2 years after

It's been two full years since my neighbor decided he'd take a few shots at our co-plaintiff's property. April 1, 2004 was the day the sheriff's office got a call saying "my neighbor is shooting in my direction and shot out another security camera" but did nothing about it. Nothing that is except for taking a few pictures and making a report. The shooter was not arrested and the sheriff's office wasn't doing anything about it, at least from what we could tell.

Months later after talking with victim's services and the prosecutor's office we were directed back to the sheriff and a meeting was arranged. This was the first time I met Sheriff Marty Montgomery and I'd have to say he sure is a politician. Boy he really laid it on thick, telling us everything we wanted to hear. Then he called in Bobby Brown, who was an investigator at the time and instructed him to take the file to Chief Deputy Prosecutor Marcus Vaden. Now we expected to hear something in a day or so seeing how it was already in the afternoon but little did we know Brown had a different plan, to dispose of this case as quickly as possible. In a matter of hours he took a case of what should have been Aggravated Assault and down played it to a simple case of criminal mischief. That's right a man took a gun, pointed it in the direction of his neighbor and pulled the trigger three times while his victim ducked and ran away and all they were going to charge him with was a misdemeanor.

The prosecutor's office seen it differently but failed to raise this to the level of a felony. Although they did charge the shooter with the crime of Assault in the First Degree, the outcome was essentially the same, a Class A misdemeanor. In November of 2004 the shooter pled guilty and he was fined, ordered to pay restitution, and was sentenced to probation.

Now 2 years after the shooting and nearly 1 1/2 years from the sentence the fines and the restitution still remain unpaid. This has been another one of the big problems that has plagued the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office. Victims of crime have had to endure lack of action in some cases, inadequate action in other cases, and to top it all off if their case does get prosecuted the offenders are allowed to not pay their fines. Again what kind of message is this sending to the criminals?

In the upcoming election we the people of this county have a chance to set things right and get rid of the woefully inadequate and seemingly corrupt system of law enforcement, a changing of the guard so to speak. Let us put in power those people that are dedicated to change and not keep those in power that believe things are going just fine. The choice is ours to make, lets make it a good one.