City store owner shouldn’t complain about brick thrower

City shop owner Paula Fargo recently wrote a commentary in which she whined piteously about the emotional trauma she now endures because some man threw a brick through her plate glass window (“My company’s window and faith in Baltimore were shattered 10 days ago,” Dec. 18). She laments that Baltimore police didn’t do enough, didn’t call her since her phone number was posted somewhere on a remaining window and complains that police didn’t follow through and call the city services to clean up the glass on the sidewalk.

How is it that people who for 40 years have enjoyed the success their business is afforded by an excellent metropolitan location, such as the historic 300 block of Charles Street, do not believe any urban misfortune should ever befall them? And then can go on, as this writer does, to criticize the police officers whom she acknowledges responded in less than an hour to the report of a broken window, as if our city had no other more important criminal activity going on in the area?

Maybe in some rural Mayberry, the small-town police search the front of buildings looking for owners’ phone numbers to call them personally, informing them of vandalism to their shops. In downtown Baltimore, in this millennium, business and shop owners need to invest in cameras and alarms, possibly a priority over plate glass window designs. To expect the city police to be one’s eyes, ears and informants, not to mention facilitate having the glass on the sidewalk in front of their shop cleaned up, is the height of uninformed entitlement.

Second, from the long, protracted description of the brick thrower and his return to the scene of the crime, the man is obviously mentally imbalanced. There are many sick and suffering people out in the public arena, particularly in the cities. The poor and destitute suffer greatly at the present time and are in want of common comforts.

A word of solace to the shop owner: It is unfortunate that you had an interruption to your weekend time off. But please keep in mind that police are frequently denied the same. And it was a shame the lovely holiday gifts for customers were damaged, but I’m sure you have insurance. And take heart. A Baltimore glass company was there pronto due to your location, and the brick thrower, ironically, didn’t take anything from the shop.

I am reminded of the quote: “The poor you have with you always.”