Crime In East Texas

[gdr_11]

I only occasionally log into one of the Tyler news websites to see if there is any local news of interest and I am always struck by how much the crime has increased in all of the small cities and towns around here, especially sex crimes. Of course, most counties aggressively pursue and prosecute crime of all types unlike the metro areas that either ignore it or cover up all but the worst examples.

Anyway, in the past 6 years, it seems like this kind of crap has literally exploded in this area. Here is a typical day's posting:

Home

KLTV 7 is the leading source for breaking news, severe weather, traffic, sports and live coverage for Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, Kilgore, Carthage, Lindale and East Texas.

www.kltv.com

"

 

[popsgarland]

Damn. There goes the idea that there is less crime in smaller cities.

 

[dsgrey]

I grew up in a town of around 20k people and all types of crimes existed back then. People blamed outsiders, those moving from Dallas (over 60 miles away and nobody was leaving DFW for that town), etc back then. Over 40 years later I hear of the same issues and the same blame from people I know still living in that town. I spent about 20 years in another town with a population of less than 2k. Same crimes and probably the same number as a percent of population. Shortly after moving to the small town of 2k, some kids from a neighboring small town drove by the school, grabbed a guy playing basketball and took him somewhere so they could shoot/kill him just to see what it felt like.

 

[benenglish]

...crime has increased in all of the small cities and towns around here, especially sex crimes.

I note that you linked to a page with multiple cites for sex crimes where underage girls are being trafficked.

I spent some time in the Piney Woods doing certain investigations. I was always unnerved by the number of situations where I saw 40+ year old men married to girls right out of high school. Or 30-year-olds cohabiting with 15 year old girls with the full approval of her parents or, more likely, her single mom.

I won't try to explore the subject here because, frankly, to find some deeper understanding would require we all read and write books on the subject. What I will say is that I've always been uncomfortable with the sexual dynamics in poor places and small towns.

Some really off-kilter stuff happens; my heart grieves when I see it.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Every criminal gets out on extremely low Bond. Free to do as they please including kidnaping, rape and murder as well as cross back over the border.

 

[gdr_11]

Ben is right; the sex trafficking crimes are so common that even I am shocked. These should all be automatic 30 year sentences at minimum. 50 year if it involves minors

 

[Axxe55]

Ben is right; the sex trafficking crimes are so common that even I am shocked. These should all be automatic 30 year sentences at minimum. 50 year if it involves minors

They should be strung up and have their nuts cut off and left to bleed out and let the vultures pick over their bodies.

 

[Axxe55]

Many people move from larger metropolitan areas to more smaller town and rural areas, thinking they are leaving the crime and criminals behind them. That is a false perception. Sometimes the ratio of criminal activity based on population can be even higher than the larger cities. There is no shortage of crime in smaller towns.

And how many times, do you hear people say, "Well I never thought it could happen here."

 

[V-Tach]

Or you could pretend crime doesn't exist like our local newspaper....

It's great for finding the local ladies Bridge scores or the Wild Flower Meeting minutes.....

You won't ready about robbery's, house/auto burglary's, thefts, shoplifting/drugs or any anything less than murder in our home town paper. They publish DUI's, Marriage/Divorces and the occasional Grand Jury Indictments (when you actually get some indication of our crime rates)......

Most of our residents have no idea of the true crime rates or drug problems here.........

 

[skfullgun]

Or you could pretend crime doesn't exist like our local newspaper....

It's great for finding the local ladies Bridge scores or the Wild Flower Meeting minutes.....

You won't ready about robbery's, house/auto burglary's, thefts, shoplifting/drugs or any anything less than murder in our home town paper. They publish DUI's, Marriage/Divorces and the occasional Grand Jury Indictments (when you actually get some indication of our crime rates)......

Most of our residents have no idea of the true crime rates or drug problems here.........

Our local paper is full of news about locally-owned businesses, student achievements or acceptance to universities, garden club news, fishing tournaments, etc.

But they did a good job of covering the local connection to the Houston mass murders on the 45th anniversary a few months ago.

