Email to Steve Lopez, Columnist For The Los Angeles Times
Hi Steve:
I am a writer who can write anywhere under any conditions including a room with a screaming baby but lately the choppers from LAPD have been cruising the neighborhood— 3rd/Kenmore in K-town—even more than usual which was already plenty enough. Its annoying and a distraction from my work. Surveillance doesnt bother me Steve—I lead a virtuous life. Its the noise. Air pollution is a problem but air pollution doesnt rouse you from your bed at 2 AM to grab a shotgun and march outside to blow in the windows of the car with the car alarm that would not shut off—an incident that occurred in Van Nuys and was reported in our own beloved LA Times. The woman then applied the same treatment to the windows of her neighbors house who owned the car. That was her mistake. She was arrested and spent the night in jail. I wrote a letter to the Times. I said: this woman should not be in jail. They should put her face on a stamp.
Now for my point. Lets talk about the chopper up there circling my pad for 20 or 30 minutes and what they are looking for. I have no idea. Something is bothering them and the info is passed along to a cop in a patrol car on the street. But my question is: What about all this drone technology we now have at our disposal and why cant it be used to eliminate the stupid noise and, also, with a drone you have options—like when some low-life heads for downtown to disappear in underground parking and a chopper would be stuck, stymied, but a drone is on the low-lifes ass all the way and the low-life ditches the car and prepares to leisurely exit the building but here is the drone hovering 5 feet from his face to zap him with a taser.
And finally, Steve, what about inviting yourself to a meeting of the city council to ask some questions and then visit the LAPD to tag along on a few chopper assignments to nail the facts down at first hand in true investigative style. Yes it might throw a few pilots out of a job but too bad. Its Tough Titty. I trust they will survive and meanwhile you have a story, a terrific story—certain to bump the legend up another notch.
Fondly, from one writer to another,
Jack Spiegelman
I wonder how he responds.