There have been several stories in your Clarksdale Press Register over the past few weeks reporting on crime.
Sadly during this season of peace and love, this community will see an increase in violence and theft.
Home burglaries, car burglaries, multiple reports of shots fired and even two armed robberies this week have grabbed the headlines.
Almost everyone in every neighborhood in this town has been the victim of some kind of theft or crime.
We started the year with more than dozen people shot in a mass shooting on Delta Avenue. We’ve had almost a dozen homicides in Clarksdale this year. That’s roughly one a month.
This has to stop!
City fathers need to do all in their power to hire more police. Police need to do all in their power to stop suspicious vehicles, be visible and apply the pressure on gang leaders that make crooks go somewhere else. Last but not least, our courts need to do all in their power to come down hard on violent crime and home burglaries.
A veteran Clarksdale policeman makes roughly $40,000 a year for a dangerous job. That is the same as our highly paid Commissioners who meet twice a month and spend your money.
And that is not right.
We hope our community realizes it is not just the job of police to stop crime. Law enforcement needs your eyes and ears to stop crime.
Too often citizens rant and rave that calling police about a crime doesn’t do any good. We agree there may not be an immediate arrest and the caller may not see someone charged with that particular crime, but not calling guarantees nothing will be done.
Suspicious vehicles with burglars inside can be stopped by police, if someone calls.
Drug dealers can be swept from our community and kept away from our children, if parents will call authorities and report suspected drug activity in their neighborhood or school.
The truth is crooks realize quickly, when a community is alert and willing to call the cops, and that it is time to move on and seek easier pickings.
Again it all starts with a telephone call.
You are the eyes and ears for local law enforcement in your neighborhood, your city and your community. Let’s stop crime in Clarksdale this Christmas.
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