The statistics released last week by the Maine Department of Public Safety are disturbing.
In a state where most people feel safe at any time of the day, even in the largest city, bank robberies and armed robberies are on the rise.
Bank robberies hit an all-time high in this state earlier this month with a total of 21. Scarborough recently had its first bank robbery ever. The total number of armed robberies in this state is also on the rise, increasing 25 percent from 2000 to 2005. Maine’s crime rate matches a national trend. Crimes involving guns increased 8.7 percent from 2004 to 2005.
Locally, police say the increasingly violent atmosphere is linked to an increase in drug use. Criminals are robbing banks, pharmacies, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants in an effort to get money to buy drugs.
These statistics should be disturbing to all of us, particularly if we want our state to continue to be “the way life should be.” Eventually, these criminals will be robbing more than banks and pharmacies; they will be robbing all of us of our sense of security.
It’s difficult to know how to solve a problem that stems from so many sources. We live in a culture of violence. Children have been firing simulated semi-automatic weapons at screens in arcades for years. Each year, however, it seems the companies that make video games come up with more realistic simulations of blood and gore.
Anyone with cable TV can watch an episode of “CSI” – crime scene investigation – or “Law and Order” at just about any time of the day or night. Broadcasters have begun producing and airing as many versions of each of the shows as possible because they’ve learned that the public’s thirst for violent crime as entertainment is just about endless.
Roy McKinney, the director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, complained this week that his department is flat funded. While there’s no question law enforcement agencies need adequate resources to investigate crimes in this state, simply giving more money to police would seem like an inadequate way to address a problem so great. It would also be treating the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem – an approach that has been failing nationally for decades.
The “War on Drugs” has obviously failed. That doesn’t mean we stop fighting, but it does mean we change our strategy – spend more money on treating drug abusers. Drug users who commit violent crimes belong in jail, but those who do not belong in a treatment center.
We need to cut off violence and the acceptance of it where it starts in our culture – in childhood. Parents need to restrict the television and movies kids watch and the video games they play. And, if Sony and Nintendo insist on creating increasingly violent and realistic games, the companies shouldn’t be allowed to market their gaming systems to children – similar to the way tobacco companies are restricted from doing the same.
-Brendan Moran, editor
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