Who Gets Protected and Served

Remember that Berkeley, California, homeowner who was beaten to death in his own front yard well after he had called the police for help with the unarmed young black man who was prowling about on his property?  The police deemed the call to have a low priority, decided not to respond to it, and even ordered off  an officer who offered to respond and could easily have done so in ample time to save the homeowner's life.


Shortly thereafter, a Berkeley police officer was deployed in the dead of night to the neighboring city home of a news reporter to demand revision of a news story that the chief of the department believed to be incorrect about something that he had said.


Now it turns out that about a month earlier ten -- yes, 10 -- Berkeley police officers were deployed to recover a cell phone that had been stolen from an unlocked locker at the city's high school. That intrepid crime fighting task force included three detectives and a sergeant, each of whom logged two hours of overtime on the assignment.


Incidentally, the stolen phone belonged to the son of Berkeley's police chief.


Question: Did the deceased homeowner die because he lacked the right relatives or because he made a poor choice in the selection of a time to be attacked?


While cogitating about just who gets protected and served, the following explanation reached me via an e-mail from a friend --

I became confused when I heard the word 'service' used with these agencies:

Internal Revenue 'Service'

Postal 'Service'

Telephone 'Service'

Cable TV 'Service'

Civil 'Service'

General 'Services' Administration

City, State & Federal 'Services'

Customer 'Service'

This is not what I thought 'Service' meant.

But today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to 'service' his cows.

 BAM!!! It all came into focus.

 Now I understand what all those agencies  are doing to us.