Posted by William on September 26, 2007 at 09:17:13 (EST):
In Reply to: Re: crime posted by Joseph on September 26, 2007 at 03:54:23 (EST):
: : : If you think you are making a difference go ahead. The police might have to take action if some guy is putting a whomping on you, then again maybe not. You might be the one in trouble for stalking.
: : I won't be getting my ass whomped, trust me. Also, How am I going to get arrested for stalking? Don't you think that if that were possible the poparazzi (however it's spelled) would be getting nailed?
: : Sounds to me like maybe you are one of the ones doing the buying and/or selling. Why else would you be against somebody talking such action?
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: * Here are a few thoughts to consider & a little true story.
: First of all, you better be careful snapping peoples pictures because you most definately could get sued. 'Poparazzi' (can't spell it either)snap pictures of Celebrities, not private citizens leading non-public lives (you can publicly call a politian a theif, but if you do that to a private citizen he can sue you.Same deal with taking pictures). The Privacy, slander & libel laws are different for a public figure vs a non-public figure. Thats why publications general ask for written permission before using someones Name, picture or likeness. If you publicly accuse your neighbor of being a drug dealer & he isn't... he can sue you for Slander/Defamation of Charactor.
: Now the story. Once upon a time, a single mother with 3 teenages moved in a few houses down from me. Now the neighborhood at the time was mostly older retired folks who lived in the homes they had built when they were young. As nature took it's course & the older people died off, younger people began to buy the available homes & move in. This created sort of a culture-clash, Retired Seniors living next door to teenagers instead of the dear friend that they had lived beside for 40 years.
: One day I came home after work & one of the my Senior neighbors was out walking, so we began to chat. "Those teenagers down there are dealing drugs!" he said, "We all know it & have been watching them. Lots of cars pulling up, people running in & out with little packages." I was stunned. These teenagers had lived 3 house down from me for close to a year. I spoke to them regularly... they weren't drug-dealers. They were teenagers being teenagers. I saw the 'little packages'... they are commonly called cell phones, CDs, DVDs, typical teenager stuff that was foriegn to the Senior residents. Most of you who have had kids would probably agree that 3 teenagers (2 girls & a boy) can generate a lot of teenager traffic coming in & out.
: Now a few month later the area was hit with a rash of day-light break-ins. The groups of local Seniors reported the teenagers as suspects, leading the police to go to their house & interveiw the kids about. That led to a lot of resentment & hard feeling. The police caught the person doing the break-ins a month later, it was a drug addicted girl in her 30's from another community. She confessed to every break-in, claiming she targeted the area because it was full of Seniors who didn't lock their doors. She didn't know the teenage 'suspects' at all.
: A few months later, the single mother with 3 teenagers who lived a few house down from me moved. She said she had had it with people harrassing her children for being normal teenagers. She told me that even the Boro workers had harrassed her son about trimming their trees, telling him he had to get a permit or they would have him fined. "Do you need a permit to trim your trees up here?" she asked. "Absolutely not!" I replied. "Thats what I thought" she said disgustedly.
: I don't blame the woman at all for moving, I know how bad the witch-hunters around here can get at time. I also know that drugs are a huge problem, young people are dieing because of it, crime is created by it & people are frustrated/feed-up with it. Just be careful you don't become a witch-hunt or you'll end up making the community worse-off instead of better. Report your suspicions to the police and let the police handle it.
: Now a note about 'Crime Watch'. The program should be a great idea to combat very real community problems, but again you have the risk of a good idea being perverted & abused by over-zealous witch-hunters which is exactly what has happened in my little community. We didn't have an official 'crime-watch' program. The local busybody went on vacation & came home to find several hundred $$$ she had hidden in her home missing,nothing else was touched, stolen, missing or broken. The most likely suspects are her own grandchildren who live nearby (teenagers will be teenagers). The woman went to council & had a 'crime-watch' formed, with herself in charge of course.
: This is the same woman who has a history of filing complaints against people she dis-approves of. She'll go on walks around the neighborhood & complain about someone on the other end of town whose dog is barking, their radio is to loud, their grass is too high, they're working on their car in the driveway. Just your typical busybody who can't mind her own business. You can bet that woman uses 'biased judgements' in her crime-watch reports. I half-suspect council put her in charge of the crime-watch committee just to keep her out of their hair. Now she's the local cops problem to tactfully deal with.
: The morale of the story here folks is: Yes drugs & crime are a major problem. Most of us would like to do something about it, but be careful with witch-hunting & vigilanty-ism or you just might do more harm than good. Do we really want to live in nazi-gerany like communities where neighbors are spying on neighbors? Call the police, make a report, let them handle it. They actually do a pretty decent job. Just because they don't go rushing in to the local drug-house doesn't mean they aren't aware of it or don't care. Sometimes they let drug-house operate for months so they can get ALL of the druggies in a big sweep instead of just a few at a time. It's an election year, I'm sure there will be a big drug-bust hitting the papers before the election.
EXCELLENT POST. YOU NEED TO RE-POST IT WITH ITS OWN TITLE (SUBJECT).