It's only published once a month, and it is free, so you can't really complain. Even though the February edition included a
Crossword puzzle with the WRONG clues. I thought I had lost my mind until I figured out that the answers to obvious clues would not fit into the "squares". This has been the butt of local jokes for weeks!

 

[V-Tach]

Rockport being a tourist town, I get it.....don't agree with it, though...

 

[Texasjack]

I grew up in a couple of small towns (One was <500 people, the other <5000). On the surface, it was quiet and peaceful. There were a couple of cops who mostly wrote tickets at the local speed traps. But, like an iceberg, most of what goes on is below the surface. A girl in my junior high class got pregnant and had to leave school. Turns out it was her father, and he was the postmaster so he did serious prison time. A local kid caught a venereal disease and the Health Department had to follow up on it. You'd be amazed how many housewives the kid had slept with. In a small town, there's very little to do and the kids get bored. Bored kids can get into serious trouble in no time at all. Drugs, sex, alcohol, theft, you name it. A little truck stop turned out to be a stop for a nationwide prostitution gang. I worked in a gas station with a kid who got picked up while trying to steal tires at a car dealership. He ratted on a bunch of folks to try to get out of prison. Among those things he reported was how he helped a Mafia hit man get rid of the body of a federal narc in a swimming hole where we used to party. They drained the pond and found two other bodies weighted down in the bottom. (A friend of mine cut his foot - probably on a broken beer bottle - when he jumped into the pond. We teased him that it was likely one of those dead bodies that "bit" him. To this day he won't go swimming again.) There's no shortage of immoral people and the size of the city doesn't change that at all.

 

[benenglish]

A girl in my junior high class got pregnant and had to leave school. Turns out it was her father, and he was the postmaster so he did serious prison time.

I grew up in a <5000 population town, too. Two examples from my youth:

• One of the girls that graduated high school with my older sister was pregnant. The father of the baby was her father. He was also the sheriff or chief of police; not sure since things are hazy after all this time. Anyway, he was some sort of CLEO. Everybody knew it and nobody did a damn thing.
• I'm not going to go into any detail because even after all these years it's a sensitive subject but...I had a girlfriend when I was 16. Suddenly, she wouldn't see me or talk to me. She literally ran away as if she were scared of me. Years later, her older sister told me what happened. Her dad had found out about the two of us. He nearly beat her to death. I hadn't been intimate with his daughter but he assumed otherwise. While he beat her in front of the whole family, he was growling at her "Nobody fucks my daughter but me!"

Crazy, evil stuff happens in the most serene, tranquil little hamlets. I guess that's part of the reason I don't mind the city so much; in many ways, it's not really that much worse.

 

[skfullgun]

Yep. Imagine what used to happen, and probably still does, when people lived in the sticks or boonies and rarely saw neighbors or went to town. Lots of incest and violence, for sure.

I'm reminded of several scenes from Lonesome Dove. For example, when Roscoe happens by the old man's cabin where a young "Janey" is kept as a hostage for the old man's pleasure.

Or, in the trading post scene from Josie Wales. The old days were not free from violence and the "law" was scarce in those far-flung places. People, and their inclination toward violence and immorality, have not changed.

 

[oldag]

I must have been fortunate. Crime was not a major problem where I grew up. Nor in any of the smaller towns I have lived in.

 

[benenglish]

Imagine what used to happen, and probably still does, when people lived in the sticks or boonies and rarely saw neighbors or went to town. Lots of incest...

I don't really have to imagine.

 

[Axxe55]

I think a lot of people that move from larger cities to get away from crime are naive and delusional in thinking it doesn't happen in smaller towns. The same crimes that plague larger cities, is the same in the smaller towns, just on smaller scale.

 

[Reinz]

I don't really have to imagine.

Good link!

 

[Axxe55]

I don't really have to imagine.

I absolutely have no words for that scenario. Way too strange.

 

[FireInTheWire]

Yep. Imagine what used to happen, and probably still does, when people lived in the sticks or boonies and rarely saw neighbors or went to town. Lots of incest and violence, for sure.

Or they live a nice peaceful life away from the worldly shit show....