My WFMY Appearance
I was the main subject in the lead story on WFMY news tonight. Video is available online at WFMY. I will try to get the video up here if I can. Erich Spivey came by my house today, after asking my wife about the recent door to door panhandling in our neighborhood. She directed him to me.
We don't have many problems in this quaint neighborhood, but this one could become a little scary. We had a string of nights with a late night knocker asking for money. By late night, I mean 3 am to 6 am late night. This man seemed to target houses with younger couples. My first thoughts were rapist looking for a wife alone at night, child predator looking for a couples child to strike upon, scouting houses to set up a burglary(seeing as younger folks usually have nicer toys, HDTV's, game systems, CD's, etc...).
As I said in the interview, if these folks need help they should get it, but not by knocking on a neighborhood full of doors in the middle of the night. There is help out there, and they should be pointed in that direction. Most of the panhandlers are homeless, mentally bothered, addicts, etc... Either way, if a neighborhood gives, the panhandler will tell their panhandler friends and that becomes a problem. Then when people stop giving, they are more prone to take from your porch, break into your car or house. Crime goes up.
Here in the Historic Aycock neighborhood, we have a listserv. Our neighborhood listserv has deterred many an individual by informing the surrounding neighbors of a suspicious person or activity, by allowing us to communicate with each other quickly and in detail.
I feel like if you are knocking on my door in the middle of the night and you don't have a badge or need me to call a badge, you best leave or I'll ask questions later if you know what I mean. Protecting a family is important, and in the middle of the night is when your family is most vulnerable. There are a lot of children in this neighborhood and we all need to pitch in to keep them safe as well. I feel like my neighbors have my back and I know I have theirs. I think we would be a little less safe if we didn't have the Aycock Listserv. I strongly recommend that other neighborhoods start a listserv, even it is just the folks on your own street. You can learn more about listserv's here. We all need to realize that the police can not be everywhere all the time. They do their best. By being an informed and alert neighborhood, you can help the police be where they need to be, when you need them to be there.
Update: The story has been picked up in Jacksonville, Fl by an affiliate station. Link here.
We don't have many problems in this quaint neighborhood, but this one could become a little scary. We had a string of nights with a late night knocker asking for money. By late night, I mean 3 am to 6 am late night. This man seemed to target houses with younger couples. My first thoughts were rapist looking for a wife alone at night, child predator looking for a couples child to strike upon, scouting houses to set up a burglary(seeing as younger folks usually have nicer toys, HDTV's, game systems, CD's, etc...).
As I said in the interview, if these folks need help they should get it, but not by knocking on a neighborhood full of doors in the middle of the night. There is help out there, and they should be pointed in that direction. Most of the panhandlers are homeless, mentally bothered, addicts, etc... Either way, if a neighborhood gives, the panhandler will tell their panhandler friends and that becomes a problem. Then when people stop giving, they are more prone to take from your porch, break into your car or house. Crime goes up.
Here in the Historic Aycock neighborhood, we have a listserv. Our neighborhood listserv has deterred many an individual by informing the surrounding neighbors of a suspicious person or activity, by allowing us to communicate with each other quickly and in detail.
I feel like if you are knocking on my door in the middle of the night and you don't have a badge or need me to call a badge, you best leave or I'll ask questions later if you know what I mean. Protecting a family is important, and in the middle of the night is when your family is most vulnerable. There are a lot of children in this neighborhood and we all need to pitch in to keep them safe as well. I feel like my neighbors have my back and I know I have theirs. I think we would be a little less safe if we didn't have the Aycock Listserv. I strongly recommend that other neighborhoods start a listserv, even it is just the folks on your own street. You can learn more about listserv's here. We all need to realize that the police can not be everywhere all the time. They do their best. By being an informed and alert neighborhood, you can help the police be where they need to be, when you need them to be there.
Update: The story has been picked up in Jacksonville, Fl by an affiliate station. Link here.
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