I'm also quite angry that the New Year's celebrations are being allowed to take place tonight in downtown Appleton with open support from the Appleton Police Department in full knowledge that the events are taking place in violation of city ordinance.

The organizers of the events failed to apply for the proper permits before the deadlines had passed. The police department - going beyond their power - decided to allow the events to take place as long as the organizers paid the fine for failing to have the permits. That's bullshit! Their only job is to enforce the laws, not to interpret or create laws.

What the police department should be doing tonight is closing off City Park and all other known venues for the events to keep people from entering an illegal event. This would be exactly in line with how they dealt with a party - a much smaller event at that - that was to have taken place in Telulah Park back in September. In that case, the city returned the deposit made by the planners to reserve the park and then shut down the entire park for the day to ensure that the party did not go on illegally.

Unfortunately, the police department here in Appleton, just like all other police departments, picks and chooses which laws they want to enforce, when they want to enforce them, on whom they want to enforce them, and which laws they want to break themselves. It's quite a common occurence to drive around Appleton and see police officers breaking laws themselves - everything from speeding to running red lights. It's also quite common to see the members of the Appleton Police Department watch and allow middle-aged and elderly citizens break laws, but in the event that a teenager so much as looks at a police officer cockeyed the officer is busy ticketing the teen for any possible charge they can find.

One of my personal favorite incidents involving Chief Richard Myers dates back a few years when the Post-Crescent broke news that really wasn't news to anyone - that the Appleton Police Department has a quota system. In the article, Dicky M. swore up and down that Appleton didn't have a quota system. The real kicker came a day or two later when Dick officially announced in the paper that the police department was going to suspend their quota system. Suspend? You were so adamant just 2 days earlier that you had no quota system. Alas, because Dick's a Republican, just like about 99% of the other people in this town, nobody called him on it and we all went along merrily. That's basically what is happening with the event tonight also.

What this town needs is a shake-up. We need some third-party politics to enter into the arena and help to disassemble the stronghold that the Republican party has built locally. Don't get me wrong - I think we need a little Republican influence as well - but when the entire area is dominated by Republican agendas it soon creates conflicts of interest and hypocrisy as there are no checks and balances of power. Northeast Wisconsin is essentially dominated by one party, and that's hardly the democratic way.