A ticket for honking your horn?

*I know I just made a post, and I guess it might have been smart to consolidate this post and the one before it into one huge post. But the two posts are on separate issues, hence, the two posts.*

I heard a story today that made me shake my head. It was told to me by a person we'll call "Bob" who was there. It goes like this:
Two police cars were side by side in an alley; the two officers in the car were just sitting there, talking to each other. The position of their cars made it impossible for any other car going through the alley to get around them. Another car turns into the alley, and the driver finds that he can not get around the two squad cars. The policemen made no attempt to move their cars, and the driver of other car soon decided to honk his horn at them.

One of the policemen says to the other, "You know what? I'm going to give that guy a ticket". He proceeds to go over to the driver and write him a ticket for illegal use of his horn.

I ask you, is this an abuse of power? I understand that technically, by California state law, this driver did use his horn illegally (click here to find out what constitutes illegal use of a horn). However, also by California state law and based on the details of the story (as told to me by Bob, who was in one of those squad cars), the police were also in the wrong as they technically did not have the right to be blocking any portion of the alley (click here to see the law regarding the restriction of access to an alley).

 The policeman's attitude seemed to be: You're really honking at me?! I'm a policeman. Don't you know I can do whatever I want? If I want to sit here and block the alley while chatting it up with another policeman, I'll do just that. And you know what, for having the audacity to honk your horn at me, I'm going to give you a ticket.

Granted, I clearly wasn't there when this happened, so I can't be sure what the policeman was thinking; however, this is the perception I got as Bob told the story.

Now, also granted, I wouldn't have honked at the policemen, and I can honestly tell you that I probably wouldn't ever honk at a policeman, even if it was a legal action in that particular situation. It's like passing a police car on the highway. The police car may be going under the speed limit (but above the minimum), but no one is going to pass the car because of the fear of getting a ticket. However, legally (as far as I can tell), there is no law against passing this police car (granted you are not speeding yourself). But is this not also an abuse of power - the installation of fear that you can not do something that is within your legal right to do?

What are your thoughts on this story? Abuse of power? Yes? No?

School Pride

I go to Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, CA. In 2005, Emmanuel made a 40 year committment to help rebuild Compton, CA. In order to do this, the Compton Initiative was formed. Every three months, on a Saturday, the Compton Initiative brings volunteers from Emmanuel, other local churches, business men and women, city leaders, etc., to go to multiple sites in Compton for a Compton Clean-Up day. On these days, dilapidated houses get a new coat of paint, new roofs and new porches, middle schools are painted, and Compton is rebuilt one site at a time.

Almost a couple of months ago, Emmanuel Church and the Compton Initiative was contacted by Denise Cramsey, producer of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She is working on a new show called School Pride, set to premier this fall. Think of it as Extreme Makeover: School Edition. The basic gist is that the producers find schools all over the country in need of renovation (and often without the necessary resources to do so themselves), and then work with local volunteers to do just that. They really want to get the community involved in transforming these schools. They don't want to come in and do everything themselves. Enterprise Middle School, in Compton, CA, was chosen for such a makeover which took place this past week.

I had the opportunity to be one of the volunteers who helped to renovate the school. It was quite the experience. I saw a lot of what happens in the way of filming a show such as this (which actually kind of disappointed me), but I also got to see what happens when a community is given the tools necessary to transform itself.

My experience this past week leaves me with a few questions. Perhaps you all would know the answers to them. If so, please feel free to chime in.

1. Why don't public schools have the money to do necessary renovations?
2. In the L.A. Unified School District, why has the answer to a gap in the state budget been to cut the school year short by 5 days?
3. The superintendent, Ramon Cortines, says, "... this is a temporary 'fix' only needed until the state economy finally improves". However, he also says that there is no end in sight to the state financial crisis. If things don't turn around, what will it mean for students?
4. What does the state financial crisis mean for the salaries of state employees such as senators and the governor?
5. Why is it that there is a gap in the state budget in the first place? Has any of the state's financial issues been caused by unjust uses of state money?

As I said earlier, feel free to chime in if you have any information with which you can answer these questions.