Thank a Police Officer

It's Thank a Police Officer Day. To all of our BCPD, Shreveport PD, BPSO & CPSO officers, and to all in our extended area, thank you for your service to our communities.

Under the radar: School Board cuts crucial funding to classrooms

The Bossier Parish School Board made some cuts at their last meeting that will directly affect students and teachers. They voted to cut the parish per-student funds from $38 to $29. At the same meeting, technology was cut from $20 to $15, student fees from $10 to $8 and copier fees from $8 to $6.
For some schools, this may not have a drastic effect due to the affluence of the areas they serve. Benton Middle School raised $4,000 at a Sonic Night fundraiser, for example. Parkway, Airline and probably Haughton schools are capable of raising funds in their areas. Plain Dealing and Bossier High School, probably not so much.
Teachers copy allowances have been cut drastically, most teachers are having to pony up out of their own pockets just to make copies for class.
Of course, voters turned down propositions for employee raises and for technology. The main reason I heard at the time that the raises were denied was that the system was too top heavy, that if the money could go to teachers and lower tier employees, the vote would have been switched.
That, at least, is an out for the Board. They didn’t pay attention to the sentiment of the vote when they gave Superintendent D. C. Machen a $50,000 per year raise. I’m not saying that he should not be paid more in line with neighboring districts, this isn’t aimed at him. 
It is aimed at the Board for giving the Superintendent a raise that by itself exceeds the average income of Bossier Parish households at the same time that crucial classroom expenses are being cut.
I went to the School website to check the minutes of the meeting, but the last minutes posted are for August 1st.  It will be interesting to see who voted yea and nay.
A School Board special election is coming up in october for Dr. Brigham’s seat. It will be interesting to see what those candidates think of the cuts. Someone needs to ask them.
I volunteer. More later!

3000 Flags

For 3000 people. On Beckett Street across from City Hall.

This and That

I know it's been a while since I posted anything, just a little case of being burned out. I have been keeping up with Funny Bone Guy's rants (or FBG, as it has been shortened for convenience).

FBG is pretty entertaining. I've quit deleting his posts since no one takes them seriously at all. 

I was very happy to learn that I own a high-rise office building on Airline. I've never seen a high-rise on Airline, it must have gone up quickly, and I really would like to know where it is. Clue me in, FBG.

We have some interesting races coming up next year, mostly the Judicial ones. I have a feeling that will be a free for all. I'll look at them soon.

Anyway, the blog is back.

As a side note, Bill Moore had asked me when I was going to start blogging again. I had no idea that the next blog post I put up after he asked would be one about his passing.

Bill, I hope you're looking down on us, and on this blog, Cartman will live on forever.

Bill Moore

I was shocked to learn of the death of Bill Moore. I first met Bill a couple of years ago, although I already felt that I knew him somewhat. Bill was one of the good guys, smart, funny and had a great personality. 

He commented often on My Bossier using the name Cartman. Bill and I kept up on Facebook, interacting pretty much daily along with our friend Andy and a couple of other 'regulars'. 

Some of you will remember Bill from Benton High School, where he taught math after he retired from the Air Force.

Bill was very proud of his son Mike, with good reason. His granddaughter Sara was the apple of his eye; he loved being a grandpa.

Bill is survived by his wife, Gin, Mike, Sara and daughter-in-law Carrie. His full obituary will be in the paper in the next day or so. Visitation will be Thursday evening and the funeral Friday morning at Rose-Neath Bossier.

Bill, you will truly be missed. The world is a better place because you were here.

Happy Fourth of July

Celebrate the day. Give thanks for what our forefathers established for us in this country, and for the sacrifices made to keep it.
Listen to our official 'national march', The Stars and Stripes Forever, written by John Philip Sousa, who was appropriately enough the leader of the Marine Band.
He wrote the march in 1896 on Christmas day, on a ship headed back to the U.S. after a long European vacation. He said that he was homesick, and was thinking about the flag flying over the White House. 

My Bossier Buy, Sell & Trade Page on Facebook

For all of Bossier Parish, if you're on Facebook go join the group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/516885078378875/

Council says farewell to Jones, Hanisee

Tommy Harvey was sworn in to replace Larry Hanisee on the Bossier City Council. Harvey replaces Hanisee on his 2nd attempt at the office. Hanisee served previously and was elected the last time to fill the term of Chubby Knight. I have every confidence that Councilman Harvey will serve his consituents well.
Jeff Free has some big shoes to fill. He replaces David Jones, who decided to step down after 16 years. I believe he will do well.
Bossier City is all about growth and infrastructure, and the council has done the job. There have been criticisms for some individual projects, but on the whole the city is not only keeping up, but is ahead of the curve.
David Jones has been a key player in infrastructure, probably more so than any other individual council member. He also fought hard to keep Public Safety funded at a good level, and tried to get raises for unclassified city employees. Well deserved raises, by the way.
He deserves a thank you from the citizens of Bossier City for a job well done.
I'm not ignoring Larry Hanisee, he also deserves thanks for serving, he just didn't have the time to achieve very much in this abbreviated term.
It hasn't been all roses and rainbows, however. What I consider to be the council's biggest mistake was the Walker Place debacle. I think it could have worked out early and amicably, but pride and egos got involved and it ended up in a (pardon my language) pissing contest that the council was destined to lose. Maybe if faced with a similar situation in the future, the council will act in a more prudent manner. 
As Kenny Rogers said, 'you have to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them'.
Overall, the City is in good hands.

