Comments on: Is Oak Ridge getting rough?

By: Jacket

Jacket — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:01:12 +0000

Extra patrols, and personal responsibilty for one’s own safety is the best bet. Look, this violent crime you are reading about is being perpetrated on aquantances. Most murders are committed by family and friends of the dearly departed or through some type of “other” personal relationship i.e. drug dealer/customer owes money, and yes homosexual behavior is included.

Unless you are afraid of ladyfriend cracking you in the head like the kid mentioned, (probably needs to bring a ladder) then I say go to the park, enjoy life, but be watchful of your surroundings, and thank goodness there was a “cop” around when you felt like you might need one.

By: Punk HP

Punk HP — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:15:30 +0000

Our group was hassled by Harriman Police during a Huanted House Tour this weekend. Once he verified that we were fine upstanding Government Welfare Workers, and not there to cause trouble, he was very nice, and told us a Ghost Story of his own. I usually don’t like being hassled by The Fuzz, but in a strange way, I welcomed it. He was doing his job.

By: jonathan hickman

jonathan hickman — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:05:06 +0000

I went to school in a small SC town where nobody locked their doors. Freshman year I got all my cds stolen and started locking my door. Sophomore year I got my computer stolen and had all the locks in the building changed. Junior year I had the windshield of my truck bashed in for no apparent reason (townies).

By: RLGelber

RLGelber — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:43:47 +0000

Scary stuff. Imagine my surprise when I come to work yesterday get out of my car and see a forensics team inspecting a huge pile of blood 50 yards from my desk. I know not to go to Scarborough, but I’ve never been scared in the dark in this section of town. I’m not liking it one bit.

By: Vixen

Vixen — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:20:09 +0000

You should be worried. Anyone who reads here now knows that the way to get around all 400 of your ninja moves is just to hit you in the ribs…its your one weak spot

By: Netmom

Netmom — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:52:08 +0000

Sad as it is to have to accept, she’s right. Doesn’t matter how big you are if you’re sleeping or inattentive.

By: sumgirl

sumgirl — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:13:06 +0000

last week our neighbors had some tool-type items stolen from their carport and yesterday another break-in on our street during the day … broad stinkin daylight. so much for the sleepy elderly neighborhood, eh?

By: Denette

Denette — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:30:32 +0000

Yikes, I hope Clinton isn’t worse than Oak Ridge. The young man linked in the stabbing, I grew up with him and just a couple weeks ago a guy I knew in Oak Ridge was found stabbed to death in his home. This guy wasn’t shady at all. I’m hearing more and more scary things coming from Oak Ridge, I’d feel safer in K-town than quite a few spots in Oak Ridge at night. I would have never thought the area you are talking about would be of concern though.

By: Doug McCaughan

Doug McCaughan — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:32:53 +0000

I often wonder if its not that things are getting rougher but that things are getting smaller. Years ago living in a small down with 3 television stations, the focus was on local news with bits of highlights of nation and world the half hour before local. I am sure school shootings happened but if you were in Wilmington North Carolina and the shooting was in Denver Colorado, it didn’t really impact you.

Now as the shooting is happening its beeping across cell phones around the globe like a stock ticker. We know everything about everyone as it happens. That’s good! But we must maintain a sense of perspective which is hard to do under the current fear mongering administration. The government, the media, and the preachers have people scared into giving up their rights! These people aren’t thinking; baaaa baaaa. Re-read 1984. Look at the what’s happening in the UK and how it could easily happen here. Watch Wag the Dog. I’m not saying go totally tinfoil hat on us, but if we don’t shock some common sense into some people, we are going to speed down a bad path. GW Bush 2008!

As an example, the Rocky Elementary School Principal is adamant that the children’s safety at the school relies on enclosing the entire property in a horrifically ugly hurricane fence. Will it have barbed wire? This will destroy a community school. No one will be able to use the playground on the weekends. Home values will fall. Is there really a threat to the children? I haven’t seen it and I’m not stupid or blind. But the principal is so caught up in the security assessment by some for profit firm (that’s what the firm is supposed to do!) that he doesn’t even want people talking about the fence.

In summary, we are now inundated with information that makes the world smaller but also stresses us with somebody else’s problem. Fear mongers react instead of respond thinking “this will happen to us” and in an oddly self-fulfilling prophecy, their lives get scarier because of the increased security due to “the threat.”

By: Reality Me » Who put me on this soap box? With a tinfoil hat?!

Reality Me » Who put me on this soap box? With a tinfoil hat?! — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:44:09 +0000

[…] Is Oak Ridge getting rougher? My reply to Atomic Tumor: I often wonder if its not that things are getting rougher but that things are getting smaller. Years ago living in a small down with 3 television stations, the focus was on local news with bits of highlights of nation and world the half hour before local. I am sure school shootings happened but if you were in Wilmington North Carolina and the shooting was in Denver Colorado, it didn’t really impact you. […]

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:19:48 +0000

http://www.city-data.com/city/Oak-Ridge-Tennessee.html

Scroll halfway down for crime stats.
You can click on the chart to make the graph update and compare to the US average.

Overall, it looks like Oak Ridge has seen an increase in crime in the past few years, and does have higher than average crime.

By: P.J. T.

P.J. T. — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:47:03 +0000

I’m from New York City. Since moving to Nashville last year I’ve heard more crazy local crime stories than I ever heard in a lifetime of big city living. Corpses lit on fire, rapes on special-ed buses, hitchhikers getting dismembered and their organs used in weird rituals. I think you’d be crazy not to be a little paranoid in this state.