Northeast News
December 30, 2015
Dear editor,
It just sends a shiver up my spine, knowing I heard the gunshots that ended someone’s life. A part of me whispers, “Let’s hope he deserved it.” Not a nice thought, but there nonetheless.
In 14 years living here there have been murders, police shootings of armed, stupid people, and gunshots, lots of gunshots.
People point to guns as the culprit. Each of those guns was used by a felon, each of those gunshots was a crime, and most of the guns were in the bad guys’ possession because of a crime.
We need to clean up our neighborhood. The BP on Maple Avenue should be closed unless they have a guard, preferably an off-duty policeman, to keep the loiterers, hookers, pimps, drug dealers and strong-armed and armed robbers away. A few years ago, I used to walk my dog on the Avenue around midnight when I got off work. I wouldn’t do that today.
The apartments on Maple just off the Avenue do nothing but attract bad actors. I wish the Med School would now extend their footprint east. I wish the police could patrol areas at night instead of spending all night responding to incidents. Our Mayor talks a good game, but he’s too busy giving his buds tax breaks on their projects to find the money to fully staff the police department.
We need enough good officers to be a presence in our neighborhoods to show that they are in charge of our streets, not the hoodlums.
Harold Smith,
Northeast resident
