Told ya' so

Give them a bus and they’ll flock into the city. Give them a club and they’ll start to drink. Give them one goddamn inch and they’ll take over everything. Pretty soon, pools of blood will eddy in the streets, Broadway will host an all-night gang-style shooting gallery and businesses will be cloaked behind veils of stainless steel bars.

Skeptics needed no more proof than the stabbing that occurred around the witching hour just outside Club 388 on Broadway two weeks ago. Two of the bar’s patrons from Schenectady –both of them coincidentally black –peppered a Ballston Spa man with knife wounds after a pre-dawn fight by the club’s entrance.

The assault sent a news shockwave through the embattled television media, which has spent the cold winter months searching desperately for something to dramatize.

“This scene is smack-dab in the middle of Broadway, so for people walking down the street, taking a look on the sidewalk and seeing blood makes them nervous,” said FOX23 News reporter Kristin Lowman, sounding the first media alarm. “Others say it can happen anywhere –even police.”

And then there was Capital News 9, which always had a morbid fascination with stories that involve injury. They tried the ‘what if I told you that you’re standing on blood’ approach to the story in trying to convince out-of-town residents they should be scared to walk down the rough-and-tumble streets of the Spa City.

“What if I told you that you’re standing on blood right now,” queried reporter Dave Detling.

“I wouldn’t believe you,” replied the Ballston Spa man

“Well take a look down.”

Unbeknownst to these reporters, their perfect interview was festering in Corinth, just one news release away. Michael DiGioacchino, a Republican hoping to primary the longest tenured sheriff in New York, was furiously tapping up a statement to say he was right all along. Several months ago, the Schenectady County Sheriff’s deputy said he’d lay down the law in lawless Saratoga County. He’d stop the gang train at the Glenville border and make sure to the suburban enclaves of Clifton Park and Ballston wouldn’t become the crime zones that have plagued Schenectady.

So what better opportunity to strike fear in the hearts of voters than a stabbing involving two black fellows from Schenectady? Well, none if you're the guy arguing for a larger drug task force, more road patrols and commitment to monitor the tide of ‘gang activity’ flowing up from all points south.

“When I first announced, I was told that I was crazy, that Saratoga County has no crime problems or gang problems,” he told the Post Star last week. “The stabbing in Saratoga Springs is a prophecy fulfilled as far as gang activity moving into Saratoga County.”

The statement goes on to accuse “at least one” of the assailants of having a “known affiliation with the Bloods.” Watch out, south central Saratoga. Here come da’ gangs.

Of course, the news-starved television media and DiGioacchino aren’t alone in ringing the alarm. Recalcitrant Saratoga County Sheriff James Bowen has been hammering on the damn thing since he was elected into office 37 years ago. Every year, crime is getting worse. And every year, Bowen asks for more deputies.

Under Bowen’s administration, the sheriff’s office has experienced unprecedented growth. Spending has increased by more than 40 percent since 2004 alone. He claims the increased spending and staffing is due to the population rise and anticipated explosion with the creation of the Foundry facility in Luther Forest. Yet there doesn’t seem to be a scrap of evidence to suggest Saratoga County has or will see a 40 percent spike in population.

That’s alright, Bowen insists, because crime is on the rise. Last month, Bowen grudgingly turned over his crime stats to the Post Star, but has since gone mute on their meaning. The paper learned that calls for service went up 20 percent in 2008. Felony arrests increased by 19 percent and misdemeanor crimes increased 15 percent. Curiously “for whatever reason” the jail population decreased by 8 percent.

Well, here’s a bit of explanation. Bowen hires a slew of new deputies, many of whom don’t know the law or good policing from the curious orifice in their posterior. In as much, they file spurious charges when a warning would have done; they make errors in collecting evidence that allows cases to go unprosecuted; they’re oblivious to the legal process so they can’t even build a case against even the most egregious criminals.

But as keystone as these cops might be, they can make money for Saratoga County, Bowen assuredly tells his bosses on the county Board of Supervisors. More road patrols equal more bull-shit cases that percolate through the justice system and pump money into the county’s towns and villages. The idea isn’t to get deputies to crack down on crime; it’s to get them to write as many violation tickets as they can fit into their shift.

See most law-abiding citizens don’t mind violations, especially if they have little bearing on their record. They’ll unwittingly take a financial kick in the teeth just to avoid the unpleasantly of spending an evening in a courthouse or having the ominous scepter of the law hanging over them day in and day out.

Take for instance the recent citing of 22 underage drinkers who were knocking back a few at a house party late last month. The citations are about as meaningful as a parking ticket, in that they only carry a fine. That fine will eventually land in the spending coffers of the town of Ballston, which will greedily accept the money as a sort of quasi-tax.

Then there’s the ‘diversion’ route county District Attorney James Murphy will undoubtedly offer the teens. This way, they can avoid paying their money directly to Ballston. But they’ll still have to pay something to certify they’ve reformed and will wait the four or five years before they can responsibly drink alcohol in accordance with the law. These programs are often funded with either county or state tax dollars and wouldn’t exist in the first place were it not for a couple dozen pimple-faced teens trying to get their drink on just like ol’ pappie did back in the day.

To add insult to injury, these glorified mall cops can’t solve real crime even if it means there’s a murderer on the loose for more than three years. Just ask Christina White. She certainly stands testament to the investigative skills of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, which treated a homicide like a missing persons case until a hiker found her bones seven months later.

In other words, the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office exists almost solely to levy an additional tax on generally law-abiding people. And the two candidates proposing to guide it into the future only want it to grow more omnipresent. One offers a random stabbing in Saratoga Springs –well outside the sheriff’s jurisdiction –is reason to add more road patrols and a gang violence unit. The other can’t seem to explain the fact that his office exists primarily to reign in speeders and underage drinkers. As the saying goes, voters will have to pick the lesser of two evils this November.