Topic: Policing

Kick crime to the curb

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 27, 2008 |

I’ve been looking over the two years’ worth of notes I’ve kept for story ideas, all rooted in what I have observed within the Montgomery County boundaries. From a distance, a temporary vantage point in the northeast, and the rest of the time from the porch of my home in Clarksville, I’ve followed the shootings and killings and robberies in Clarksville, the ones that happen in the dead of night, the ones that happen in broad daylight in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and a string of crimes in between. Crimes of inebriation or addiction, crimes of passion or hate, crimes of despair, crimes of rage, crimes rooted in poverty and need, crimes anchored in greed Am I the only one not surprised?

I feel the strongest sympathy and sadness for the families, the residents involved, the innocent bystanders with lives sometimes forever shattered. But I do believe this escalation in violent crime is a tragedy waiting to happen, one that will repeat itself many more times if the city, the schools, the police and all of us — everyday citizens — don’t become involved in our community, if we fail to stand behind a call to get tough and enforce the laws already on the books, and toughen up the sentencing and cut off the “deals” that spew offenders back onto the streets with minimal sentences and penalties too easily shrugged off. «Read the rest of this article»

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