Sitting in a Broken Chair

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!                           July 26, 2013

By Author Bryce A Baker

 

Sitting in a Broken Chair

No matter which way I look at it, being a ‘Gangsta’ doesn’t impress me as a great career choice in life. One can choose from thousands of jobs depending on education and personal skills. After interviewing the emotionally and morally delinquent after an arrest, I found no reasonable or qualifying purpose for them to be stealing or taking another human life. When my youngest step son was in his mid-teens I advised him that his actions now will affect the rest of his life. The phrase ‘You can’t do anything to me ‘cause I’m a minor’ became a sick echo in my ear. But sooner or later the minor can’t hide behind age restrictions in the criminal code.

The glorification of being a ‘gansta’ in movies and TV shows preys on the young people with low self-esteem and their sense of belonging. Whether positive or negative, some young people take the route of least resistance like water but unfortunately it is usually too late when they hit the rapids. One of the biggest personality dysfunctions I have recognized with the criminal element is a sociopathic trait. The lack or total lack of conscience. Another commonality with the destructive criminal is that they see themselves as the victims of society to qualify their actions. I don’t blame the car manufacturer for my speeding ticket!

It is great to see someone see the light and change to become an asset to society rather than a detriment. Their success isn’t easy after the scarring, but at least they are trying.

At an art show I was doing some years ago, a number of young members from an Asian gang came in and I was preparing for the worst. They silently walked around my show for a number of minutes and after they finished, the leader and a couple of others approached me. The young leader stood before me and said “You’re pretty good! I always wanted to do some art work.” Aside from the relief that I didn’t have to defend myself with force, I was totally impressed with the result. No matter how many confrontations I had on the street with these people, with little expectations of improvement, this youth did have a dream and instead of hurting, he shared a positive dream with me. What a high!

The Devil has such a grip on these people, but in his keeping, the promises of notoriety, money, babes and power are only a lie and a ticket to Hell.

I could ramble on about this subject, but no matter how youth are warned, their eyes are closed and waddle aimlessly into the fire. Can’t they see there is no Pension Plan for gangstas, and more importantly, I have yet to see a retired ‘GANGSTA’.

Please... CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!

Bryce A Baker

www.bryceabaker.com

 

 

Save Us from Ourselves

 CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG!                                                                   July 12, 2013
                                                                                                                                     13th Edition
By Author Bryce A Baker

Save Us from Ourselves                            

By now I would imagine that most readers of my articles understand that since I was born in the fifties when family values were still relatively intact, my opinions are based there. I wasn’t familiar with the phrase ‘dysfunctional’ until I explored the world as an independent eighteen year old. As most families, ours had some dysfunction but still retained the family unit. We actually sat together at the dinner table and had outings together.

Morality seems to be manipulated over the years to conform to the need of the individual. Since the sweep of the hippie generation of free love and lack of responsibility it has impregnated the juvenile mind, or at least a majority thereof.  The youth have mortified into an antisocial mass against the stable responsible part of society. Everyone goes through emotional and social changes throughout their lives and fortunately most grow to understand drugs, booze and revolt against ‘THE MAN’ are not conducive to employment, family and staying out of the slammer. I for one have seen the worst and have the understanding that our governing agencies are not the greatest examples of morality, but we can make change through proper channels. Speaking for myself we don’t have to be sheep and accept the stupidity laid before us, but have the fortitude to see through it and make responsible positive choices.

There is a positive note on the horizon, or at least through my eyes and twisted observation. The youth through the decades went from a majority of good standards down to a majority of bad. The positive point now is the ‘majority’ is swaying back on the up side. There are some great young adults out there looking to change for the better and making it known. Maybe the world stands a chance after all. Anyway the youth are tired of being labeled delinquent, so ‘gangstas’ look out!

I said to my wife a few times that it is unfortunate that the young heroes get a small paragraph on page four, and the psychotic killers get international attention on page one. Where is the support for doing good? I would say it sends a message to those lacking in self-esteem that their moment of recognition is to kill someone. Quite sad. When I see young people flippin’ burgers at a burger joint for minimum wage instead of selling drugs for big bucks, they are HEROES to me.

Please...CORRECT ME IF ‘M WRONG!

Bryce A Baker

www.bryceabaker.com

Unjustice

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!              12^th Edition    June 28, 2013

By Author Bryce A Baker

Unjustice

Child support is a sensitive subject. Sometimes a single parent that needs such support gets lost in the bureaucracy and struggles on their own. But I have a story that abuses that right to be financially compensated. Not because of neglect from the separated parent, but because of the need for revenge and disruption.

