A wolf in sheep's clothing

On any given afternoon, I have to make the trek from downtown Lowell to my house, which is just north of the Tyngsboro bridge. It is in this time-frame that I question which brain trust is handling my hard-earned tax dollars. To simply pass by the Franco American School and make a turn on the green arrow would send jolts of serotonin directly to my brain at this point. "Why?" you ask. It would seem like the obvious course of events: following the signals and moving with the understood flow of traffic. Alas, there is an ant in the Jell-O, an unwanted visitor at our motorized picnic. Traffic cops.

Waving flags and halting cars, the Big Blue succeed in interrupting what was once a working system. To give you an idea of the problems that occur when you add these overpaid and over-inflated targets into the mix, I will lay down the course of events as they unfolded last Tuesday on a typical journey home from school.

Intersection of Pawtucket St. and School St: I sit in a line of traffic coming from the downtown area. Three other lines of traffic come to a head making a snow-flake of aggravation. I finally make my way to the front; the bridge is just feet away. A police officer stands in the center of this circus. The group to my left gets the wave. Ten cars trudge through. The group in front of me is then signaled to make their way across. To my right, another wave. Okay, so it's my turn. I've waited patiently, just like the rest. I look hopefully at the cop and he waves along the first line of cars. Yes, the one he already let pass, our friends to the left. I blink and look again. This is not an oversight on his part, he did not simply forget that he had already let this line of cars pass through. No. Two cars from the front of this line-cutting crew is his buddy in a unmarked police car. I have yet to move an inch. They wave to each other and grin as I am now late for work .

These officers are biting the hand that feeds them. The salary of a police officer in Lowell is between 35,600 and $59,880, all of this money coming from Massachusetts taxes. They may not realize this initially, I am losing 15 minutes of work, 15 taxed minutes of work, which means that they are losing money. Perhaps this is karma, and we are but a caravan of sacrificial lambs. Or better still, sheep, lining up and dumbly waiting for the herders to usher us through traffic. Looks like it's my turn to go, or perhaps theirs.