To the Editor:
A couple of days back I reviewed the first 64 stories in the “Crime” section in Villages-News.com, curious to see the types of crimes committed around here. Interesting results:
PETTY THEFT (6). Guy walked the check at Perkins, $60 stolen from golf cart, shoplifted wine, homeless guy caught with a stolen shopping cart, etc.
NOT-SO-PETTY THEFT (6). Items stolen included a leaf blower, an automobile, concrete saw, utility theft (woman turned her water back on after it was shut off because of nonpayment of bill), use of a stolen credit card, etc.
ASSAULT (domestic) (3) Two women attacked guys, one guy attacked woman.
DUI (13)
TRAFFIC INFRACTION (12) Ten of which included driving w/no valid driver’s license, 1 for speeding, 1 for leaving scene of accident. Three of the 13 had either illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia at the time of their arrest. One of the arrests included stalking.
ILLEGAL DRUG POSSESSION (10), mainly possession of illegal drugs (fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, etc.), one arrested for writing bogus prescriptions, one for possession of cocaine while masturbating in public, one parole violation for possession of illegal drugs, etc.
MISCELLANEOUS INFRACTIONS (14), Including a guy caught running from police because of a murder-by-vehicle charge, three counts of witness tampering by a woman, illegal possession of a pistol, battery on a LEO (woman on a bad drug trip jumped out of an ambulance and attacked a cop), a Not Guilty plea to an assault charge on a golf course, bomb threat by a school kid, misdemeanor prostitution, a couple of resisting arrest charges, a guy arrested for skipping his court date, etc.
Here’s the point. For most of us who come from or near large metropolitan areas, most (not all, certainly) of these crimes above would never even have made the news. When gang murders, mob violence, wholesale smash-and-grabs at big box stores, trashing entire neighborhoods, child prostitution rings, drug-related murders, mushrooming homeless “encampments” with the lawlessness within them, rapes, larceny theft, etc. etc. headline the news, the stuff in the Villages-News.com “Crime” section elicits not much more than mild amusement. And we should be thankful for that: compared to a lot of America, The Villages is a well-run and – regulated haven. To put it into perspective, before we moved here I had a permit-to-carry and never left home without a pistol. In The Villages I’ve never even felt the need to carry.
For myself, I credit the law enforcement. I’ve thought for some time now that the LEOs in TV and surrounding communities keep the big crime away by keeping constant pressure on the little offenders. I’ve little doubt that the cops know who the frequent flyers are: a lot of those stops for traffic offenses where a drug dog “alerts” to the presence of drugs resulting in arrests are, in my opinion, NOT accidents. We should all be thankful we live somewhere that cops are allowed (and encouraged) to do their jobs, rather than in so many large urban areas where cops are routinely castigated merely for doing their jobs, constantly vilified by both press and public, and even in all too many cases live under the threat of their funding being decreased or even stopped altogether.
We’re fortunate to have the law enforcement that we do.
Palmer Amaranth
Village of Alhambra
