If you read staff writer Steve Sanoski’s interview with Nate Holman in last Sunday’s paper, you may have noted that Holman stressed the friendly, peaceful nature of most of his neighbors near the intersection of Oak and Speed streets.

If you read the follow-up in Thursday’s paper, you know that Holman and his wife, Nonie Johns, have put their house up for sale, quit their jobs and have left Vicksburg, probably for good.

The first story was about noise and violence and loose dogs and drug-dealing and prostitution in the residential area. The day it was printed, Holman said, gunshots were fired toward his home.

For now, it appears, the bad guys won.

The thing to remember, however, is what Holman stressed time and again in the interview: Victims greatly outnumber the thugs, who get their power — like school yard bullies — through threats and intimidation.

 

‘The problems have nothing to do with race or income. Self-respect and basic respect for others is not a function of color. Same for money. Jerks can be rich or poor.’

“This is our dream house in a nightmare,” Holman said about the couple’s attractive cottage in an area where homes range from grand mansions to unfit for human habitation. “Most of the people are good people, but there are a few who are causing problems and they seem to attract people from all over Vicksburg who also bring their problems to this street.”

I’ve written about this phenomenon before, usually in the context of older residents who haven’t left their neighborhoods, their neighborhoods have left them. They should be enjoying peaceful years surrounded by their memories in the paid-for homes they bought as far back as the 1950s. Instead, they are vandalized. They are heckled. Their days and nights are constantly invaded by booming music, boozy laughter and bursts of angry shouting.

They might call police — Holman did more than 200 times in the past 12 months — but police have no magic spells they can cast to make people be decent. All officers can do is show up, which helps, arrest people for crimes they see committed or take reports. Otherwise, their blue lights have the same effect on thugs as flashlights on roaches. They scurry away, then re-emerge when it’s “safe.”

So what can be done?

First, some basic truths have to be recognized. The problems have nothing to do with race or income. Self-respect and basic respect for others is not a function of color. Same for money. Jerks can be rich or poor.

Second, there must be a realization by the whole community that people do live in fear in their homes right here in Vicksburg — just as they do in Iraq, Zimbabwe and any other place where intimidation takes place.

Third, there must be a whole community decision to help those living in fear by taking organized, concerted action. Law enforcement, housing code enforcement, brighter street lights — maybe even (bulletproof) surveillance cameras. Local government must assemble every asset and people must be vocal in their support.

It may take a sustained effort. Exterminators rarely get all the vermin on one visit.

If the citizenry decides no one should live in fear here, things will change. If nothing is done, nothing will change.