Small town violence

I will add to what Bud was saying that in GA it does get a little weird sometimes.
I have had people cherry bomb my mail box, knock out every window in the back of my house, people come to the front door and start hitting people. Just stupid stuff.
I know someone personally who just lost someone who got shot to death because the person shooting thought he was someone else because the guy who got shot was wearing the other guy's hat. The other guy was right beside him. The kid was never a gangster, and he was 19, but he did hang out with one without knowing it, and he died for it. Small town or not people are getting out of control. It is very sad.
 
Pax said:
is kinda off topic for this particular thread too.
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Maybe so Kathy, but not by much. Two primary reasons why small towns are less safe than they "used to be" are the inability to walk away from an insult and the loss of the "oneness" of the population. Small towns are no longer "communities" in the true sense of the word.

Personally, I think a discussion of personal behavior, being able to take a slap on the cheek as it were, is an important concept in "tactical" behavior.


All that said, small towns in America, or even large cities, are extremely safe, all things considered. Perhaps a discussion of real versus perceived danger would be appropriate somewhere. Not by me though, I've been down that road before.;):)
 
The direction the thread is taking reminds me of an incident I witnessed recently. The wife and I went down to Concord, NH for 4th of July weeked and while done there we witnessed a pair of cars stopped at a traffic light in front of Thirty Pines Market in Penacook on July 3rd.

They initially caught my attention because the second car in line had a license plate along the lines of "S&W-45". Well, the light turned green and the first car wasn't paying attention, so Mr. S&W honked his horn. That got the first car to move, but not before they replied to the horn honk with some angry hand gestures.

At that point Mr. S&W lost it, gunned the gas and pulled onto the wrong side of the road to pass the first car in the intersection. We gave them plenty of room and watched them stop further up the road and get out of their vehicles like they were going to fight. Thankfully they seemed to decide against it. However, we stayed too far back to see what caused the change of heart.

Anyhow, the whole ridiculous situation could have been avoided if people had been willing to turn the other cheek. Instead the participants decided to escalate things almost to the point of physical confrontation. Mr. S&W's angry display of stupidity put not only himself at risk, but also the lives of people in the oncoming lane (and thanks to his poor choice in vanity plates probably helped to give responsible firearms owners a bad name).
 
Anyhow, the whole ridiculous situation could have been avoided if people had been willing to turn the other cheek. Instead the participants decided to escalate things almost to the point of physical confrontation. Mr. S&W's angry display of stupidity put not only himself at risk, but also the lives of people in the oncoming lane (and thanks to his poor choice in vanity plates probably helped to give responsible firearms owners a bad name).
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Exactly. You seriously can't wait 3 seconds for someone to notice a light turned green? You seriously can't ignore a car horn and not respond with inappropriate gestures? You seriously cannot ignore "the bird" and go one with your life? You can't ignore (or just call the cops) when someone passes you like an idiot? You're really going to pull over and get out of your car to fight with someone? (All this, remember, is because of a 3 second delay at a stop light!?)

How many chances does someone need to do the right thing? The answer is that they need unlimited chances, because doing the right thing is not even a consideration in their minds. They are responding with alpha dog stupidity instead of conscious thought. Somehow, someway, they think that it puts them higher on the food chain if they can dominate someone, even someone they've never seen before and will never see again. Truth is, the only food chain they're higher on is the one in their own minds.

This sort of behavior is a big part of why we're at where we're at today. Even so, it is in itself a symptom and not a cause.
 
Well i was gonna brag on my local county and tell ya'll the childish "NA-NA-NAA-NAERRR" but it seems ye' ol' hogdogs is facing a recently increased risk of crime. keep in mind that most of said crime occurs "beachside" where a vast majority of both year around residents live as well as the seasonal influx of disrespectful pukes from larger populated cities arrive to "party"...
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/FSAC/County-Profiles/Walton.aspx
From there, ya'll can peruse the whole breakdown although it doesn't seperate the "south walton" burden from the "real" walton county.
We are faced with a super high number of meth labs and heads due to the high number of remote locations suited to making the crap.
Brent
 
I too live in a small town (6k and we just got our first traffic light!) and I tend to pay attention to police reports ... the big crime news here in recent months -- a restaurant was burgled and some idiot was busted growing pot in his garage ... crime is almost a non-issue here, even tho we're just 30 miles or so from a major city ... that doesn't mean I don't have a loaded gun, etc., in my nightstand or that I ever leave the house unarmed ... it only takes one lost crackhead to ruin your day ...
 
8,000 is a ssmall town? Really? I live in a small rural village in Wisconsin about 30 miles north of Madison and about 100 miles west of Milwaukee. The population is a whopping 717. We have part-time police officers and about 80 hours of coverage. Otherwise we wait for the sheriff's department. Depending on where their patrol cars are the wait can be anazingly brief or up to 15 minutes or more.

