Arkansas Town in Lockdown

Arkansas Town in Lockdown

www.cnn.com

An Arkansas mayor issues a curfew for a high-crime neighborhood. WPTY's Kevin Holmes reports.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is a video that I just found on CNN.com, talking about how the mayor of this town has created a situation where his residents are held within their homes against their will at night.

True, there's a lot of violence in the area, but is this the proper way to handle it? I think not. So, with that in mind, is this what we'd call "Martial Law", or is it something just short of it? Discuss.

TheBorg

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What a poor excuse for doing real police work! Can't stop crime? Lock everyone up! Hell, if you just killed everyone in the town there would be no crime. Maybe I should run for mayor.

If it is really that bad perhaps the people living there would look for residence elsewhere.

The US seems to have some intense problems with crime.

Maybe you should look at the reasons for it instead of trying to remove the symptoms?

Isn't this unconstitutional in some way? Surely they have to declare an emergency or something before they can do this.

Tough times call for tough measures. I agree with the curfew - it sounds reasonable to me. People with a legitimate reason for being out can still conduct business.

The average person who has to live in this area should be able to do so without fear of being a victim of violent crime.

Many people were captives in their own homes before this, prisoners of the drug dealers and gangstas. Now at least the police are there in full force.

I'd like to hear what our LEO members think of this?

Again, if the cops weren't such punks there wouldn't be a problem.

Instead of going after the bad guys they criminalize everyone because it's easier to deal with? Yeah, now they can arrest anyone for questioning their authority - especially little girls and old ladies. Then they can check that box on their report that says their doing something.

What's wrong with cops today - they can't do their job when there's a real one, but they bully maim the rest of us for revenue.

Bring in the National guard and post them on the bad streets until the thugs are rounded up. Then put the Mayor & cops in their own jail after they're fired for taxation without representation.

The war on drugs has created more incentive for losers to become drug dealers and has given an excuse for police to abuse all of us. I'm really sick of what it has done to our once great nation.

The whole US is becoming a prison planet with police checkpoints everywhere cause were all criminals thanks to all the nanny laws and control freaks. Cops are used to collect revenue from the average joe, but are afraid to get hurt doing real police work, so they'd rather kill people in police chases and shoot unarmed citizens for not complying with orders. Go head to head with serous thugs or outnumbered - never happen today their all punks on powertrips.

Can't fly without having the TSA sticking their finger up your rear. Can't drive without showing your papers at the checkpoints and extruding bodily fluids.

Anybody else sick of being treated like criminals without committing any crimes?



[edit on 10-8-2008 by verylowfrequency]

reply to post by Copernicus


I agree with that 110%. It's just too bad that the authorities aren't willing to step up and do the job that they're getting PAID by the TAXPAYERS to do!!



bobafett,

I think that it would be if it was actually declared as Martial Law. Technically, this is just a peacekeeping-type of thing. It's close to Martial Law though, I grant that much, hence my pointing this out.

The pot is stirring slowly.

TheBorg

reply to post by TheBorg


I didn't read anywhere that the cops weren't able or willing to do their job. Sometimes there is too much crime for too few cops. Plus, there appears to be a lot of shooting and drug activity in the area. Gangs can take over sections of a city, and have.

No, I think it's unfair to lay all the blame on the cops. It's the criminals that are trying to get a toehold here, and they must be stopped before they get too deeply rooted.

The criminals have made life tough in this neighborhood, not the mayor or the cops.

I've never been to West Helena, but I have family members who, up until a couple of years ago, routinely went fishing at one of the nearby lakes. They always said it was a nice neighborhood. I guess things have changed.

Not that I'm really surprised. Gang activity has been on the increase throughout eastern Arkansas in the last few years, most of it probably being related to the rampant illegal drug trade in the area.


[edit on 10-8-2008 by vor78]

I was born and raised and lived 42 years in the area that is now on lockdown. This was once a decent law abiding community but gradually the criminal element and the drug dealers moved in and the decent citizens moved out. All that is left are unfortunate people who cannot economically make a move. This is probably 95% African American and 75% are probably on welfare and assisted living. I really hate to see what has become of the town I once loved and planned to retire in. I will never go back there. The Mayor needs to ask for assistance from the state police and national guard if he cannot handle the situation.

If the crime is that bad, why would you go outside at night anyway? I'd be inside with the doors locked, windows locked, and my dog by my side...

I think it's a good idea actully... the law abiding citizens probably won't get hurt as much and the officers can focus on the criminals. We have a curfew for the teenagers, and I remember half the teens out at night were up to no good, getting high, or you had the nightowls like me who couldn't sleep so we went to a restraunt and drank coffee all night... and then pretty much got in trouble and kicked outta walmart for playing with the toys... lol.

Anyway... if it's temporary I can see it, if it's on a permant basis I wouldn't like it, but to get outta the way and let the cops do their job is fine by me... less civilians for them to worry about being hurt.

Originally posted by jsobecky
No, I think it's unfair to lay all the blame on the cops. It's the criminals that are trying to get a toehold here, and they must be stopped before they get too deeply rooted.

The criminals have made life tough in this neighborhood, not the mayor or the cops.

We agree.

