In the past 5 months I have had over 3 experiences with the Burlington Police, 2 of which I was a victim of a robbery and 1 of which I was a witness of a car collision. After almost 7 years of no contact with any police in Burlington or any surrounding town, my vision and overall outlook on the police force has been completely changed.
In these past 5 months I have filed an automobile robbery in which I spoke to an officer of the Burlington Police Department, after receiving a suspicious call from a man that left me unsettled and uncomfortable to walk around the block I called back the officer but never heard from him again.
I was then a victim of another robbery, this one occurring in my boyfriends home. From the downstairs apartment laptops, ipods, cameras and money were stolen. They thieves walked through our entryway and out our front door. The Burlington Police took the air conditioner to find fingerprints, nothing has happened or been replaced, to my knowledge this has been considered just another robbery and has been filed.
On Labor Day my 4 friends were victims of a T-bone car collision. It took the Burlington Police over 30 minutes to come to the scene of the collision and as they approached they did not have their sirens or lights on.
These instances leave me wondering where are the priorities of the Burlington Police Department?
They patrol a city with almost 40,000 citizens but do they have enough officers to help maintain the safety of the citizens and find the criminals leaving the citizens unsettled? How do they maintain justice if they continue to merely file these robberies and not chase after the people with the lute of the victim? How do they maintain justice and safety when they arrive at a car collision with no alarms or sirens to show urgency? Was this T-bone car collision consisting of 4 adults and 1 child not an emergency that called for urgency?
I am writing to you in hopes to find some direction in where to take these issues. How can I make a change? How can I not feel pushed aside for the “bigger issues?”
I am asking as a citizen of Burlington for help from you, a person just like me wanting to make a difference.
Thank you for your time
I'm not sure what will happen with this or if I will even receive a response. I do know that this is a start.
It's time to start, or continue where I left off. I need to pick my writing back up, blow off the dust and keep it up. It's the only thing I can still really see myself doing. Sometimes I find myself listening to all of these people tell me about their success and I just think, 'wow, how motivated they are.' I am motivated but sometimes I am overwhelmed with this great feeling of indifference. I do not want to feel that way. I do not want to be a person that just walks through life settling with whatever job they may have that can pay the bills. Yes, it is great to have stepping stones and something to always fall back upon, because lets face it, it is not easy to find a job right now, but sometimes I wonder if I did not work both of these jobs would I be more determined to focus on my writing? Yes. So then why don't I take some time off, I silently ask myself, well because it comes down to money.
I like my lifestyle, I like my luxuries and in the roots of my soul I feel like I could do it all. Baby steps... baby steps into a professional journalism job...
Life is going well. I will be going to a Kings of Leon concert next week and taking a little vacation with Barton, which I am psyched about. Training is getting a bit grueling but nothing that I want to stop. I was sick last week and couldn't run for 3 days, I felt awful about it. Barton's dad once told me that he was addicted to running... I fear that I have acquired this same obsession. (Hey it could be worse.) I've been following Hal Higdon's guide for training and am feeling pretty great about it.
I feel that running a marathon is not such a farfetched goal anymore, at one point I thought it was absolutely ludicrous. It is rewarding to set goals and watch yourself get closer and closer to accomplishing them. Although I went to college and graduated with a degree and although I have accomplished things in my life, it was not until after I graduated that I really started recognizing goals that I wanted to accomplish and actually started watching myself struggle and succeed through them.
I still have yet to figure out what made me so oblivious to my own accomplishments throughout the years, but seize the moment, what better time than now?
So as I lay here in my own solitude after a long day of work, writing letters in hope to find justice, doing some cross-training, visiting with my parents, finishing yet another leisure read, I contemplate writing my own book, helping people across the world, finding justice in my own town and spending yet another night curled up next to him.
All my desires and aspirations float through my mind leaving me excited and serene.
Goodnight.
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