Crime, or at least violent crime is not an issue here...YET. Property crime and obnoxious sh!t head teenagers hanging around are the biggest issues. (Yeah, Yeah, we were all obnoxious sh!t head teenagers hanging around.)

The problems arise from the influx of people from Madison and other larger cities. They have no ties to the community and some have lived here for years and remain virtual strangers. It is like this community is nothing more to them than a place to sleep and keep their stuff. The kids grow bored and restless because they are used to the city entertaining them and here they have to be imaginative or actually get up and do something, ride their bike, play sports, fish in the creek or go to the library. Nothing organized in this community for kids because, well frankly, we didn't need it. We found plenty to do and most kids still do. The greatest curse for this generation is the damn internet, 500 digital channels, xBox, Wii, Nintendo, Play Station, iPods, and cell phones. We don't interact face to face and actually seek ways to not have to. I pity this generation, I really do. Actual communication is becoming a lost art and because of it misunderstandings during communication occur all the time.

Turn the other cheek, as often as I can without compromising my integrity. Fighting over traffic behavior, or someone cutting in line, or saying something stupid? Not likely. Something that petty isn't worth dieing over.
 
What has happened to us when we have to cower, conceal and hide your middle finger (when someone ticks you off). Let's just be courteous to those scum bags who insult you? What do you deserve, no respect? Don't you deserve honest and decency from the low lifes of the world? Sooner or later you have to stand up for what you believe in, or we are all lost....

Note: That is not to say you have to start something in return for everything that happens to you. Then again, you just can't just walk away from everything either. Depends on each situation.
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In the olden days a gentleman had his honor to consider. If you flipped me the bird or insulted my momma, or called my wife a fat cow, in public I would have challenged you to a duel. Pistols or swords or both would have been your choice. A duel to the death or if one was wounded the aggreived party might consider his honor satisfied. People were more polite and respectful, then dueling was outlawed what a shame.

Among the lower classes one might have simply pulled a knife or a club and whopped the tar out of the other person. Since there were really no police forces back when you only had to worry aboutthe other person's relatives taking revenge.

Google Alexander Hamilton duel.
 
In the olden days a gentleman had his honor to consider.
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As far as I'm concerned, a gentleman still does... sadly, there are very few of us left. I agree that not every rudeness deserves a fist-fight or a duel, but some things simply are not 'forgive and forget' territory. Then again, this is not necessarily a firearms related issue for me, as the types of things I would respond to 'out of honor' I would not be using a gun for... most likely.
 
8,000 is a ssmall town? Really? I live in a small rural village in Wisconsin about 30 miles north of Madison and about 100 miles west of Milwaukee. The population is a whopping 717. We have part-time police officers and about 80 hours of coverage. Otherwise we wait for the sheriff's department. Depending on where their patrol cars are the wait can be anazingly brief or up to 15 minutes or more.

Crime, or at least violent crime is not an issue here...YET. Property crime and obnoxious sh!t head teenagers hanging around are the biggest issues. (Yeah, Yeah, we were all obnoxious sh!t head teenagers hanging around.)

The problems arise from the influx of people from Madison and other larger cities. They have no ties to the community and some have lived here for years and remain virtual strangers. It is like this community is nothing more to them than a place to sleep and keep their stuff. The kids grow bored and restless because they are used to the city entertaining them and here they have to be imaginative or actually get up and do something, ride their bike, play sports, fish in the creek or go to the library. Nothing organized in this community for kids because, well frankly, we didn't need it. We found plenty to do and most kids still do. The greatest curse for this generation is the damn internet, 500 digital channels, xBox, Wii, Nintendo, Play Station, iPods, and cell phones. We don't interact face to face and actually seek ways to not have to. I pity this generation, I really do. Actual communication is becoming a lost art and because of it misunderstandings during communication occur all the time.

Turn the other cheek, as often as I can without compromising my integrity. Fighting over traffic behavior, or someone cutting in line, or saying something stupid? Not likely. Something that petty isn't worth dieing over.
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You are 100% right, all these electronics are the curse on my generation (i'm 20). I do use the computer/TV a lot, and I would say I have more conversation over text than actually talking to someone. YES, it does fry your brain in a way; it makes you uninterested and unamused.

One thing some of you older fellows need to understand.. I know that millions of young adults have the same story I do - had no friends, so I began joining chat rooms (full of millions of other kids in my situation).. Pretty soon it's all you want to do. My dad would yell at me about it, telling me to go out and get some real friends, etc.. Last year my parents divorced and my dad began using chat clients to meet new people, and I made the mistake of impersonating him - "YOU NEED TO GO OUT AND MEET PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE". This is the maddest I've ever seen him : D

On the upside, I think something about growing up on the internet has made me more intelligent than I would have been otherwise. I'm definitely a deep thinker and not much a talker, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

My children will never be allowed to use the internet more than a half-hour or so a day, and we won't have any kind of TV programming at all.
 
Wow:eek:

""My children will never be allowed to use the internet more than a half-hour or so a day, and we won't have any kind of TV programming at all.""
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I'm sorry but as grandiose as that sounds... it will never happen.

