Rochester (NH) Police Log (Good Parts Version)

From our local newspaper's website, some of the activities of Rochester, New Hampshire's police between May 27 and June 2:

Tuesday, May 27

6:20 a.m. — On Old Dover Road, a man reports one vehicle has been smeared with feces and the other was spat upon.

6:45 a.m. — A coyote is clunked on the Route 202 bypass.

9:33 a.m. — A neighborly dispute on Salmon Falls Road features spitting on a driveway.

10:12 a.m. — At the station a man reports getting a strange message on his cell phone, to whit: "It looks like she's dead." These dire words have come from a phone in Dover. Police there track it to a city landscaper and discover he was talking about a dead sprinkler head. So she may be restored to life.

10:46 a.m. — Sidewalk cyclists on the Square are told they should not pedal there.

11:17 a.m. — A man who took his motorcycle to Winter Street for a repair finds the repairman has left town with "everything including his motorcycle."

2:57 p.m. — The animal control officer is on the trail of a loose beagle on Western Avenue.

4:10 p.m. — During a disturbance at Salmon Falls Estates, a kid's bike is thrown around and yelling is noticed.

4:27 p.m. — A man gets an iffy check from Ontario and asks if it's a scam. He tries calling the bank, and then shreds the paperwork.

6:23 p.m. — Music crankers win a warning on Periwinkle Drive.

Wednesday, May 28

1:09 p.m. — At Royal Crest Mobile Home Park a cat is up a tree; arborists will pluck it off, if they can collect a fee.

8:12 p.m. — A dead dog on North Main Street is reclassified as a raccoon.

8:38 p.m. — Fireworks on Congress Street prevent young schoolchildren sleeping.

9:31 p.m. — A lady's sister's ex-boyfriend screams and pounds doors and windows. Later, slashed tires are discovered.

Friday, May 30

1:21 a.m. — After someone jumps into traffic near North Main Street bridge, a person is taken to Frisbie with a bump on his head.

11:22 a.m. — Two strange sheep munch in a Dry Hill Road yard, but then move along.

6:09 p.m. — There is a black bear in an Oak Street yard laying at the base of a tree. Someone has invited a bunch of buddies over to see it. It later ambles off, but then a food delivery guy reports "a seven-foot bear near Hansonville Road and Oak Street."

8:17 p.m. — There is gunplay near Peaslee Road.

11:27 p.m. — A party rages on Main Street, Gonic. No officers are available to handle the call. Rage on, McDuff.

Saturday, May 31

12:15 a.m. — At the end of Meaderboro Road, a gentleman in a blue hoodie is jumping up and down and running in and out of the roadway. This is thought to be suspicious.

3:18 a.m. — On Liberty Street, two men (one shirtless, of course) are yelling at each other.

12:22 p.m. — A man who was in a fight near the Dynasty heads for home on a bike, clutching a six-pack.

3:43 p.m. — A purse has been stolen from a car on River Street. The victim waits for a while in a car in the police parking lot before getting "irritated" and hanging up on two dispatchers.

4:07 p.m. — On Mill Street, a dead deer has been dragged into a back yard. Now there are buzzards and flies around it.

6:39 p.m. — In the East Rochester area, a teenager has eight pairs of underwear stolen.

8:23 p.m. — At the Dynasty, a woman reports her ex has taken $100 from her.

8:51 p.m. — The core of the noise from a graduation party on Quail Drive is traced to a young drummer whom police advise to stop.

Sunday, June 1

12:49 a.m. — Loud music is coming from Penny Lane, who is a street, not an entertainer.

8:51 a.m. — A dog visits Aroma Joe's on Milton Road daily for a bone, but they are concerned for its safety.

8:53 a.m. — A Moores Court man who allowed a girl to stay at his place overnight has awoken to find her and his white Chevy Cavalier have gone.

6:31 p.m. — A dog bite man to Frisbie goes, then speaks to the mutt's master, who says that trespass law he knows. Rapprochement? A disaster!

