02-06-2011, 05:24 PM
Similar to another poster today, my parents are original homeowners in the neighborhood where this occurred and live only a few blocks away. They do not personally know the families involved, however, and I came across this thread because my parents have relied primarily on the local newspaper for information about this awful crime -- and the local newspaper coverage has given them the impression that it is a "robbery gone bad". Without much additional details, they were in fact fearful that this might be a random and violent gang of robbers with economic motivations. My parents are older retirees and perhaps not representative of the neighborhood population, but to say that locals are unaffected by this crime is probably not wholly accurate. Especially given what the Unknown person just posted.
To contextualize a bit more, the neighborhood was a great place to grow up and while certainly not at the highest end of the area's socioeconomic distribution, most residents are professionals/white collar workers and share middle/upper middle class values. There are many families with small children, and actually the Longacre house backyard is adjacent to a small church and a public grade school to which kids in the neighborhood walk every day. It is not a small town nor crime-free, though, and my family is also careful to lock doors, set alarms, and maintain good outside lighting. There were a rash of home robberies (mostly electronics) a year or so ago in an adjacent neighborhood but certainly nothing of this scale.
One other point I'd like to make: again, although I do not know the victims or their families, it’s my opinion that no one deserved to suffer what happened to them – especially kids with their lives ahead of them. I’ve not ever committed a felony or even a misdemeanor, but I was not raised by a mother with a lengthy record herself. That does not excuse criminal conduct, but nor does it devalue an individual’s worth to the point of suggesting that John or Lisa will not be missed or this terrible crime will disappear quickly from memory -- that strikes me as needlessly malicious.
To contextualize a bit more, the neighborhood was a great place to grow up and while certainly not at the highest end of the area's socioeconomic distribution, most residents are professionals/white collar workers and share middle/upper middle class values. There are many families with small children, and actually the Longacre house backyard is adjacent to a small church and a public grade school to which kids in the neighborhood walk every day. It is not a small town nor crime-free, though, and my family is also careful to lock doors, set alarms, and maintain good outside lighting. There were a rash of home robberies (mostly electronics) a year or so ago in an adjacent neighborhood but certainly nothing of this scale.
One other point I'd like to make: again, although I do not know the victims or their families, it’s my opinion that no one deserved to suffer what happened to them – especially kids with their lives ahead of them. I’ve not ever committed a felony or even a misdemeanor, but I was not raised by a mother with a lengthy record herself. That does not excuse criminal conduct, but nor does it devalue an individual’s worth to the point of suggesting that John or Lisa will not be missed or this terrible crime will disappear quickly from memory -- that strikes me as needlessly malicious.