The Feral Beast Among Us

OUR VIEW: Take back the community
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By
The Herald News
Posted Jan 29, 2010 @ 12:00 AM
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Five stabbings scattered throughout the city. A home invasion. Several robberies and a shooting in Corky Row. And that was all in the span of two days.
Enough is enough. It is way past time to fight back against the petty criminals plaguing Fall River, frightening and endangering innocent residents and preventing the city from progressing socially and economically. These dregs of society, who seem to be emboldened recently, damage Fall River’s reputation, making residents and businesses think twice before moving into the city and making life miserable for those who long for the days when the Spindle City had a thriving economy and a welcoming reputation. But criminals have stolen Fall River’s good name and residents’ sense of security.
The wave of violence that wracked Fall River last weekend has caught the attention of police, city officials and neighborhood groups, who are working together to address what City Councilor Brad Kilby termed “a crisis situation.”
The Flint Merchants Association organized a neighborhood meeting with city officials and police representatives last night to discuss ways to make the Pleasant Street area safer. Other community organizations, including the Niagara Neighborhood Association, are also seeking ways to work with the city on an action plan to deal with the violence.
“I get the feeling people would like to see more police activity on the street,” said Dino Bissaro, president of the Niagara group. “They feel like if they go walking to their car or corner store, there’s a concern they’re going to be robbed.”
Unfortunately, budgetary restraints will likely prevent the Fall River Police Department from adding to its ranks any time soon. While the police are surely examining the allocation of its force, there is little chance additional officers will be put on the streets in the near future.
But that doesn’t mean the crime problem can’t be addressed. People have to realize crime is not a city problem — it’s a community problem that requires a community solution. While residents should certainly not take matters into their own hands or put themselves into dangerous situations, they must be partners in crime-fighting and help the authorities protect them. But too many people look the other way.
“People are in and out of their homes, many of which are right above the stores,” said Flint Merchants Association Vice President Carlos Cesar. “But nobody sees nothing, nobody hears nothing.”
“People around here don’t call the police,” Bissaro added. “People have to get involved in their own safety.”
Indeed. Anyone who witnesses a crime or suspicious activity and doesn’t immediately report it to the police is part of the problem. Some will say they fear retribution if they report a crime.
Others simply don’t want to be labeled a snitch — a petty, self-defeating concern. If residents want a safer community, they need to get over their fears and stop being complicit to the criminals. They have to stand up to crime by cooperating fully with police. Remaining fearful only gives the thugs more power. Besides, there is little chance of reprisal, particularly if a witness places an anonymous call to police.
Every now and then, communities do stop allowing criminals to walk all over them, staging events like “Take Back the Night,” an annual march and vigil intended to show solidarity against crime, especially crime against women. But all too often, once the event ends, people go back to ignoring the problem. These events cannot be sporadic. Residents need to take back their community on a daily basis. Be vigilant. Go out in pairs. And most importantly, report crime as soon as it happens. That’s the only way to affect change.
There are a lot more peaceful, law-abiding residents than there are violent thugs. It’s time to show them who truly holds the power.

Just let it be known that in today's world, it's not just politicians who play the politics game. Sometimes - and far to many times of late - it's also the editorial board of the Fall River Herald News (HN).
You'd have to completely brain dead not to agree with the gist of this editorial. Yes, what is going on in Fall River, especially in the last week, has been intolerable. Yes, this City's citizens lives in fear, a kind of fear this City has never witnessed before. Most adults I know do not lightly decide to venture out at night these days, and certainly, almost never in certain sections of the city regardless of time of day. And these feelings are held by every race, creed, color and religion that make up the City's population. Every one of them is a victim of this fear, and has been victim of the violence.
However, aside from cliched and worn out reference to "those who long for the days when the Spindle City had a thriving economy and a welcoming reputation", the one major elephant in the room not being discussed in this editorial is the same one not recognized by the Mayor the other night when he issued his "Law and Order" statement - the drug problem that inculcates Fall River in every income class, racial class, religious group, political affiliation, age group and neighborhood, and the culture of violence and crime that travels with it.
How can this City hope to survive this pestulance if it does not even recognize it's existence! Drugs, and the desire to obtain them are what is the , not just root cause, but just about the ONLY cause of the spate of crime and violence in this City since the cutting of police rolls by The Great Destroyer Correia last year. Warrants and a few extra patrols are not going to stem the tide of these drug ravaged zombies. They'll just wait until the public furor blows over, or until the police shift with the smallest manpower contingent is on duty. There are gangs as well, real and organized gangs, like the Bloods, the Mafia, the Vietnamese gang and more splinter groups from these primary gangs, and I am sure that's not nearly all of them. These gangs communicate between themselves, they traffic in drugs and guns, BUT THEY ARE NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED!  The rumors of Al Lambert having Mayor Flanagan's ear must be true because the "No Gangs In Fall River" stance was Lambert's for years, even thought every cop in a patrol car could tell you it was B.S. Ask any cop on patrol today what the root cause, or complete cause of the violence is today, and they will tell you "drugs and gangs".
Parents in this City themselves have drug problems and I'd say at least 25% of the total number parents are drug addled zombies themselves. How can you expect the parents of these kids to be involved in their children's school work and behavior while in school when they are spending most of their own time trying to cop drugs. This information is widely known to the police, school officials and City Council members.
It's the gangs that terrify City residents, especially business owners. It's terribly facile for the editor if the HN to suggest that citizens pooh-pooh the threats of "snitchin'".  Unless she's willing to sit outside the apartments or businesses of those willing to turn these maggots in for their crimes and protect them with her own body maybe she should not volunteer these people to get "capped" for cooperating with the authorities. I'm sure she doesn't live in a neighborhood with gang affiliated hoodlums hanging about.
The editor's rhetoric is just so political. It is meant to appeal to the ever growing ,HN reading, groups in the City with not much education, working blue collar jobs and having their children, if they are of school age, who still must attend Fall River schools because they lack the income to send their children to private schools. For example:

" These events cannot be sporadic. Residents need to take back their community on a daily basis. Be vigilant. Go out in pairs. And most importantly, report crime as soon as it happens. That’s the only way to affect change. There are a lot more peaceful, law-abiding residents than there are violent thugs. It’s time to show them who truly holds the power."

More political drivel from the HN editor to rally their paying readers. When there are few police around, the few violent thugs who hold illegal weapons, wear ski masks and, unfortunately as we have seen these many months, are driven like feral beasts to find money to buy drugs, the many peaceful, law-abiding residents seem to melt away like so many snowflakes on the ground in march for their own safety, and who among us could blame them. It is the violent thugs who truly hold the power, and they will until the powers that be start to deal with the terrible scourge of drug addiction and the primary sources of drug sales to our youth.