Turn of the Screw

(Update. Fix links, typo etc. Stet at Midnight July 3, 2009)

I know of a reasonably cute l'il gal. She has that sort of technical talent at which older folks marvel.

You know, can't figure out how to set the VCR? Call in the kids, they'll look at you like you're stupid and fix your broken stuff in about 30 seconds. What's really scary is when they try to explain to you what they did. They say something like "um well, you just..." and words usually fail them and they wiggle their fingers like they were pushing buttons.

It can be difficult to articulate what occurs in the realms outside of the verbal. I have done a fair amount of technical writing, and the hardest part is translating the "well, push this button and yank that cord" into a story that has not merely a beginning, end, and middle, but which also conveys to the reader the reasons that they will need to know to figure out any uses outside of the merely rote.

Alas, though I had hoped the young lady in question might turn out to be one of those who can either figure out the reasons on her own -- whether or not she could articulate them into the common standard language -- or can come close enough to doing that so as to get jobs done that most people wouldn't even try to do. Most folks of a certain age are doomed to forever watch the clock on their VCR blink 12:00. Even though they can watch videos or DVDs just fine, it's a waste of the capabilities of the equipment.

Yet I made the mistake of asking the young lady in question "So, have you set your mind on a career yet?" and she declared that it was her intention to become a Parole and Probation person.

All I could tell her was that such people that I've known generally didn't seem to me to be too incredibly happy.

What I couldn't do was to express my complete incomprehension that anyone would ever want to spend four years in college just so that they qualified to be a lousy screw.

---

"Screw", for the English Impaired, is a classic and commonplace reference to anyone remotely associated with the business of keeping people in lockup.

"Screws" can also refer to anything that can't be resisted, and gets tighter and tighter and tighter... until things break. In certain contexts, what breaks is a person's will.

In a certain sub-context of that last definition, a screw is exactly what is used to stop an asshole from blowing crap everywhere. You just keep tightening it down, and finally, the asshole is stopped.

It's just not exactly pleasant to be the poor bastard with the screwdriver.

Then again, you stopped an asshole.

---

As of July 1, 2009, a lot of new laws went into effect. At the State level, nobody will be getting a new driver's permit in the State of Maryland which is usable for any Federal purpose unless they can prove lawful presence in the USA. At the County level, a lot of the people who won't be able to get new driver's permits also will get ticketed for parking their fly-by-night commercial vehicles in residential areas.

Yet the real gravy is only now starting to be basted onto a goose that is long overdue to be cooked.

The Gazette reports that at long last the Montgomery County Police will start moving towards dealing with the immense backlog of bench warrants. Their reluctance to do anything about it previously to now stems directly from at least a decade of County policy. There has been no significant effort in at least 10 years to deal with this backlog of warrants, because over half of the people in line to be arrested for "failure to appear" have "Hispanic" names and possibly most may reasonably be presumed to be illegal aliens.

The County's approach for now is to blanket the neighborhood with flyers advising people that it's really best for them to turn themselves in to avoid complications.

The County is, I have no doubts, just taking their standard approach, which is to give everyone all due warning that the County is about to start turning down the screws.

Although the County is trying to take the line that of course they'll be giving primary attention to minor offenses -- as the illegal alien community is still adjusting to the idea that only crimes of violence or weapons charges will get their immigration status checked -- this is of no consequence. Orders have come down from the very top -- which is to say, via DHS chairperson Janet Napolitano on direct orders from President Barack Obama -- that all persons brought into any jail anywhere on any level of charges will be checked against ICE and CIS as well as LEAA and NCIC. It doesn't matter, the second these warrants are served those people get their status checked. That's all. Direct from the President. A Democrat. Understand me, Mr County Executive, Mr Chief of Police, Mr Sheriff, Mr Officer On the Street? Deal with the warrant backlog, and you'll be dealing with the immigration issue.

Or, you could simply do as has been done for the last decade... ignore blatant disrespect for, and open mocking of, the law... as long as the repeat offenders and bail jumpers are all foreigners illegally present in the country.

We citizens -- who just today heard that the official unemployment rate is 9.5 percent but when you really do the real math, it's more like 16.5 percent -- expect that here in Montgomery, we who play by the rules and abide by the law will still see the foreigners being turned against us as tightened screws.

Then again, times are changing and the politicians need to change with them.

Maybe the screws will be turning where they're supposed to be turned... against the lawless and the cheaters.

---