Bullying trial takes on new significance

The bullying trial of Jason Thomas has been dragging on for a couple of years now in Bossier District Court.  Thomas was originally charged with cyber bullying against Danielle Cox, a minor.

‘ur not important’

On January 24^th, 2011, one of Danielle’s friends had posted Danielle’s number on Facebook and asked that her friends text her and tell her not to kill herself. Rather than offering help, the state alleges that Thomas used a program called ClamTXT to send multiple messages to Danielle’s phone, each purporting to come from a different person. The messages read ‘I won’t miss u’, ‘ur not important’ and ‘just end it all’.

On January 25^th Danielle ingested an excessive amount of medication in a suicide attempt. She survived.

In February Thomas was arrested on the Cyber Bullying charge. On May 20^th, 2011, Danielle did kill herself. The charge was amended to Criminal Assistance to Suicide.

There will be a status hearing on Tuesday to see if the case is ready to go to trial. I’ll keep everyone posted on that. 

I’m not going into any detail on the most recent bully related suicides, but will note that both occurred very recently.

Two more students are victims

In light of two more suicides that are bully related, this case does take on new significance. What I’m about to say isn’t accusatory, but facts are facts. 

A bad problem exists, and it is centered around South Bossier, Elm Grove Middle School and Parkway High School.  The Parkway band can’t make overnight trips for the next two years because of an incident that happened in April. Eight band members simulated a sex act on a freshman boy against his will as the students were walking to the bus. That is co-incidental to the suicides, and not nearly as serious, but it does reflect the culture that exists where bullying seems to have some acceptance.

Part of the solution

Obviously, something has to be done. As I said, I’m not being accusatory and blaming the schools for children killing themselves; I’m not saying that the schools are the cause of the problem.

However, they certainly need to be part of the solution. Something has to be done, and it will take people uniting and forcing action.

We’ll delve into this deeper in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, to find out more, you can go to Facebook and check out these two pages:

Smiles for Danielle

South Bossier Anti-BullyingCoalition

Something has to be done, and it will take people uniting and forcing action.

Funny Bone Guy wants to turn me in to the FBI

If you have followed the blog at all, you have doubtless seen comments on several threads from someone we have identified as the ‘Funny Bone Guy’. As I told him, and will repeat again, I have no knowledge whatever of the incident he is talking about. Apparently he feels he was mistreated by BCPD, and alleges a cover-up going all the way up to the Mayor’s office.
I finally started moderating comments so that he couldn’t disrupt everything that was posted. He has left some comments, which I have not published. Here they are, all in one blog post.
Comment from Normal Person: Funny bone guy please go away. Your now telling another story about BCPD that does not make any sense. No one believes you. Why can’t you get that?
Reply from Funny Bone Guy: I would tell the cops name, but he wants to be my friend and I don't care who thinks I am telling the truth. You know I'm Not the Detective no one wanted to work with. You should have never said anything about your imaginary friend Timmy. And if I am not honest why does the mayor hide from. You know ***** you could put your trailer house in my Den.
Reply from Funny Bone Guy: I don't care if you believe me or not, you probably know the cop ***** or *****. I know one of the Detectives told me you didn't go to work with ******** by choice.
Reply from Funny Bone Guy: I can tell your a pig. Your right the BCPD has no officers that lie, falsify police reports, right BJ never, arrest the wrong person, on purpose, because of public pressure, shoot and kill and unarmed man that has bipolar, instead of jumping back into their police car. other than those things, they are perfect. I am in talks with the Department of justice, and I think they are going to help me, with those Honest, Christian BCPD employees did I say Christian
So I made a joke at one point in a misguided attempt to lighten it up.
Jim: It’s like the thing I saw on Facebook: Chuck Norris got pulled over one time. He let the cop go with a warning.
Reply from Funny Bone Guy: why is that so many people say you suck as a DA?
(I have no idea what that means)
Comment from Normal Person: Good blog.
Reply from Funny Bone Guy: The Mayor sure protects the BCPD on Police Week
And now the final reply from Funny Bone Guy on my weak Chuck Norris joke: 
Reply from Funny Bone Guy: Jim I checked on what you said about getting one email, I have about 12 emails that I sent you during the funny bone charges, Looks like you are going to get to talk to the justice dept also. 
Remember, these are comments from Funny Bone Guy that were not published. After the last one, I decided I just had to do this blog post.
I have checked back and only find one email, which was a copy of a letter to Mayor Walker demanding that everyone involved be given a polygraph test.
Okay, I don’t remember them, but lets pretend that I did have more over the last couple of years and just didn’t consider them something I was interested in. That happens sometimes, although I generally answer all of my emails.
Just to clarify this with Funny Bone Guy – you say I got emails from you, I say I don’t recall them, so you are going to turn me in to the Federal authorities for that? What? 
Funny Bone, you really are a special kind of special, aren’t you?
(I am opening up comments again, but I will delete any comment that makes slanderous remarks about anyone, or names any names of police officers who can’t speak out to defend themselves from attacks.)