Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/305190
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EditorialBoard How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FaCEbook.CoM/ rbdailynEwS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @rEdbluFFnEwS Skitter,skitter,skitter. That's the sound I hear inside my head as I drive around Red Bluff. Ifyoucloseyoureyes for a second and picture yourself rolling down Main Street you'll re - alize what I'm writing about. Skitter, skitter, skit- ter. It's the sound effect I make when I see people dash- ing across traffic like a three- limbed squirrel that can't de- cide which nut to go after first. Skitter, skitter, skitter. When I first moved here I thought this phenomenon was a California thing, caused by the state's notorious pedes - trian right of way law. I mean, sure, in the time- line of transportation modes, walking came before cars and hence should go first. But in applicable practice car beats man anytime. I thought the good folk here were just being their freedom- expressing, rights-defending, flip-flop wearing Californian selves. Skitter, skitter, skitter. But as I've traveled the state over the years and talked with those who have lived elsewhere, I've been as - sured this game of human chicken versus vehicle isn't a California thing. Nope, it's a good ole' Red Bluff thang. In other parts of the state people use crosswalks and traffic lights. They wait un - til all sense of danger is out of sight before scampering across four lanes of hazards. They exercise extreme cau - tion. In other words they value their own life. Not in Red Bluff. Skitter, skitter, skitter. OK to be fair, there are a lot of people in Red Bluff who value their own life. But there's that other part of the population. The kind of people who took over River Park like a walking and mumbling noxious weed to the point where the police de - partment had to install secu- rity cameras to make sure they obeyed our civilization's sim- plest code of conduct such as wearing clothes in public and not selling drugs within five feet of a swing set. I don't want to come out and call them what they are on the off chance one of them is reading the newspaper to see whether their supplier got jailed the night before. So, not to offend anyone, I'll just call them hethmeads. It seems the majority of skit - terers fall into that cate- gory. I admit that could be just me stereotyping based on their muddled appearance, bag of recyclables slung over their shoulder or the baby stroller they're push - ing sans baby. Skitter, skitter, skitter. Maybe in the state of con- sciousness they live in the tons of steel moving back and forth at rapid speeds look like char- iots made of clouds and rain- bows being driven by the Snug- gles bear. My wife, who likes to say skitter in a whisper, practices uber-caution while driving around town. Any sight of a pedes - trian causes her to apply the brakes, to the point where it's not uncommon to see her do- ing it even if the person is en- tering a store. "Do you trust anyone here," she'll say. "They could just change their mind and dart out in front of you on a whim." If you've lived with this your whole life maybe you don't un - derstand how bad a problem this is. Just know when relatives come to visit me, one of the first things I tell them is be careful when driving here, be - cause people will just run into the street with no warning. I honestly think that warn- ing should be issued on all of our travel guides and would be surprised if the Brand- ing Project's consultant didn't suggest it. Skitter, skitter, skitter. I've thought about how we can combat this. I mean no - body wants to hit a person, even a hethmead. One of the key solutions could be traffic signs, like the ones used to mark wildlife crossings. Two places around town seem to have a high volume of skitterers and motorists should be cautioned when ap - proaching these areas. Put up signs around River- side Plaza and near the Ante- lope Boulevard liquor store. They will be yellow signs with a silhouette of a man wearing a winter coat and shorts holding the hand of a woman with her side fat pro - truding out. Skitter, skitter, skitter. RichGreenecanbereachedat 527-2151, Ext. 109. rich Greene Watch out for skitterers BLMspeakswithaforked tongue Editor: On Friday, April 25 at about 1 p.m I arrived at the Discovery Park in Red Bluff to attend a Boy Scouting event. I made note of two very small boys jumping and splashing in a very large pool of water near the boat ramp at the fast running water faucet. After sitting my car for a few minutes the water kept flowing at the rate of perhaps 10 or more gallons a minute. There were a few people around, but no one was there to turn it off. I did. A short while later while talk - ing with some other Scout- ers a Bureau of Land Manage- ment truck with two gentlemen drove up and asked who turned off the water? I answered that I did suggesting that it was al - most criminal in a drought to leave water running like that. I am a Boy Scout and am conser- vation minded. The driver of the truck shrugged saying that they must flush the lines at regular in- tervals. I live in Happy Valley, per- haps 20 miles from Red Bluff. Our Clear Creek Water Depart- ment, because of BLM water re- ductions, has limited our wa- ter to 0% for agricultural water and 50% of our 2012 domestic us- age. Based upon those figures, my wife and I are allowed only 57 cubic feet of water for this month. That amounts to 426 gal - lons for the month or 14.2 gallons per day or 7.1 gallons for each of us. From this, we need to have water for our tea or coffee, wash dishes, take showers, brush our teeth, do our laundry, flush toi - lets and feed our chickens. Now one can see that I am perturbed at the forked tongue approach of our Bureau of Land Management. These government people reduce our water allow - ances, provide a paltry 5% for most of California agricultural production and yet feel the need to flush their lines at a Bureau of Land Management park? Some - where there are knotheads with the BLM suggesting that flush- ing their lines and wasting wa- ter is more important than the needs of the people and agricul- ture producers. I am willing to do my part as are most of my neighbors in Happy Valley. I think their anger will swell when they learn of the dual purposes of the BLM. — Richard Gordon, Happy Valley Not a '50s western Editor: I talked to an out-of-county supervisor who was active in adopting the Jefferson declara - tion in his county. He said we don't need the Highway Patrol. In its place we can deputize peo- ple to patrol the highways — a modem version of the 1950s TV series "Gunsmoke," where Matt Dillon would go forth and dep - utize a lot of Festus', talking through their noses with hillbilly slang and if lucky find a pretty redhead to be Miss Kitty. It is my opinion this whole scheme is a danger to public safety. The bottom line is that Jefferson is not an economically sound way of operating. At