Is it Safe to Live in a Small Town Anymore?
The First Financial Bank in downtown North Manchester, Indiana, was robbed Thursday morning at approximately 10:40. The robber displayed a gun and made his getaway with an undisclosed amount of cash. The robber was described as a man of slender build, between 5' 8" and 6', with short dark hair. No one was harmed in the incident.This is the first bank robbery in North Manchester. On June 17 the Lake City Bank in Silver Lake (which is about 15 miles from North Manchester) was robbed, and the suspect fits the same description as yesterday's bank robber.
My hometown of North Manchester is a small town of approximately 6,000 residents, and we seldom have this sort of excitement here. Our "Department of Public Safety" personnel usually keeps themselves busy arresting drunk drivers and potheads, making ambulance runs, and putting out the occasional fire.
This isn't the most challenging community in which to be a law enforcement officer, but as the meth problem grows in this area the amount of crime is also growing. In a town where you once could safely leave your doors unlocked, the homeowner doesn't dare anymore. Local businesses and homeowners' garages are being broken into at night, you can't leave anything of any value in your yard unless you're willing to risk its disappearance, and drug-related overdoses and assaults are also becoming common. Meth lab busts are beginning to happen with increasing regularity.
Although I'm not aware of any reports of children who have been abducted by strangers, parents are increasingly reluctant to let their children roam. We do have registered sex offenders in the area. Our own younger grandchildren are instructed to only ride bikes or play in the neighborhood where we can see them from our house.
Small towns have traditionally thought to be safer than urban areas, but statistics show that property crimes, assaults, and break-ins are happening at a higher rate in small towns, at an average of 50% higher than larger cities.
Moving to a small town for safety reasons is a thing of the past. Crime rates are dropping in cities but rising in small towns.
Comments
Good report about a scary situation :)
It's been about the same in our town... I think our population may be around 6-8 thousand (can't remember for sure). Anyway, people really need to buckle down and start treating their own property as if, they lived in a bigger city. Right now we are defensless because we feel safe. We recently installed ADT. There are others and maybe better ones out there, but I feel better having something.
You are not wrong about the correlations you make.
Very sad.
Sorry to hear about this. :(
So sad how things are getting so bad-everywhere! Very insightful article.
Social malaise, the rise and fall of empire, all cyclical. Doesn't make it any more bearable knowing what it is, though. Of course, your bank robber could be suffering from mirroring Dillinger. Indiana guy. Robbing banks. Depressed economy. The movie "Public Enemies" showing. Lots of Dillinger and old-style gangsters in the news. Call it the "Dillinger Effect." I expected to see a lot more bank robberies after Depp's movie was released, but haven't heard any more than usual. However, Indiana's bank robbery rate seems to have gone up...
Sad isn't it? I live in southern Indiana where the drug trade is growing by leaps and bounds. I agree with Writestuff...folks are getting desperate.
Great reporting Jill. My husband believes we will see more of these in the upcoming year. People are getting desperate! It's Bonnie and Clyde again
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