Noble Wray is the acting chief of Madison police. \Acting"" means the real chief quit, and Noble is just filling in.
But you can interpret ""acting"" however you'd like.
Noble wants to be the real chief. So do a few other people.
Noble also wants to spend more city resources catching underage drinkers. He wants to find all of them and give them larger fines for the harm they inflict upon the city. He'd like to up the price for criminals using fake IDs to buy alcohol or get into Madison taverns. Ideally, Noble pretty much wants any underage person caught with alcohol to receive maximum penalties for their actions. Noble Wray has some big plans.
I got my first fake ID many years ago, when I was five. It was a Kentucky ID, and belonged to my aunt Angie until she turned 21. When I was five, I would bar-hop with Aunt Angie. It was a blast. No one ever questioned my ID. I guess I must have made a pretty convincing twenty-something from Kentucky. I'd like to say a lot's changed since then. But instead I change the subject.
A few years later, my aunt and I settled down a bit. She started a family and I took a few years off from the bars to attend Catholic high school. It was kind of a blur. Then, I came to college.
Though I don't have that Kentucky fake drivers license anymore, I still like to bar-hop. My favorite time to hop is on a warm evening with just a hint of a crisp summer breeze, so I can wear a real short skirt. I have a roommate who likes short skirts too. We make a lot of noise on our way to the bars in our big, funny shoes and short skirts. Sometimes when we get to a bar, we meet up with some underage people. They're usually pretty nice. Sometimes we order a pitcher of beer and play darts. It's almost always a real good time.
But walking home is usually not a good time. In fact, it's a pretty awful time. Sometimes when I walk home, a perfectly of-age person grabs my arm. Once, a nasty old man held me and didn't let me go until I said some terrible things that I didn't really want to say. Once, one of my friends got punched. Another handed over a week's worth of pay at knifepoint. A lot of times, worse things happen.
I'm starting to like going to bars better when it's raining, even though it's harder to walk in my silly shoes. When it's raining, no one yells at me on the way home. No one tries to grab me or push me either. I guess people who do that stuff don't have umbrellas. Or ponchos.
Noble Wray is the acting police chief of Madison. That means Noble's got some power. Noble says he sees a problem-and he's going to fix it.
I guess we should feel a little safer. Once Noble gets the underage kids out of the bars, there will be less illegal activity in our city. I bet the newspapers will talk about that. I bet someone will pat him on the back. Maybe he'll even get to be the real police chief.
That's great for Noble. I hope it makes him happy.
I also hope it rains. A lot.
Emily Winter us a junior majoring in sociology and journalism. She can be reached at ewinter@wisc.edu.
