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Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Crime increasing, comfort decreasing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was talking with my mom the other day, catching up with what has been going on in our busy lives. I mentioned Valente Carbajal-Otero and Erix Eliaser Vallecillo-Matute, the two men who were murdered at the apartment at Promenade at Berkeley, located on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard last week. The killings are the first in the city of Duluth since June 14, 2004.
“You know, that happened just down the street from me,” I said.
“Really? I didn’t realize it was that close. That’s just a little past the Publix, isn’t it?”
“That’s the one,” I replied. “That’s where my friend Leala used to live. My friend Richard used to live there as well, back when it was Northwood Lakes apartment, right when it first opened. That was almost 15, maybe 20 years ago, I think.”
“Oh dear,” she said. “I hope it’s not turning into Norcross. My dear Norcross. Has it been that long?”
We moved north to Duluth from Norcross 20 years ago. Norcross was then what Duluth is starting to become now. The congestion on Pleasant Hill Road is reminiscent of the congestion on Jimmy Carter Boulevard back in the day. New neighborhoods were going up left and right. Increased traffic was choking and strangling the lifeblood of the two lane roads at Spalding Drive and Winters Chapel Road.
You can sign up free for scangwinnett.com, and they will send you daily e-mails of the people who have been arrested within a specified ZIP code. I have watched over the last couple of years the changes in the number of people who have graced the reservation list into Sheriff Conway’s Concrete Inn (aka the Gwinnett Detention Center), and I have noticed the list of names increasing on a daily basis. Traffic violations mostly, but more and more there are cases of shoplifting, drugs, and assault.
It’s logical to assume that, as the population increases, so will the crime rate. It’s statistics and probability. The more people inhabit an area, the more targets become available to more people who want to take advantage of them. Because of this, I am not ready to say that Duluth is ready become the next backdrop for Hollywood’s next great action blockbuster.
I am, however, more willing to lock my door at night. I am more willing to lock my car door when I enter a store. I glance around a little more frequently when I walk alone down the sidewalk. And, like my mother, I resent the loss of innocence.
Do you feel more wary in your community than you used to?
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