Police Academy

Over the past 12 weeks, I've been attending classes for Evanston's Citizen Police Academy and yesterday was finally graduation day. I largely enjoyed the classes and found them interesting. I learned a lot about the police force and how things operate around the city. I got to do a ride-along with an officer although not much happened other than a car accident. No one was hurt, thankfully. Evanston, IL isn't exactly a hotbed of criminal activity. I'm all about law and order. If you do the crime, do the time. One of the stories in the news right now is about the college basketball players who tried to shoplift some expensive sunglasses from a shop during a trip to China and, lo and behold, Donny T. rushed to their rescue to get them out of the charges and sent back to the US. He asked them for a thank you and he got it. I don't often agree with Donny, but he was right here. He did those bad-assed kids a favor and he deserved to be thanked for that. Why people feel the need to commit crimes and, even worse, commit them while abroad (does no one watch Locked Up Abroad???) is beyond me. The criminal justice system in other countries isn't like our own. If you break the law in another country, you're subject to that country's laws. They could string you up by your thumbs or flog you in the public square and there wouldn't be anything the US could do about it except contact your family and tell them what's going on.