The Lansing Fireworks last Monday was a success.  An estimated 3,000 people came to Myers Park to see the fireworks and listen to the bands, not counting those who viewed the fireworks from the water or off-site.  Burgers were consumed, a comprehensive traffic plan greatly improved egress from the park after the event, the firework show was spectacular, and a good time was had by all.

Well... almost all.  A team of four scalpers tried taking advantage of the event, selling items around the park until they were stopped by fireworks organizers with the help of Tompkins County Sheriff's Deputies.  When confronted by the event organizer these people were belligerent and lied to her.  She called them on it, then called another volunteer to get a Deputy to come down to the Community Council tent to help her deal with the situation.  The Deputy took names and escorted the scalpers out of the park.

That was a happy outcome.  The Lansing Community Council is a not for profit organization that raises money for local causes such as the Lansing Youth Services, Recreation Department scholarships, Lansing Drop-in and many other local initiatives, as well as events such as the fireworks and the Lansing Harbor Festival that celebrate the community.  The council is made up entirely of volunteers, and has been enormously successful at raising money for things people in the town want, such as the Myers Park playground and the reassembly of the County's oldest log cabin, also in Myers Park.

The council was selling 4th of July items as well as Harbor Festival T-shirts, hamburgers, hot dogs, and other items to help raise money for these initiatives.  By crashing the party and competing with the council -- without permission and without a license -- these four people were stealing from the not-for-profit and from the Lansing community at large.

It is the way of the world that there are going to be jerks that want to spoil things for the majority of people who are good, honest souls trying to make life around them better.  Look at email spam, for example, or computer viruses.  So I suppose something like scalpers at a charitable community event isn't a surprise, really.

It makes me sick that the same people who were stealing from the Lansing community were also obnoxious to the volunteers who worked for a year to pull off this event and make it a success.  The Deputy Sheriffs deserve a huge amount of credit for responding so quickly and not taking any guff from these jerks.

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