crime is on the rise

**Nana2two** · 02-18-2009, 12:10 AM

I live in a small town,only 2 police officers. But i have been reading the big newspaper about crimes thats going on.Its getting bad. I dont even go to the large town any more by myself.People are getting knocked in the head for groceries. Oh my gosh just cant grasp the thought of someone stealing my food..

**Debbie-cat** · 02-18-2009, 12:13 AM

I think it will just get worse before it gets better. When we head to Duluth to do major shopping ... you see so many people sleeping in their cars. It is scary!

**pollypurebred39** · 02-18-2009, 01:27 AM

Just 20 minutes from where I live, where my Sister and her family reside the streets are filled with the homeless. The public library is filled with the homeless from opening till closing. Crime is out of control. A man was shot to death in a drive by shooting 2 blocks from my sisters home. Someone tried to pick pocket her while pushing her stroller to the store.

In the opposite direction about 8 mins. away lives my friend. Not all that long ago a man was taking food out of his car and was mugged. Hit in the head with a brick. The blood was all over my friends stoop but they would not let her wash it off till they were completely done investigating.

Where do I live? Small town Pa. A one stop light town in fact. Crime here in this tiny town is increasing also. Where my son works they are robbed blind every single day, and it goes across the generations. He said the elderly are hitting them hard in theft! His store was robbed at gun point (thank God he was not working that day)

I don't think any towns are immune, but just 25 years ago both of the above towns (not my town) I talked about were safe family towns. Now both (my sister's and my friends towns) are over run with poverty. Poverty breeds crime, drugs, working girls, ect. Sad that poverty is a excuse for bad behavior. My Grandmother had 13 children and was extremely poor and never once committed a crime to feed her children or pay the bills. I also grew up extremely poor and my Mother never committed a crime to feed us or pay the bills back in the bad economy of the "70's" Remember those odd and even gas lines? I remember sitting in long gas lines and people running out of gas while waiting in line and pushing their car to the pump! My mother went on strike during that time, we were without any cash flow. My mother baby sat, baked cakes for people, cleaned peoples houses, ect. Everything and anything she could do. She learned that from her Mom. people deciding that it is okay to commit crimes just because they are down and out is a reflection of the decline of morality in our society.

**thefrug** · 02-18-2009, 05:51 AM

It's also the easy court system. Slaps on the wrist for repeat offenders. I say put them on a work gang and let em sweat a good bit, work em from sun up to sun down and they may think twice about doing some of the things they do.
Then you have the kid's music who glamour-ize the "gangster" lifestyle. It's cool to have a gun and hold it sideways and shoot at people because the looked at you. Give me a break!
Some people are getting desperate. In a town an hour away from where I live a man threw a cement block thru the windshield of a police cruiser because he wanted to go to jail. He was tired of being on the street and was hungry and cold.
IMO, it's only going to get worse. There won't be enough jobs from the "stimulus" package to go around and there won't be any money for the influx of people needing food and shelter because they lost their home. Throwing money at the situation is just a bandaid to stop the flow. It's like trying pop the clutch to jump start a car. It doesn't always work.
All we can do is be more observant of our surroundings and those around us.
When your representative in the Senate or Congress doesn't really live in the "real" world, nothing will be done to really fix anything. If they lost all their money coming in for a year, I believe we would see a big change in the way things are done.

**Dancing Lotus** · 02-18-2009, 07:26 AM

IF is a fact that crime rises when people are starving. I consider myself a moral and law abiding citizens but if all else fails and my children need food I don't know what I might do.

**Patty A** · 02-18-2009, 08:29 AM

I to abide by the law, but when it comes to children going hungry and crying from not having enough to eat I know I would be looking for a way to feed my kids. That being said, I know the first thing I would do would be to hunt for food. But again, that is breaking the law!
To hunt anything out of season is against the law no matter how hungry someone is.
I think people do things when times are hard that they wouldn't normally do, and with things being so hard right now I think we have only started seeing the rise in crime. I have a feeling it will get worse before it gets better! Sad as that is to say, there are more and more people that are going hungry. No jobs means no way to earn money to buy food. I think with things the way they are right now crime will be on the rise nation wide, and the main reason will be hunger.

**lmbaker520** · 02-18-2009, 08:41 AM

Crime is on the rise in my area of VA too. My BIL is a cop for our city and he said that they are getting more and more calls for break ins. They have also had people in our area going around and "selling" stuff door to door when they are really scoping out the house for robbing it later. The news has reported to keep an eye out for this.

