Jim Krumel: Police, a bar owner and a little common sense

Common sense tells us …If you want to operate a successful bar, the safety of your customers should be of the upmost concern. The last thing you need are people being shot in your parking lot, people being picked up for drugs, and someone from the vicinity of your bar shooting at police cars. It doesn't matter if it happens once or 100 times, it doesn't look good. A wise bar owner would do everything in his power to stop it.Common sense tells us …If a police department asks City Council to object to the renewal of a bar's liquor license, the police better be sure this bar is the worst of the lot. For example, there is a problem if the bar being targeted isn't even among the top five bars where police receive calls. There's also a problem if police have been called 47 times to the bar being targeted for closure, and 172 times to another bar during the same time frame.Common sense tells us …When police address City Council and fail to mention the facts above, it can lead someone to believe one of three things: 1) police conducted a poor investigation; 2) police were not being totally honest in presenting all the facts; 3) police were carrying out a vendetta.Common sense tells us … When there's a perception that police don't share all of the facts, it make it easier for people to believe a bar owner's claim of police staging evidence.Common sense tells us …If you are going to yell racism every time you have a disagreement with police, people are going to find you harder to believe.Common sense tells us …We should respect a Lima city councilman who has the courage to say he is going to be consistent with the way he votes, regardless of the ramifications it may have on a business owner who may be white, black, Hispanic or Asian.Common sense tells us …Whether you represent a police department or a group such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, people in a position of leadership need to be able to communicate and show respect for each other. If they no longer find that possible, it's time to step down.Common sense tells us …The Lima Police Department and NAACP leader and bar owner Jason Upthegrove need to display a little more common sense.ROSES AND THORNS: It's senior citizen power in the rose garden this week.Rose: To Juanita “Jay” Sain, of Lima. At age 98, she still works five hours a week volunteering at the St. Charles School cafeteria in Lima.Rose: The area consisting of Lima, Van Wert and Wapakoneta was the most improved area in the state for cutting down on ozone pollution, receiving a “B” grade from the American Lung Association, up from a “D” grade in 2011.Rose: At the end of ceremonies Saturday when Perry High School named its baseball field after longtime coach Phil Krouskop and dedicated a monument in honor of the late Jon Shively, Krouskop said a prayer in honor of his friend, noting that if he's lucky enough to join Shively in heaven, “You're going back to first base because I'm coaching third.”Rose: The Allen County Bar Association presented Lima City Schools Superintendent Karel Oxley with its annual Liberty Bell Award in what likely will be one of many awards that Oxley will receive before her retirement,Rose: To Jerry Gordon, of Ottawa, and Dorothy Mansfield and Gary Grant, of Continental. The trio were named outstanding senior citizens by the Putnam County Council on Aging. Thorn: About that clean audit. … Four days after Ohio Auditor David Yost's office honored the Allen Metropolitan Housing Authority for its excellent record keeping, it learned that police raided AMHA on behalf of the Ohio Ethics Commission, confiscating documents and computers.Thorn: Maybe a change of procedure is in order for a local Burger King. For the second time this year, one of its employees was robbed while making a night deposit at the Chase Bank on North West Street.Thorn: To Jethro Montgomery, who was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing nearly $13,000 from an Elida Local Schools scholarship and $162,000 from Turf Concepts, which purchased his business. Prosecutors said he used the money to travel with doctors on golf outings, a charge denied by Montgomery's attorney.Thorn: During the first three months of 2012, arrests of people driving without wearing a safety belt is up 19 percent and 503 more drivers have been arrested for driving a vehicle while impaired.PARTING SHOT: Act like a heel and you can be sure you'll be stepped on.Jim Krumel is the editor of The Lima News. To suggest a rose or thorn, contact him at jkrumel@limanews.com or The Lima News, 3515 Elida Road, Lima, Ohio 45807.