Living In
Louisville: Derby Week and Beyond - by Carla Base
Louisville, Kentucky: home to the world famous
Kentucky Derby. For two weeks or more Louisville gears up for parades, races of
all sizes and types and a huge hot air balloon event, a hospital bed race, rat
race and even an antique steamboat race! People from all over the globe come to
Louisville, KY for the most famous two and a half minutes in sports. Behind the
crowds during an awesome fireworks display and beyond the famous balloon glow
the night before the buoyant and colorful hot air balloons ascend the skies in
a unique and beautiful competition ,and behind the scenes of the paddock, can
lurk the everyday world where crime sours the fun. Pickpockets descend upon
Louisville, Kentucky, just as they do during the Indy 500 race or the other
famous sporting and statewide events that share in fame. Sad, but true, there
are groups of organized thieves who make it their business to steal from those
trying to enjoy a little fun and when the city is doing its best to honestly
earn the tourist dollars available only at that peak time of the year. Computer
operations ramp up and identities are lost.
Stolen credit cards are sold for ten dollars and
massive amounts of gift cards may be purchased with the stolen cards before
they are caught and invalidated. Every kind of scam becomes rampant when the
city takes on an air of Las Vegas. Behind the fun is a tarnished lining of
crime and corruption. It is not new, it is not the first time, and won’t be the
last. It is life in the spotlight. Drugs will be sold, arrests will be made,
stabbings will occur and shootings. Like every huge city during a normal
night, a smaller city can find itself
taking on a whole new persona than normal. Another thing that can do the same
thing aside from Derby Week, is the drug trade.
Drugs have permeated America in all of her states. Small towns are often
rife with drugs, whereas in the past, they were wholesome places to raise
families with lots of room to run and play for the kids. But in the new era
now, hidden areas of land may serve as reserves to grow drugs and store them,
sell them and distribute them in a network. Towns that in the past were nice
and small, relying mainly on farming and cattle are now riddled with arrests
for possession of heroin and labs for making meth. It is very sad indeed and
drives the rate of crime out the roof in these towns, and the residents are
serious addicts often times. You tend to think only of big cities as hotbeds of
crime and corruption, with the shootings, drive by and sheer assassinations. It can only take a high school kid one time
to buy drugs and he is known to a dealer. The next time he says NO he is noted
as a threat to their stability. He is now on the opposite side from the dealers
and if he is not buying, he may be telling. There is one way to stop the threat
and that is shooting to kill. If that same kid is willing to pay blackmail to
not enrage them, and continues to buy, he may be easy prey to be pressured for
higher stakes drugs to buy or begin to sell for them. If he does use them, he is
soon quite unavoidably addicted and becomes a literal slave who will do
anything in their power to remain a part of the occult network that now
ensnares him like a web. Organizers of the group of addicts with experience in
a little of everything on the street will suggest they pay for the drugs they
can still supply to the desperate with services, which can include organized
crime. Read the articles and come to your own conclusions. It would appear that
first there is a rash of gas station robberies, then jewelry stores as the
stakes rise, or convenience stores, and on the list goes. But there is a reason
why there is a sudden uptick in the type of robberies. It is because it is an
“education” on how to knock over a bank, a jewelry store, the higher stakes, or
the beginner’s school, the fast food restaurants. Experienced thieves can
organize young strong crowds of disenfranchised and desperate people who will
become willing to commit these crimes when confronted with need and desire for
drugs, combined with a gang mentality.
Drive by shootings almost always occur in connection with drug use or
stopping of it. They don’t always shoot the users, but punish the user by
targeting his or her family, friends and loved ones. We can, any one of us, at
any time become caught in the crossfire literally. What can we do to stop this
surge of violence and stem the tide of unbridled escalation of crime? How can
we protect ourselves when traveling to Derby events?
First: Be alert and aware of your surroundings. If you
are visiting a new town, realize you may not even know how safe of an area you
are in, and when the crowd dissipates, you may find yourself in a lot of
trouble. Don’t be in unfamiliar places outside of the crowd when you visit and
leave before it is dark.
Second: If you are in a club and drinking, ask the
waiter to give you a beer with the cap on it. You can remove it. This will
prevent drugging of the bottle. Don’t order a mixed drink in a strange town. You don’t know how you may
react and what is exactly in it. It could be one shot of whiskey or two or
three. Sometimes narcotics can be inserted. Play it safe and keep your eyes
open. It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, but don’t lose sight of safety.
Third: Be sure not to drive aggressively. If someone
on drugs is driving erratically, call in their license plate, direction and
street, and description of the car, but do NOT engage the car with hand
gestures, tooting the horn or yelling at the driver, since you could be shot.
Ignore and avoid and call it into police.
Fourth: Remember to carry a wallet (men) in your front
pocket by your dominant hand so that you may reach it quickly at all times,
even keep your hand on it. Even on a chain in the back pocket is not good
enough. Because of its position against your body, you will feel it if it
should be shifted or lifted way better there. Remember, they have thought of
everything, you are not stupid. If you do lose it, you did what you could.
Ladies with purses can keep non essential items in the purse and the money and
credit cards on your body likewise or in other places you can feel easily
and that are not obvious, but that you
will feel if touched.
Fifth: Know that holidays, parades, jamborees,
organized group events on the Great Lawn or other Derby events, or large
parties for music and entertainment always invite the unwanted thieves into
your midst by advertising to the masses. It is just a fact of life that if
everyone one is going, they will be there waiting for your tourist or
entertainment dollar. If you are simply aware of it, you really will do things
way differently. Watch everyday things you can control, too. Never put a purse
or briefcase etc. in a grocery cart even a second. Keep it on your body or lock
it in your trunk, but don’t place it in the seat of a basket unless you want to
lose your smart phone, photos, credit cards, identity and worse in addition to
an expensive purse and money and likely keys. I recommend never placing keys in
the same purse with a wallet. If they steal a wallet or purse, don’t give them
the keys AND the address!