I also agree that it is going to get worse before it gets better. I will do what I need to do to protect my family and the food that I have stockpiled for them.

**YankeeMom** · 02-18-2009, 09:14 AM

There have been an increase in shoplifting and burglaries around here. They even had a news piece on it right around Christmas time.

**Spikey1341** · 02-18-2009, 10:16 AM

We have a local infamous felon who has been in and out of jail so many times you cannot count. Once was a murder charge but it ended in a mistrial and they never re-tried it. It is almost assured he is a gang banger. Well after his last robbery the judge decided to try something new. He sentenced him to go to church. CAN YOU BELEIVE IT!!!!!

Just recently he robbed a house and was in a police chase, with icy roads he drove the SUV into a tree. The passenger was killed, the guy in the back seat was badly injured and he had minor injuries. He is back in jail again awaiting trial. Now he is facing robbery and involuntary manslauter.

When they spoke to the pastor about his latest endeavour he said that the guy had been attending church regularly and fulfilled his sentence and then he just fell back in with the wrong crowd.

GIVE ME A FREAKIN BREAK!!!

Hopefully this time they lock him up and throw away the key.

There has been an increase in gang activity around here and with budget cuts it doesn't look like it is going to get much better. They used to have a gang task force and really cleaned up the place. Then due to the budget they cut the task force and it has reared it's ugly head again.

I know more and more kids are going to the gangs to make money.

**rainbowgc** · 02-18-2009, 12:09 PM

We had a prowler Friday night, thank goodness for my little Yorkie alert dog! Then Monday I read there was a break in and Grand Theft one block over. Also let me recommend this type of purse - the one I will show you is at staples on clearance but you can find others like it. I use this style because I have a lame left shoulder. It is a across the body style.
Here is the link:http://www.staples.com/office/suppli...P4371:CL163479

**Sassyclass** · 02-18-2009, 02:06 PM

Ok I'm going to probably catch some heat on this one but here are a couple of my solutions.1. Get a gun and use it if need be!!! The criminals are sure to have one. 2.Get rid of the dead weight we are feeding, clothing, and keeping healthy on death row!!!3. Get rid of our space program!!!! We can't treat our own planet right what makes anyone think we will do it on another planet? Use some of the money our government wastes on "How cow farts effect the ozone" for real issues like providing food, shelter, and medical care for those who have WORKED all their life and now need help from the government that is supposed to be ""For the people".
Me personally, I will earn what I get and I will fight to the death for me and mine.

Cat

**imagine** · 02-18-2009, 02:16 PM

Wow! I know they say that times like theses cause an increase in crime.

We were told to expect the increase in crime when the factory here closed and tons lost their jobs. The reality was crime rate here actually went down.

**pollypurebred39** · 02-18-2009, 02:25 PM

I agree in doing what you have to, but that for me would be knocking on the doors of my neighbors and asking for food for my kids, going to church soup kitchens, and horrors as much as I would not want to applying for food stamps. I'd do whatever I had to short of stealing, But you bet I'd hunt if I had to. People do around here all the time, gotta fed your family you know? I'd rather people do that then feeling they were justified taking something that did not belong to them because they were in need. I've been so poor in my life that I've fed my kid and gone hungry, had holes in the bottoms of my shoes, didn't have a coat for Winter for 2 seasons straight becase someone stole mine, and I didn't steal. There are choices in life, being poor is no excuse to commit crime. I do think things are going to get worse, but I do not except that as an excuse. I've been there, I've walked more than a mile in those shoes.

**madhen** · 02-18-2009, 02:30 PM

Speaking from the law enforcement side of the house, criminals tend to go after victims. The little "McGruff" lectures you get from your local Officer Friendly are really true: outdoor lights, lock your doors, put up a sign that your house is alarmed (even if it isn't), all of these are great deterrents. Crooks want "soft" targets. They don't want to have to work for their rewards.

I don't know if there are any statistics to prove it, but I suspect the neighborhoods with "Neighborhood Watch" signs up have less trouble than those that don't.

As for me, because I live in a very rural area, closed gates and locked doors tend to dissuade people from checking out my property to see if there is anything worth stealing. While I don't really think my one neighbor within shouting distance would steal from me, I don't leave anything out that would tempt him, either.

**Nana2two** · 02-18-2009, 03:07 PM

In the big town that im talking about its the drugs and gangs. People that are doing the crime is not doing it for there kids because there hungry, They do it for there hunger for drugs.They arrested some last week that has been arrested 15 times for drug charges ,robbery, retail thift.Half of these people have no clue who there kids are, do not pay child support, because of the drug habits.