So last night (Sunday), - one of my kids took me out to dinner over by McKinley Mall. As we headed home into Orchard Park about 8PM, we pulled up to the light eastbound on US 20A at Abbott.
As we did, I could see a car halfway hidden behind a fence sitting in the Uber lot near New Era Field. And I’m thinking, - that’s an unmarked cop. And sure as shit, it was.
I didn’t care as I hadn’t been drinking, and I knew my car was all good. But I thought,- there will be a checkpoint ahead. And just over the horizon, there was. They had a few cars pulled over, of course!
Gee, could it be near the end of the month (July 29th), and Chief Mark Paholec and his band of merry men haven’t squeezed enough money out of the unsuspecting populace? Not enough overtime this month, Pacholec?
Of course, the cop at US 20A & Abbott was just there to go after anyone who dared turn off and away from the checkpoint... And he wasn’t the only one. On the other side of the checkpoint before California Road, there was a female OPPD Officer sitting on her ass, hiding behind a pine tree on a rock with her handheld radio in hand to call in anyone who dared turn off before entering the checkpoint from the westbound side.
Orchard Park used to be a nice little town with a total of 4 cop cars that divided the town into quadrants to patrol. You used to know all of the cops personally as they were out and about in the town, friendly, and readily visible.
Under Pacholec, they have turned the town into a near police state that generates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year toward the police department’s multi million dollar budget. The cops drive around in the blacked out cars that keep you from recognizing any of them, and they have a shitload of vehicles: from ordinary cop cars and a bunch of unmarked cars, to full blown police interceptor SUV’s,- both marked and unmarked. Because,- you know they need those police interceptor vehicles to catch those heavy duty criminals speeding though town while doing 35 in the ridiculous 30MPH zones everywhere! Pretty sure we have a SWAT vehicle as well. Oh yeah, can’t forget that overworked detective bureau either! And the DARE officer and his car too... Oh, and the Lt. whose job it is to keep an eye on the mental cases in town, and check on them to make sure they are on their meds and not killing their parents...
Now, we even have a dork bicycle mounted division of two officers who patrol the tiny little village section in pairs wearing shorts and blue shirts! They really remind me of the two bike cops in the movie “Men at Work”. They ride around the village from the OPPD Police fortress at town hall, north on North Buffalo Street to Taylor Road, all of about 1/4 of a mile, and back to the station, because, you know,- all of that massive crime wave in our perfect little Stepford Wives type village,- where music is piped out over speakers on the perfect little light poles that line the village streets.
Pacholec himself rarely leaves his closed up little fortress of an office with its’ windows that are shuttered closed 24/7/365, (and their bullet resistant glass customer window where all who enter the OPPD.lobby for any reason whatsoever must provide ID and have a police report logged regarding their “visit”) except to go in front of tv cameras whenever he can, or when he has to go sit on the dias at OP town meetings and try to look important. Probably spends his days counting his roughly $150K salary and thinking up more ways to expand his little fiefdom / anti 2A / police state.
The people who live in Buffalo’s crime ridden East Side who were complaining about all of the checkpoints in their neighborhood have nothing to complain about compared to Orchard Park! We have checkpoints all of the time,- whenever and wherever they can set them up. Of course, most of the cop cars are equipped with license plate readers, and super low profile or hidden light bar systems in order to sneak up on the vast criminal elements living here. You know the types,- the people who might forget to put their left turn signal light on at the village intersection of US 20A and Buffalo St.!
And if you think I’m kidding about the money grubbing aspects of Pacholec’s revenuer’s, try showing up at Orchard Park town hall on any given Tuesday afternoon / evening when Court is in session. The line of people waiting to pay up can get ridiculously long. Want to get even more disgusted? Go through the metal detector, enter court, and watch the charade as people run the gauntlet from town prosecutor to judge to clerk as they get fleeced.
Do yourself a favor: if you don’t want to get fleeced, stay out of OP.
Actually, the same thing also happens in the Town of Darien, NY, home to the Six Flags amusement park and concert venue formerly known as Darien Lake. (See my other comment below).