Being from somewhere that has been in a situation similar to this only on a much larger scale, its a really fine line to walk when you don't want to infringe on the rights of everyday citizens, but you truly cannot handle the criminals with the force you have.

I really don't see much the officers could have done otherwise. Honestly we would be shrieking if the Nat'l Guard was mobilized in the area to combat crime, or maybe not, after all they have been here acting like cops for the past 3 years and no one seems to care that much.

---

As for the poster that asked why America is treating the symptoms and not the cause, I agree, but that is going to take more than any action that can be taken in one small town, imo.

Unfortunately where we are is that apparently the symptoms have already gotten too bad for the cause itself to be removed. Not much you can do but treat the symptoms or be held prisoner anyhow by the criminals themselves out of fear.

Hell, if you just killed everyone in the town there would be no crime.

Just look at New Orleans! I hear they had quite a problem with crime down there after Katrina and everyone had left!!

We're trialling a similar thing here: stopping kids being out on the street at night. Why aren't they tackling the parents who are letting their kids be out at night? We're dealing with the wrong part of the problem. They're (the kids) are breaking several laws: obtaining alcohol underage (who is giving them it? If they're getting it from home then this gets interesting legally), drinking in public, and public disorder offenses.

[edit on 10-8-2008 by mirageofdeceit]

Instead of declaring a curfew, they need to require all homes in the area to have at least one handgun, shotgun, or repeating rifle. An armed citizenry is the best deterrent to crime.

I posted this story just about the same time you did

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I am from Arkansas and I can tell you that the crime problem in West Helena is really bad but that does not warrant the police to shut down parts of neighborhoods, its just unconstitutional. We need to find the root problem and fix it.

Originally posted by groingrinder
Instead of declaring a curfew, they need to require all homes in the area to have at least one handgun, shotgun, or repeating rifle. An armed citizenry is the best deterrent to crime.

No, you'll just get a lot of civilian deaths that way. Don't you look at America's gun death figures?

reply to post by TheBorg


Well technicially it's not martial law because the military is not involved. But if you ask me it's pretty dang close to it ! One of the first things that happens when they impose martial law is to impose a curfew.

Now i understand that the crime rate in that area is really bad, but really a curfew for law abiding citizens ? I'm sorry but i think that's a bit much. There are other ways for them to handle the situation. No decent law abiding citizen should be placed under a curfew like a child, or a criminal.

What because the law enforcement can't keep the crime rate down (yes i know it's hard) good people can no longer go for a walk on a nice summer night, sit in their yard, run to the store because they ran out of cigarettes, milk, etc, or just have a craving for ice cream, go pick up a pizza or any other number of reasons a person would be out at night ?!

You don't take away American's freedoms because you can't control criminals, you find another solution. You don't take an American town and turn it into natzi Germany, you work your butts off ( this means citizens too) to make it a decent place to live again. Beef up the patrols, residents form block watches and work with the police instead of against them, parents actually parent your children, police get to know who the good residents are and work with them to improve their community.

We went through a real bad time in my nieghborhood with gangs and drugs, shootings all the time, non gang members getting jumped, we couldn't even sit on our front porches in broad daylight or let our kids play outside without fear of getting shot. We got sick and tired of it so we formed a block watch and a phone tree and every time and i mean everytime we saw them on the street we all called the police. The police got so tired of coming out here that they actually started to really crack down on them, and they got so tired of the police rounding them up that they finally got the hint and stopped coming around.

We still have an ocassional shooting in our area, but it's no where near what it was at one time. Of course Chicago as a whole has gotten way out of hand with shootings. The governor even has intentions of sending in the state police and national gaurd because Daley can't seem to handle it. We're still doin pretty good in my area though, when they start tryin to slip back in we just start callin the cops again.

I just had to throw this little tidbit in. It's gotten so bad in this city that one of the chiefs of one of the gangs in this area has implimented a curfew for his members. LMAO i'm sorry i just think that's hilarious the gangs are handing out curfews now.

I'm so sick of hearing that they don't have enough money to hire the amount of police that they need to keep crime down. We're spending hundreds of billions of dollars for this war in Iraq, but yet we don't have enough money to keep our own citizens safe on their own streets !

People shouldn't have to lock themselves up in their houses out of fear, and definatley not by force because LEO can't get a handle on crime. The criminals should be the ones hiding in fear, instead they seem to be the only ones with freedom these days.

So yes this is just a little too close to martial law for my comfort.


I wonder if there could possibly be another reason for this "lock down", could it perhaps be a dry run, a test to see just how willing the American public would be to accept a martial law scenario ? Maybe we should pay close attention, keep watch for the next couple of months and see if any other "lock downs" occur in other places under the guise of crime running rampant.

Odd isn't it how this Mayor has initiated something very similar to Martial Law. He has the city streets tied up at night, and if he uses Google Maps : Street Views, he can sew it up during the day, to an extent at least as well.

Google's "Street View" Brings World To Grand Rapid's Door

Wow, welcome to the the United States of Surveillance and Martial Law.

Thats not very nice at all. I work evenings, 2pm-11pm, and when I go home I like to go out for an evening jog. I would not appreciate the police telling me I am not allowed to go out for some excercise and fresh air after eight hours of work cooped up inside a building.