In the 1960's, if you snuck into a park at night with a girl and a bottle of beer, you were sure to encounter an officer we called the Mexican General. It didn't matter which park, what time or how remote of a spot you found, he would find you. How he could patrol all the parks at the same time was beyond comprehension.
I do not know his true heritage, except that he resembled the Mexican officer in the 1950's TV series Zorro. On the topic of heritage, the Lehigh Valley Railroad train engine heading into Canal Park above in October of 2020, is four decades beyond its real time. In 2012, Norfolk Southern painted Heritage engines in the colors of the different former lines absorbed into the current east coast carrier.
If the officer mentioned above really was Mexican and Spanish speaking, he would certainly have his hands full today in Allentown parks, especially Canal Park on the weekends. Hundreds of people from New Jersey have made the park a destination. The time has come for Allentown to close the parks past a certain time of day. An alternative would be to hire 500 more police officers.
Mayor Tuerk has scheduled a news conference today on the parks....Tomorrow I'll tell you what he got wrong.
reprinted from July of 2025
ADDENDUM JUNE 5, 2026: It is my understanding that the mayor is away on another conference. It is also my understanding that we're in for a warm weekend, and I suppose a busy Canal Park.
Yes.. 500 more officers... to be assigned to traffic control!!! One takes his life in his hands by merely driving in this looney toons city.... The greater part of the city sounds like Indy on race day.
ReplyDelete…and another kid gunned down, shot to death in the once All American City, and another inane response from an administration that is totally incapable of addressing youth crime and violence.
ReplyDeleteNow someone stabbed in the neck on W. Allen St.
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