Let’s Resolve to Make This a Rough Year for Criminals

If it’s true that “a new broom sweeps clean,” this may be the year that a lot of criminals walking around Cape May County will get their day in court, and maybe get a new address within the next 12 months.
One of the many ideas Cape May County’s new Sheriff Gary Schaffer has is to reinstitute the county’s Most Wanted list of criminals.
We, at the Herald, hope that we can become an integral part of such a program, and get help rid the streets of some low-lifes and get them behind bars where they belong.
There are many crimes committed every day that go unsolved. It’s not because police don’t try, it is just that they are busy doing what they can to keep peace and order in this often-unlawful society in which we live.
There was a time in the past when the County Prosecutor’s Office provided photos and information about certain criminals who were wanted, and were still roaming loose on the streets and byways of this fair county.
Because of that regular show of the “Criminal of the Week,” several found themselves in handcuffs and justice was served. Somewhere along the way, it dwindled into nothingness, and the program fell silent. I guess the thugs were overjoyed at that, since no one was any the wiser about them.
There is hope that Sheriff Schaffer will make life more difficult for those who found it convenient to break the law and not get caught…until now.
There are crimes great and small committed daily against good, decent people. Maybe it’s happened to you. Perhaps it’s something you’d rather forget. Maybe it’s something that you will live with forever, and never will the perpetrator be found.
One of the television shows I enjoy is “America’s Most Wanted.” Driven by a need to find the killer of his young son, producer John Walsh has given the nation a way to turn in criminals who freely wander from the scenes of their dastardly acts.
Finally, after a decade, the killer of Adam Walsh was identified, and the Walshes, on the show, announced closure that they so needed to finalize their son’s death.
There are similar crimes here in Cape May County that cry out for closure. Some are notable, others are long forgotten, as if they never happened. Regardless of the passage of time, their victims are scarred forever by the act that might have lasted less than five minutes, if that long.
Those victims have been violated, and they can never be the same because some thug wanted a quick buck to buy a fix of heroin or case of beer.
In most cases, victims remain anonymous, so we may never know who they were. They suffer in silence. Justice is denied them, since the criminal was not apprehended.
They will never have the pleasure of being in court where they face their attacker or thief, and help to send him or her to a correctional center for many years.
One idea that has been around for quite some time, but never well used by county residents, is Crime Stoppers.
That privately funded citizen organization is meant to give anonymous tips to law enforcement officials. If the information leads to arrest and indictment of the felon, the caller is to be given a reward.
Since we may have a new way to identify criminals, this may also breathe life into Crime Stoppers. People will be able to call the tip line (609) 465-2800, and provide information on criminals, and in these tough economic times, I wish I knew a couple of names to provide.
Another method we can use to deter crime is a device common to everyone, young and old: The telephone (old fashioned or cellular types.)
Since police have limited resources, and cannot cover every neighborhood in Cape May County, think nothing of calling your local police department if something you see or hear in your neighborhood just isn’t right. Was that a scream and a bang you heard next door? Call the police. Is that dark van in the driveway across the street usual? Is there a stranger in your neighborhood who knocked at your door asking odd questions?
You can request anonymity if that will help you make the call.
Police don’t work bankers’ hours; so don’t be afraid to call them at 3:30 a.m. or 6 p.m. They are always on duty. A quick call after you see (or even THINK you see) a crime being committed can spell the difference between a culprit being captured and going into the databases as an unsolved crime.
Crime will not just go away. It is alive and thriving in bucolic Cape May County. There are drugs and guns closer than we may want to think. If we want them gone, we must do our part, stand on our own two feet, and take a stand against crime and those who would target our loved ones and us.
This may be an undeclared war, but it’s one that ought to make soldiers of each man and woman, boy and girl. If for no one else, fight crime for the victims, the silent victims, who are forever marred by a mindless criminal. Do it for them.