So IS there a credible threat serious enough that it warrents nightly 2 AM disruption? Try sleeping on an upper floor with this. Going on….

But what the real focus of the article is what 911 is doing;

In the last year speed of response, one of the most critical measures of public safety and govermental performance had tanked…we are simply less safe and while the flippant and rain puddle deep thinkers may represent this as somehow not important the basic reality is that if the public feels unprotected they (always quietly) 1) look for somewhere else to live and/or 2) look for a ways to protect themselves. Want to know what that means? Back to the Sonny Crockett approach to urban social matters…..

But the basic reality of what I reported is that response times are now often a half hour(!) and that’s not certain, and that it’s not at all certain that any effective action outside of what individuals take will ever happen in this matter.

The OTHER very major reality here is that when large numbers of people feel they are unprotected, and this is most certainly what this incident shows, they will seek to protect themselves. This is exactly what happened in the 70’s in the Heights. This is a normal and very healthy response to danger and official irresponsibility.