first I likened it to the Bev - erly Hillbillies coming in to change our city of Red Bluff, but now I see it more like the danger- ous and out-of-control Wild West. — Kathy Bonner Inconsiderateorroadhazard Editor: Everyone has seen them. The people who park across the access to the doorway to the AMPM or 7-11 store. Then every - one else has to walk around that car to get into the store. Rude. Or the person in the fast lane backing up traffic who was just sitting at the green light till it turned yellow. Then when you pass them, their eyes are down - cast ,fiddling with their fingers, rudely oblivious to your stare. I'm not talking about simply being rude. I'm talking about un - acceptable driving conduct that is as dangerous as black ice, deer or a driver with a 3.0 blood alco- hol content. Texting. Recent case in point, when the 21-year-old dim wit was towing a horse trailer by Los Molinos oblivious to the car in front turn - ing left. He hit that car knocking it into the path of a semi, killing the young boy and severely injur- ing the local mother. I ride a motorcycle and resent texters' disregard for the law re- garding cell phones and driving. I realize they put a high priority on their social lives but believe they put others at risk with little if any regard for others. I believe in the near future, cell phones won't even work in a motor vehicle in motion. Tech - nology , insurance companies and laws will mandate this due to so much past immature use by cell phone drivers. Meanwhile, whatever the cur - rent fines are regarding texting and cellphones, Tehama County should triple them. Also why not actively enforce laws regarding texting similar to photo enforced red light violation's citation. An unmarked car with cameras. Just send a copy of the photo to the registered owner. Second time, double the fine, third time, suspended license. I believe the fines would easily pay for this program's logistics considering I noticed six people texting while driving between the Green Barn and The Home Depot one day. — Terry van Dyke, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Earnest moralists lament Americans' distrust of govern- ment. What really is regrettable is that government does much to earn distrust, as Terry Dehko, 70, and his daughter Sandy Thomas, 41, understand. Terry, who came to Michigan from Iraq in 1970, soon did what immigrants often do: He went into business, buying Schott's Super - market in Fraser, Mich., where he still works six days a week. The IRS, a tentacle of a government that spent $3.5 trillion in 2013, tried to steal more than $35,000 from Terry and Sandy that year. Sandy, a mother of four, has a master's degree in urban plan - ning but has worked in the store off and on since she was 12. She remembers, "They just walked into the store" and announced that they had emptied the store's bank account. The IRS agents be - lieved, or pretended to believe, that Terry and Sandy were or conceivably could be — which is sufficient for the IRS — conduct - ing a criminal enterprise when not selling groceries. What pattern of behavior sup- posedly aroused the suspicions of a federal government that is igno- rant of how small businesses func- tion? Terry and Sandy regularly make deposits of less than $10,000 in the bank across the street. Federal law, aimed primarily at money laundering by drug deal - ers, requires banks to report cash deposits of more than $10,000. It also makes it illegal to "structure" deposits to evade such reporting. Because 35 percent of Schott's Supermarket's receipts are in cash, Terry and Sandy make frequent trips to the bank to avoid tempting actual criminals by having large sums at the store. Besides, their in - surance policy covers no cash loss in excess of $10,000. In 2010 and 2012, IRS agents visited the store and examined Terry's and Sandy's conduct. In 2012, the IRS notified them that it identified "no violations" of bank - ing laws. But on Jan. 22, 2013, Terry and Sandy discovered that the IRS had obtained a secret warrant and emptied the store's bank account. Sandy says that if the IRS had acted "the day be - fore, there would have been only about $2,000 in the account." Should we trust that today's IRS was just lucky in its timing? The IRS used "civil forfeiture," the power to seize property sus - pected of being produced by, or in- volved with, crime. The IRS could have dispelled its suspicions of Terry and Sandy, if it actually had any, by simply asking them about the reasons — prudence, and the insurance limits — for their bank - ing practices. It had, however, a reason not to ask obvious ques- tions before proceeding. The civil forfeiture law — if something so devoid of due pro- cess can be dignified as law -- is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Ameri - cans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated bet- ter than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only af- ter being convicted. Sandy remembers her fa- ther exclaiming "Aren't we in the United States? We did noth- ing wrong." They did something right in discovering the Institute for Justice's activities against civil forfeiture abuse. IJ, a libertarian defender of property rights and other American premises, says that what was done to Terry is done routinely across the nation — indeed, it was done almost si - multaneously to the owner of a gas station near Schott's Supermarket who deposited his cash receipts whenever he could get to the bank, typically every few days. Civil forfeiture proceeds on the guilty-until-proven-innocent prin - ciple, forcing property owners of limited means to hire lawyers and engage in protracted pro- ceedings against a government with limitless resources, just to prove their innocence. Says IJ: "To make matters worse, for - feiture law treats property own- ers like random bystanders and requires them to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the government against their property just to get it back. That is why civil for - feiture cases have such unusual names, such as United States v. $35,651.11 in U.S. Currency — the case involving Terry and Sandy." In what it probably considered an act of unmerited mercy, the IRS offered to return 20 percent of Ter - ry's money. Such extortion — pock- eting others people's money — of- ten succeeds when the IRS bullies bewildered people not represented by IJ, which forced the government to return all of Terry's and the gas station owner's money. IJ's countersuit seeks an injunc - tion to prevent such IRS thefts and extortions. Meanwhile, ear- nest moralists might consider the possibility that Americans' dis- trust of government is insufficient. George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com. George Will IRS making it very easy for citizens to mistrust government Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Rich Greene OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com thursday, May 1, 2014 » MORE AT FaCEbook.CoM/rbdailynEwS AND TwiTTEr.CoM/rEdbluFFnEwS a6