I don’t know how old one has to be to recall the original Dragnet television show starring Jack Webb and Ben Alexander. It was a cop show that cut to the no-nonsense quick of the case at hand. As the duo of Joe Friday and partner Frank Smith pursued the case they cautioned every potential witness that they were interested in the facts, nothing but the facts. It was straight police work and at the end of the show, they always had their man in cuffs.
Janet and I watch lots of police dramas, especially from the British Commonwealth. What most have in common is a required amount of police drama coupled with way too much relationship drama. There’s the distraught wife who’s pissed because the hubby loves the job more than her. There’s the angst-ridden teenager whose life is ruined because dad the cop wasn’t there when his first pimple ripened.
Riker’s Island is a jail that sits on an island in NY’s East River. It is not a prison, it is a facility where those charged, like Stone, are sent if they are unable to meet their bail. It can hold 15,000 inmates and is the 2nd largest jail/prison in America. Most of those in Riker’s have not been tried but are awaiting trial. They could be locked up for months and in the meantime, unlike Stone, end up with their jobs gone, their cars repossessed, their family’s destitute, children put in foster care, etc. They will probably suffer complete financial collapse even before their guilt or innocence is determined.
With this in mind you can imagine how stupefied I was in learning last evening that the US Department of Defense can’t account for $21 trillion dollars. Yeah, that’s trillion with a “T”.