8:31 p.m. — Two ladies slug it out on River Street.

11:24 p.m. — A man steals a 30-pack from Cumberland Farms on Milton Road and escapes on foot, despite baggy jeans.

Monday, June 2

10:07 a.m. — At the station, a woman reports she has a check for $3,000 which is likely fraudulent.

10:54 a.m. — Near Citizen's Bank a biker is seen to dismount and punch a van driver before taking off again.

1:06 p.m. — The Baxter Lake golf cart has been stolen again, possibly by the same youngster.

7:49 p.m. — On Yellowstone Lane a woman reports that her son was clonked over the head with a bottle by a relative a couple of days ago.

7:57 p.m. — At the station a man reports a woman he used to live with is leaving messages on his lawn.

I can't help but think that someone is getting away with something here. Hope it continues.

Last Modified 2008-09-12 1:27 PM EDT

Advice to Racists

Yesterday's Blogometer noticed a Talking Point among the hive of lefty bloggers it samples and summarizes. (It's under "MCCAIN III: Does He Really Want These People On His Side?"):

Yesterday we briefly discussed McCain's 6/14 meeting with disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters. The Politico's Ben Smith reports that Paula Abeles, the Clinton supporter who organized this meeting, previously worked on behalf of Thomas Jefferson's white descendants in an effort to exclude Jefferson's possible black descendants from family gatherings …
After quoting Ben Smith, the 'Meter notes: "Liberal bloggers are buzzing about the revelations". And they are. Some snippets about Mrs. Abeles: she's one of the "people who don't like black people"; she's "deeply racist and out-of-the-mainstream"; a "stone racist"; who couldn't "think of a single non-repulsive, non-spiteful, non-racist thing to do."

And of course, McCain comes in for collateral damage: "Only the best supporters for McCain"; "she's the person the McCain camp wanted to work with"; "hasn't the McCain campaign figured out about Google yet?"

Yes, fine. The McCain campaign should be more careful about the folks with whom they associate. (Although the anonymous McCain aide in the Politico article is credible when he notes "We typically don’t vet people who are simply expressing an interest in supporting the campaign") I have no idea whether Mrs. Abeles is a "stone racist" or not, in her heart of hearts; it's certainly true that her previous actions allowed her enemies to paint her as one.

The interesting thing is to me: none of this came up when she was a Hillary supporter. But now everybody notices she's the worst person in the world.

Hence my advice to racists: be loyal Democrats. Your racism will be safely invisible unless and until you happen to say nice things about Republicans.

Stalin's Ghost

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

This is the sixth Arkady Renko novel from Martin Cruz Smith. Arkady is an investigator with the Moscow Police, but his superiors have little use for an honest detective. So he's put to the task of investigating sightings of Joe Stalin at the Chistiye Prudy station of the Moscow Metro. He's also investigating a possible murder-for-hire enterprise run by a couple of his co-workers, war heroes from the Second Chechen War. And finally, he's trying to hold together the sort-of family cobbled together from the previous book: girlfriend Eva, and the young chess prodigy Zhenya. As usual, Arkady's doggedness endears him to nobody, and puts him in dire physical peril.

Martin Cruz Smith is pretty dogged himself; his books are always impeccably researched and convey a powerful portrait of Russia and its people. One subplot involves the "diggers", groups that make a semi-hobby of digging up victims of World War II, carefully assigning them nationalities and probable causes of death. German soldiers executed by Russians, or Russians executed by Germans? Machine-gunned, or a single shot to the back of the head? It turns out that MIA Soviet soldiers were presumed to have defected to the Nazis, and their families subjected to disgrace; finding the right corpse can absolve things even today.

Russia: it's not like where you and I live.

Smith's also very good at modifying the usual genre-detective wisecrackery with dark Russian humor. It's a mix of Tolstoy and Chandler.


Last Modified 2024-02-01 5:32 AM EDT