{"id":7605,"date":"2013-03-29T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T20:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7605"},"modified":"2013-03-29T16:17:59","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T20:17:59","slug":"afternoon-read-massenas-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/03\/29\/afternoon-read-massenas-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"Afternoon Read: Massena’s troubles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Massena, NY. Image: maps.google.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Happy Friday! As we end the week, a brief wrap-up on this week’s events in Massena. On Wednesday, as we know, there was a stand-off in that village that ended when three suspects were arrested (WWNY-TV reported yesterday that bail had been denied for two of them.<\/a>) The three suspects have been charged with an array of crimes, incuding attempted assault, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence, and menacing. It’s also now been confirmed that this case is connected with a kidnapping case last month, also in Massena (Daily Courier-Observer<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Yesterday I blogged about the Massena village PD’s acquisition of a specially-equipped Humvee<\/a>, which it plans to use to do surveillance on people selling drugs.<\/p>\n

Now, I don’t know Massena all that well, but apparently there are some troubles in the village, and a report last night from WWNY-TV laid those out<\/a>, according to Mayor Jim Hidy and Police Chief Timmy Currier (both also quoted extensively in yesterday’s Humvee article). Clearly both are concerned about escalating crime in their community, and the report quotes Hidy as saying officials are “going to do everything necessary to get these people off the streets.”<\/p>\n

Crimes are mostly drug-related, police say, and while Police Chief Currier isn’t sure what’s attracting criminals to Massena neighborhoods. He does have a theory, however:<\/p>\n

We blame this on transplants, but if you look at it closely, there are some local people that are intertwined in all this. In many of these cases, it’s younger girls, 19, 20, 21 year old girls that are connecting with these guys in some manner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently there are also turf battles going on, as (this from the report, not Hidy or Currier) “as Massena and other north country communities are becoming a battleground…among drug dealers who are relocating to set up drug havens.”<\/p>\n

I’m very interested to see how this develops. Clearly there’s something going on in Massena, and you hear a lot of rumors, which I won’t print here. Whether drug crime is escalating in the manner implied by recent events (and indeed whether a highly visible police vehicle acquisition makes things look worse than they are) I’m not sure. I’m also not sure if “transplants”, who are often blamed for crime in smaller communities, are to blame — they may well be, I certainly don’t have more information than the chief of police. But I’ll be watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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