UCLA Student; Bogs and Marshes

As I was watching CSI last night, the local station, inserted about six or seven ten-second promos for the 10:00 news. Nothing unusual there, except that I find it tiresome. Plus I never watch local or national news.

However, there was a very dramatic video segment about a confrontation between a student and the campus police. My first thought was that it had to be one of the local colleges, Millsaps, in particular.

So I actually sat through the 10:00 news with the volume off until this story popped up. The college was UCLA, the video segment was at most 15 seconds, and the story was no more than 30 seconds.

For more info on the story, try the "L. A. Times" story at UCLA student stunned by Taser plans suit

Even from the original clip, I could tell it was shot using a video phone. So, of course, I knew it would wind up on YouTube. Which it did and has had over 183,000 views and over 1,200 comments.

By the way, I found the video very disturbing and unnerving.

One of the features of Jackson is the Pearl River which curls its way along the border between Hinds and Rankin counties. Most of the time, it is a shallow stream, but when it really rains, the river can go any and everywhere. There's a shopping center near the river with a restaurant that has been flooded twice. Inside the front door is a column marked according to the height of the water; one mark is at around eight feet; the other, ten.

On my way to where I have lunch, I pass through an area that appears to be in the flood plain. The ground is totally flat, and the houses appear to all be on concrete slabs.

For months, I've noticed a set of four empty houses on one side of the road that are next to high-power lines the ground underneath which is like a marsh. Last week, they started the process of moving the houses. But I'm not sure why.

Directly across the street, a new development is under construction, and the terrain has definitely not been built up. Flat, flat, flat and not a tree in sight. (Why, oh why, must builders denude the earth of growing things? When the druids come to power again, someone is going to be pissed.) I can easily see a hundred homes or more going into the area. And these houses are going up at the rate of one or two a day. Not a good sign. Construction that quick implies sloppy workmanship. And I'm almost certain that the area is in the flood plain.

Further down the road are about a half-dozen more expensive homes on very large lots. There's also a road that curves in from one side. But along it are four or five large homes unoccupied and in various states of decay. There almost a creepy feel to the area.

There is a channel between two dikes that runs through the region, but I can't figure out who it is supposed to protect since there are houses on both sides. Or is it intended to capture the overflow of the river and divert it.

Every time I go through the section, I just wonder what will happen the next time the river rises. My lunch time restaurant is off of Lakeland Drive which has built up to a staggering degree. But look a little closer, and you'll see bogs and marshes behind the construction.

PAX!