As for me, I’ll be out shortly!
Edit: OK, I’ll refer to them as “checkpoints” from now on...
As we did, I could see a car halfway hidden behind a fence sitting in the Uber lot near New Era Field. And I’m thinking, - that’s an unmarked cop. And sure as shit, it was.
I didn’t care as I hadn’t been drinking, and I knew my car was all good. But I thought,- there will be a checkpoint ahead. And just over the horizon, there was. They had a few cars pulled over, of course!
Gee, could it be near the end of the month (July 29th), and Chief Mark Paholec and his band of merry men haven’t squeezed enough money out of the unsuspecting populace? Not enough overtime this month, Pacholec?
Of course, the cop at US 20A & Abbott was just there to go after anyone who dared turn off and away from the checkpoint... And he wasn’t the only one. On the other side of the checkpoint before California Road, there was a female OPPD Officer sitting on her ass, hiding behind a pine tree on a rock with her handheld radio in hand to call in anyone who dared turn off before entering the checkpoint from the westbound side.
Orchard Park used to be a nice little town with a total of 4 cop cars that divided the town into quadrants to patrol. You used to know all of the cops personally as they were out and about in the town, friendly, and readily visible.
Under Pacholec, they have turned the town into a near police state that generates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year toward the police department’s multi million dollar budget. The cops drive around in the blacked out cars that keep you from recognizing any of them, and they have a shitload of vehicles: from ordinary cop cars and a bunch of unmarked cars, to full blown police interceptor SUV’s,- both marked and unmarked. Because,- you know they need those police interceptor vehicles to catch those heavy duty criminals speeding though town while doing 35 in the ridiculous 30MPH zones everywhere! Pretty sure we have a SWAT vehicle as well. Oh yeah, can’t forget that overworked detective bureau either! And the DARE officer and his car too... Oh, and the Lt. whose job it is to keep an eye on the mental cases in town, and check on them to make sure they are on their meds and not killing their parents...
Now, we even have a dork bicycle mounted division of two officers who patrol the tiny little village section in pairs wearing shorts and blue shirts! They really remind me of the two bike cops in the movie “Men at Work”. They ride around the village from the OPPD Police fortress at town hall, north on North Buffalo Street to Taylor Road, all of about 1/4 of a mile, and back to the station, because, you know,- all of that massive crime wave in our perfect little Stepford Wives type village,- where music is piped out over speakers on the perfect little light poles that line the village streets.
Pacholec himself rarely leaves his closed up little fortress of an office with its’ windows that are shuttered closed 24/7/365, (and their bullet resistant glass customer window where all who enter the OPPD.lobby for any reason whatsoever must provide ID and have a police report logged regarding their “visit”) except to go in front of tv cameras whenever he can, or when he has to go sit on the dias at OP town meetings and try to look important. Probably spends his days counting his roughly $150K salary and thinking up more ways to expand his little fiefdom / anti 2A / police state.
The people who live in Buffalo’s crime ridden East Side who were complaining about all of the checkpoints in their neighborhood have nothing to complain about compared to Orchard Park! We have checkpoints all of the time,- whenever and wherever they can set them up. Of course, most of the cop cars are equipped with license plate readers, and super low profile or hidden light bar systems in order to sneak up on the vast criminal elements living here. You know the types,- the people who might forget to put their left turn signal light on at the village intersection of US 20A and Buffalo St.!
And if you think I’m kidding about the money grubbing aspects of Pacholec’s revenuer’s, try showing up at Orchard Park town hall on any given Tuesday afternoon / evening when Court is in session. The line of people waiting to pay up can get ridiculously long. Want to get even more disgusted? Go through the metal detector, enter court, and watch the charade as people run the gauntlet from town prosecutor to judge to clerk as they get fleeced.
Do yourself a favor: if you don’t want to get fleeced, stay out of OP.
Actually, the same thing also happens in the Town of Darien, NY, home to the Six Flags amusement park and concert venue formerly known as Darien Lake. (See my other comment below).
As for me, I’ll be out shortly!
Edit: OK, I’ll refer to them as “checkpoints” from now on...
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