There goes the saftey net…?
Spring has sprung throughout Chenango and by the looks of the front page over the past week so have the criminals…
From the drug dealers to the rapists to the murderers- to an outsider our safe haven community looks like it may be on the verge of cracking.
A look back throughout the last four days: A Cincinnatus man was arrested for killing his girlfriend’s 16 month old baby, an oxford man was arrested for having possession of an illegal handgun and $1,500 of processed cocaine, a Columbus man was arrested of forcibly raping a woman and the newest edition to the criminal overload these days is the kidnapping and killing of a local woman.
For people reading this who join us from other areas one missing person and less than five other highly criminal actions may not mean much, but to this community with approximately 7,000 residents it has felt and still feels like a community where everyone knows everyone. When something horrifying happens the chill running down the spins of residents county wide can be felt in the air.
We often see the same people day in and day out, you hold the door open at the gas station on a Tuesday and the following Tuesday you run into the same person buying milk in Byrne Dairy. This close knit community is what I call my “safety net,” a nice place to raise my children because it has always has carried the aura of peacefulness and simplicity.
The question now is…Is it changing, is our safe haven slowly going to start oozing criminals out of its seams and turn this place into the same chaotic disgruntled city like many others?
In the years I have lived here the chills up my spine as I walked alone on an unlit street at night were un- existent but as more criminals are starting to spring closing my eyes to it and carrying on being naive is becoming more difficult. The premonition that you have to be a lot more aware of your surroundings is bit overwhelming after the years of simple care free living and the saying- “it would never happen here” no longer applies.
In the 24 years of living in Norwich I can honestly say last night was the first time I went to bed with a knot in my stomach telling me something horrible happened right here, right in Norwich. For the first time I was uneasy about coming to work and finding out the latest update on whether or not a body was found or not. Thinking someone was missing, someone I knew and knowing full well she was gone was a little unnerving at the least. I did not know her well nor do I know what happened well but I do know she has shown me an apartment once and she was very friendly, I talked to her on the phone a few times and she was always polite. I must have seen her hundreds of times just in passing as I see many of the same people gallivanting throughout the city everyday.
To see the headlines state manslaughter or missing in our local newspaper with a Chenango County dateline is one aspect we all have to realize is reality settling in. It can happen here no matter how safe our community is there are people everywhere who think and behave in ways most of us will never understand. It does not mean our fortress has to be called upon but identifying your surroundings and being cautious never hurt anyone. Being paranoid never got anyone anywhere either but just never letting yourself think that it could never happen here or that it could never happen to you is one way of thinking that needs to cease.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:20 am
How right your are. After hearing the news on TV at noon yesterday all I could think of was my 15 year old granddaughter training for sports by running X amount of miles along a country road! No one lives close enough so they could train on a buddy system, so I make her promise to take her dog (big) with her on a leash. Sometimes I think these coaches for girls sports forget how rural an area they are teaching in!
March 30th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Everyone is reeling right now. But once the shock passes, the action has to begin. It’s really up to the community to take a stand, to keep this trend from continuing, nip it in the bud, take action. Don’t live in fear, because that will only attract the very things you worry about. Instead, be proactive. Everyone. When you see things that aren’t right, report them. Don’t tolerate drug users and dealers in your neighborhoods. Be absolutely adamant about driving low-life slugs out of your community by making it too hard for them to thrive there. Don’t be too afraid to get involved. Don’t tell yourself “it’s none of my business.” In small towns where everyone knows everyone else, everyone also knows who’s selliing drugs, who’s beating their kids, who’s abusing their wives, who’s causing trouble of all sorts. Stop tolerating it. Report them. And keep on doing it until you see results. Watch out for each other.
I don’t know if any of those actions would have helped prevent this most recent tragedy. But maybe there are some others where it would have. It can’t hurt, and it can help.
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I can see why hes in jail for having her body in his house. BUT He didn’t do it. Why can’t the cops look futher in to this. Its seems the popo got one person and stop. What the hell!!!!! POPO keep looking deeper you don’t have his finger prints in the car. Yeah his prints are going to be her house duh he did work for her and her prints will be his place she the manger. Don’t you think he has ppl thrying to frame him? Well I do. True beliver that he didn’t do it.