“Small towns are still not immune to random acts of violence.” Those are very true words spoken by brand-new Prosperity Police Chief Phil Reta this week. Perhaps the difference is that when you live in a small town you come to feel you truly know your neighbors — and you can still be shocked at those acts.
Chief Reta was referring to a driveby shooting on Pine Street in the wee hours of yesterday morning. A small child was narrowly missed. That’s pretty random, and pretty shocking, and pretty lucky.
Of course, there is another thing to remember about small towns. It is a lot harder to hide.
Knowing each other does not mean we can prevent the vagaries of human nature from exhibiting themselves in unsavory ways. However, it does mean someone usually notices it.
Just like this winter when there was a double murder in Chappells, small towns are full of people who draw together. Small towns, and rural areas, are full of people who pay attention and trust each other, hopefully including the police. In the Chappells case there were speedy arrests considering the nature of the crime, thanks to law enforcement and counties that pulled together.
No one died yesterday morning. But we are still shocked, despite knowing that even our admirable crime statistics do not completely insulate our citizens from random violence. Where we won’t be shocked, just like in the Chappells case, is if the police come to the conclusion that the violence was motivated by drugs.
What could we do if we poured the effort we pour into rescue relief, or other worthy causes, into digging out and destroying the root causes of illegal drug use? It’s worth thinking about as we offer prayers of thanks that a sleeping Prosperity child dodged a bullet.
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