The divorce was settled well before this incident. The parents were married for seventeen years and had two children together, a girl and a boy. The father was apparently injured in a car accident eighteen or so years ago and hasn’t worked since. He collects twenty eight hundred dollars a month after taxes from pensions and settlement. The mom took more education and started work to assist financially.

During the later years the father was drinking and a chronic user of cannabis. The marriage broke down quickly as the two children were in their teens because of his abuse and threats. Documented are police reports of his threats of suicide in front of the children, threats and physical violence against the mom and also a police documented case where the teen daughter was grabbed by the throat by her father and was threatened with death for taking ‘moms’ side.

After the mom and daughter moved out for safety reasons the teen boy was coerced by his dad to stay. The boy had a get together with the mom and decided to maintain a relationship with her. But when he told the dad this, his ‘stuff’ was tossed into the front yard. The boy was convinced mom was bad and decided to stay at home. The mom has not had contact with her son for over four years. The daughter is in agreement that her brother is under threat by his dad and under constant monitoring by him. The father is a heavy drug user and a threat to the well-being of the boy.

When the children were seventeen, and sixteen for the boy, the parents divorced. The mom’s lawyer advised her that she had the right to half of his pensions and half the value of his two classic cars valued at a conservative number of sixty thousand dollars. She decided that since her son was with him he could keep his pensions and half his cars out of consideration for her son. The mom got sole custody of the seventeen year old daughter and as far as child support, they cancelled each other out.

The daughter moved away from home when she was eighteen and is on great terms with her mom. Not with her dad. When he found out the daughter moved out he sued the mom for child support. He had a lawyer and she was expected to pay in excess of six thousand for legal counsel. She was not in a position to afford that and represented her own case in court. This I witnessed. The judge didn’t take a thread of her testimony or her considerations during divorce. The father was awarded support for the son until he is nineteen and retroactive one year. She was unemployed, and the judge said to get a job.

I tried to get Child Protection to look at the case of the boy’s safety in that environment but because he was eighteen they declined to pursue.

The money is irrelevant in this case as far as the main issue, it is the boy’s safety.

Now considering the abuse of spouses and children I had to deal with as a Detective this case infuriates me. I have witnessed miscarriage of true justice a thousand times and this is one of them. I know for a FACT that it isn’t the money he is after but the opportunity to disrupt the mom’s life. He has nothing better to do than toke up and connive. I should also mention that his twenty six year old son from a previous marriage is living with him too. That son is addicted to morphine. Great setting for an impressionable eighteen year old!

If a parent is duly and morally responsible for child support, so be it, but in this case there is something grotesquely wrong!

I have exchanged emails with this… I can’t find a reference name disgusting enough… and he shared his intent in black and white, so I know where he stands.

Oh!!!! I should also mention the process server that came out to serve the court papers on the mom was the infamous disbarred lawyer from Vernon that is now in jail for organized crime connections.

This will not end here. I believe in true justice and JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED!

Please... CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!

Bryce A Baker

www.bryceabaker.com

Correct me if I'm wrong! - Castanet.net - Guest Columnist

Correct me if I'm wrong! - Castanet.net - Guest Columnist

www.bryceabaker.com

Here is the link to the Castanet column, They did an awesome job too! 

http://lnkd.in/SPBUWM

www.bryceabaker.com

Road Raging 101

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!           11^th Edition       June 14, 2013

 By author Bryce A Baker

ROAD RAGING 101

In the beginning of my career, my duties included motor vehicle accident investigation. To those that don’t know what that is, it involves scene evaluation, witness interviews, interviews of the involved parties and the physical engineering behind the accident itself. Now to have a detailed investigation called, it meant there was a fatality. It was a gruesome duty but because of my mechanical skills it was my first posting.

The reason for this subject has been brought through constant criticism from my wife about my constant criticism of dangerous drivers. Understandably we have all gone through driving stages of stupidity but after dealing with the horrors, I find some drivers just haven’t got a clue that they are not immortal and the weapon they drive is lethal.  I don’t have to describe these acts of IQ less donuts. It’s like watching an unknowing child taunt a two ton chunk of steel and not heeding warnings that it is dangerous. No matter how many lectures I and others have given to teenage school kids, they still don’t get the picture.

