solution is to put .44 Magnums in the faces of every perp or suspect around. No, We should do that to every craven parasitic politician We have until they get it through their nanoparticle brains that the crime wave is literally killing Us.

Like with every growing trend for an erstwhile forbidden behavior, the more unsolved murders (or rapes or robberies or fraud and corruption processes) We experience, the easier it becomes for others to do the same and up the ante. It's a feedback loop to Hell.

In terms of murders, as the numbers rose to surpass 1,100 in 2011 and will match that in 2012, what We are seeing is the shredding of Our society by bullet-flinging animals and the largely abusive, corruption-riddled police force that can't stop them. Can't or won't, out of personal gain, indifference or following orders.

(Yes, I said following orders. There's a really good chance that the crimes We see hitting Our communities are aided and abetted for personal and political gains. Thus, there could be orders to "let it happen". Counter-intuitive? Think this: We have a Republican (non)governor intent on making a name for himself as a "conservative's conservative" and the deepest federal funding pockets he can readily access are for fighting "the drug war." Think about it, although certainly rampant incompetence could easily lead to the exact same result as what We have now.)

Given that there have been thousands of murders in the past 4 years, do you feel lucky? That you haven't been targeted, or that you have and escaped? Is this feeling of "being lucky" something new, from the last couple of years, or--sorry--something you'll have in mind from this point on?

On the other hand, Brethren Mine, when faced with a situation where murder is an option--and you know you can imagine those easily nowadays--is said potential murder an act that scares the bejeezus out of you with the threat of capture and punishment? Or does your mind wander to the "easy" paths of getting away with it? And does that surprise you...enough?

Because when to comes to this rampant and growing crime environment We wallow in, it boils down to that simple question: Do you feel lucky?

Because everything you do after pondering it will depend on your answer. You know it will.



The Jenius Has Spoken.