“I guess you just never know who you’re dealing with,” she added.
A very true statement — one that makes us all stop and think, “How well do we really know people?”
Living in a fairly close-knit community, we simply don’t expect some things to be happening in our streets. Drug dealings, drive-by shootings and armed robberies only happen in bigger cities, right?
Wrong!
We’re in a day and time that all of the “big city” crimes are in our neighborhoods. We can attempt to close our eyes to the problem and pretend it isn’t happening right here in Bladen County, but we’re only fooling ourselves. It is here and it is very real.
So the question we pose to our readers is a simple one... What are you going to do about it?
Are you going to sit back and ignore the problem, hoping it will go away? Or are you going to stand up and take our streets and neighborhoods back?
Drugs and guns have made their way into our community because we’ve let it happen. Not consciously, no, but we’ve given the impression that we’re not going to do anything about it.
In the end, it only hurts the ones who aren’t involved. Those are the ones who live in fear when they have to run to the store for a gallon of milk at night. They are the ones who put in extra locks and security systems to try to sleep more easily at night. They are the ones who can’t allow their children to go outside to play in their own yards.
Local law enforcement is working on new methods of receiving information from the public. And the simple truth is this — they can’t help us to clean up the streets if they aren’t aware of what is happening.
If you know something, let the authorities know. Do it anonymously to ensure your safety if you have to. But get the word to those who can do something about it.
It’s the only way we can begin to feel safe in our own neighborhoods again. And we all deserve that.
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