"Spot the Yo's" Cartoon - June 26, 2008
(Click to see LARGER version)
"Spot the Yo's" b&w Cartoon - June 26, 2008

Hopefully this cartoon WON'T get the negative reaction
I fear might happen as a simple knee-jerk kind of thing.

I park my cab at the taxi stand on Edward Street (directly
across from Memorial Hospital on Belmont Street, adjacent
to Butch & Annie's Plaza with Tedeschi's, Belmont Liquors,
Dunkin Donuts and others) pretty much every day, as I wait
for jobs to bid on that are in the area. While there, one
has nothing else to do except be aware of one's surroundings.
And in this parking lot of the plaza, located just up the
street, up the hill from the Worcester City Police Headquarters,
all kinds of stuff goes on.

I'm not in favor of Worcester becoming a police state, but I
am in favor of law enforcement getting serious about enforcing
the laws that were made into law to reflect our citizenry's
belief system. If we are seriously ANTI-drug and against all
the other bullshit that goes along with drug culture, then
perhaps law enforcement should take a close look at these
hotspots for criminal activity, collect intelligence, arrest
people, make a statement, make a stand, let the city know
that they're out there following up on the laws we've put
into place.

If you don't like the laws, if you don't like how drugs are
being addressed by our laws, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
Say something, start a movement, call your city councillor,
make a stink, get the ball rolling, mobilize your neighborhood,
DO SOMETHING.

I feel sorry for the businesses who are in this plaza, and
in other Worcester drug / hang out hotspots. But THEY have to
decide to take a stand for themselves. If they are in fear of
retaliation for them making an anti-drug / anti-loitering stand,
then they will continue to do nothing and basically enable drug
culture to go about its business. In a sense, the businesses are
inadvertant accomplices because they refuse to look outside their
doors and do something about something that shouldn't be going on.

This cartoon is an oversimplified attempt to point out the
lunacy of proximity, how all kinds of shit is going on just
up the street from the police. Simple as that.

Back to Worcester Magazine Action Geek cartoons