Shucks they'll need 2 hrs of internet just to do their homework.
 
Well, it's obviously a different story for homework. A lot of my ideas seem a little extreme to most people.

All the time, I hear people tell me "you just think that now, wait until it happens.." but they never seem to be right. Why base your life on another person's shortcomings?

Edit - that last bit isnt directed towards you at all, Dragon.

Wow

""My children will never be allowed to use the internet more than a half-hour or so a day, and we won't have any kind of TV programming at all.""
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I'm sorry but as grandiose as that sounds... it will never happen.

Shucks they'll need 2 hrs of internet just to do their homework.
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Eskimo said:
My children will never be allowed to use the internet more than a half-hour or so a day, and we won't have any kind of TV programming at all.
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I fully understand and have great respect for that stance.
 
I totally agree with the no tv portion of your position Eskimo. I used to have free cable, and when I got home from work I'd sit down, scroll through 75 channels, finding nothing to watch and settle on something I had seen or didn't care about simply to kill time while I 'decompressed'. Then I moved, the current apt. doesn't provide cable and I certainly won't pay for it, and I am so much happier. For background noise I listen to music, and when I have a couple of hours to kill I take my dog to the river (last apt. didn't allow dogs, but they supplied the tv:eek:). I do, in fact, have a very nice tv I got as a christmas present which I use for video games and movies. However, we are having an exceptionally nice July in western Washington and I can honestly say that I haven't turned it on in weeks... even though I just bought a new playstation game I am very excited about.

As far as the internet goes, I think we're all guilty of overdoing that on occasion:rolleyes:.
 
"Eye for an eye" was meant to LIMIT retribution. It was meant to prevent people getting killed for offenses that did not merit such.
The problem we have today is that we want LIFE for an eye, or life for a stereo, as the case may be.
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I could not disagree more.

The problem is that we are continually faced with idiot DAs, idiot juries, and idiot judges accepting plea bargains, probation, etc, for serious offenses.
 
I could not disagree more.

The problem is that we are continually faced with idiot DAs, idiot juries, and idiot judges accepting plea bargains, probation, etc, for serious offenses.
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I agree with your point. However, that has nothing to do with the origin of the "Eye for an eye" concept. It WAS meant to LIMIT retribution, to prevent people getting killed because they stole a donkey, for example, or getting an arm cut off for trampling a crop, etc.

The problem that you, and I, have with the modern system is that it is NOT "eye for an eye", it is far, far less.
The system has forgotten that cocaine can kill just as easily as a gun but the "murderer" gets life and the dealer gets a plea. Even the murderer getting a life sentence is minimalist, IMO. Take a life, lose your life, not sit in jail for 30 years with heat and air conditioning and weight rooms and cable tv...
 
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I do think with all the technology we have today it makes kids feel entitled to being entertained. I am 30 I grew up in the age of nintendo.
I played video games as a kid. If my parents thought i was inside to long they kicked me out and I went to a friends house and we played football or basketball for the rest of the day
When we were all younger parents did not worry about us if they did not see us or hear from us from 10 am till it was dark. We all did it as a kid Mom tells us to be home at dark (dark is a very subjective and debatable word for a kid) and we showed up at the last possible moment.
To some degree its the tv with all the crime dramas and video games like grand theft auto that's raising the children of today and not so much the parents.
If I had children no I would not trust them outside alone like my parents did me for fear of them not for fear that they would get in trouble.

Think about 10 years ago
You could walk out of your house with out a cell phone and you did not think twice about now I cant walk from room to room with out my iphone

more and more people are getting tired of the traffic and the crime and what not that goes with a larger city so they move to a small town and don't realize that by them moving their bringing that same element they want to get away from to the small town.
Criminals go where the nice cars nice houses and money is
Pardon the expression But criminals don't typically take a dump where they eat
 
I wouldn't say everywhere is getting worse.

The small town I'm posting this from has had a long history of violence.
In the 1920s, during a feud between two different families over property (let's call them "Family A" and "Family B"), many were killed.
It started with a member of family A getting blasted off his plow with a deer rifle, then escalated to the point where a member of family B walked into church and gunned down 4 members of A with a WW1 souvenir.

During the anarchy of the 30's, an apparent member of the New Orleans mob hid here, and often picked fights with out-of-towners and killed them for fun.

And let's just say that there's a reason that nearly every minority resident until the 1970s or so "moved" "ran off" "went missing" or "had a hunting accident." :eek:

Also during the 70s, a man was disemboweled with a knife in a fight over a varsity basketball game, and a dispute between ranchers led to flocks being poisoned and booby-traps being placed, one of which killed a woman when she started her husband's truck.

But since 1980 or so? Next to nothing beyond a few vandals.
To some degree its the tv with all the crime dramas and video games like grand theft auto that's raising the children of today and not so much the parents.
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Then that's the fault of the parents, not the media.
 
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