It is an ordeal for my wife to take me to the grocery store. It seems they… the navigators of the shopping carts, bring their driving skills into the store with them. Blinders on, petal to the metal and hell bent for the next item on the shopping list. They take NO prisoners and fail to understand that dragging me under their grocery laden cart is not acceptable to my fragile state of mind. I feel like shooting out their tires. Maybe we need grocery cart police.

My pet peeve is tailgaters. When I rode motor bike they thought that the closer they got to my tail light the more they loved me, but after taking a hand full of marbles across their windshield the romance ended. I know it was improper of me to use marbles but ball bearings were too expensive.

Seniors and driving… I have to be careful what I say, but I am proud of my mom who is fully capable of safely driving but feels the roads are just too crazy for her to add to it. Kidding she is a good driver… Taking the freedom of mobility away from someone in their senior years is a brutal decision. They need to evaluate when it is time to park the covered wagon and take the trolley. I responded to a minor accident one time that involved an eighty five year old lady driving a big old Cadillac. She approached a courtesy intersection and failed to yield to the vehicle approaching from the right. She toasted the other vehicle. When I asked why she didn’t yield right, she replied that since she had the bigger vehicle, she had the right of way. One would assume with years of experience, common sense might be a small factor in the equation.

Just today on the highway a vehicle approached me from the rear and tailgated. Speed of the traffic was 90 to 100 km an hour. I moved over to let her pass. As she passed I noticed a young child in the front seat and a younger one in the back child seat. She took off like a shot with speeds in excess of 120. A truck was slowing for a 50 km an hour construction zone and she ever so slightly avoided a rear end collision. Now it is bad enough to be young and speed obsessed but this ‘woman’… put two young lives at risk and for what!? Let her talk to the families of road carnage and see how her actions are no different than putting a gun to someone’s head.

We all make mistakes while driving but premeditated idiocy should be grounds for sending them back to kindergarten and learn from the children.

WOW does that feel good venting ever so slightly. Now I can travel with my wife on our next trip with a revitalized verbal assault on the stupid, lame, dirt bags that jeopardize everyone’s safety!!

I can’t put a cushion on how I feel about this subject… just sorrow for the victims.

Please... CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!

By Bryce A Baker

http://www.bryceabaker.com/

www.bryceabaker.com

Does Anyone Know Where I Put My Sanity? CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG! 10th edition May 31, 2013

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!              10^th edition       May 31, 2013

By author Bryce A Baker

Does Anyone Know Where I Put My Sanity?

Aging is a biological progression of a body deteriorating to a rickety fragile state of grumpiness. Well okay, that only pertains to me. We all have made the comment. “If I would have known then what I know now!” It’s sad that we spend decades gathering experience and knowledge and when we finally get smart to living we bite the bullet.

I watch the ads on television on age defying creams and lotions to look years younger. After years of research into this I can without doubt confirm this is bodlewoggle. I still look old! I am very disappointed with myself having my chest move south like the birds and forcibly steaming the bathroom mirror to avoid the shock in the morning. Unfortunately the mind sails into stormy waters as well.  I post sticky notes all over the house reminding me of the chores and responsibilities forced on me. My wife does have a problem with the sticky note I placed on her though. She feels my duties of marriage should not have a sticky note to remind me.

One knows they are getting old because your grown children have teenage children of their own. Your grandkids buy you Geritol in bulk for you for Christmas. You don’t understand the new form of language spoken by the young people. Then there is technology! What the heck do we need cars that park themselves? No wonder no one knows how to park. Back in the day we used to pick up a corded phone and say something to the person on the other end, seemed to work pretty well. Now cellphones are almost surgically attached to their hands, and people don’t talk anymore, they Flitter or Oogle or Twicker. I think it’s an alien conspiracy.

Computers… took me two years to learn how to turn the stupid thing on. Then it says “you’ve got mail.” How do you get the letter out of the machine? I had to write my password on the computer because it wouldn’t talk to me otherwise, and I was short on sticky notes. Life was simpler back in my younger days. When you bought something you paid with money, now they invented electronic money. As long as I can remember what my pin number is I have money. THAT works for me.

Anyway, amidst all my confusion of aging there are some benefits. I get seniors price on my coffee. I can con my kids to do chores because my Arthritis is acting up.  I can blame my poor hearing for not understanding my wife’s nagging. So I know now that when I pass on, I will be the smartest, dumb dead person.

By the way… does anyone know how to turn a computer off!

Please... CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG!

Bryce A Baker