Home > So, what do you think? > Archives > 2008 > July > 10 > Entry
Reporting crimes and rumors of crimes
Here’s an issue I’d love to hear some suggestions about: police reporting.
The Telegram typically runs a crime roundup in Sunday’s Community section that prints pertinent information about break-ins, minor assaults, etc. Bigger stuff - murders, armed robberies, that kind of thing - usually warrant individual stories that we run as soon as we can gather the information.
But the system doesn’t always serve us or our readers, to be honest. Case in point: I’ve received a couple of phone calls this week about a gang fight that supposedly occurred at Wal-Mart in Rocky Mount on July 3. The store was locked down by police and the store manager, I’ve been told. The brawl began when one of the gang members began swinging a golf club at another gang member - again, according to one of the people who called me.
Here’s the thing: Rocky Mount police say that’s a huge exaggeration. Police say a group of kids entered the store after a couple of the kids got into a fight at the July 3 fireworks display. Once the kids got to Wal-Mart, they got rowdy. The store manager called police. But there was no brawl. Police did a couple of ride-throughs in the Wal-Mart parking lot to make sure things calmed down, but that was it.
The Wal-Mart manager told Telegram staff writer Eric Klamut that a couple of kids started yelling and pushing each other, but the store broke things up pretty quickly. The manager laughed when we asked about a store lockdown. No such thing occurred, he said.
So here’s an apparently minor incident that we normally would report in our Sunday roundup that has taken on a much bigger life as a rumor in the community. It’s frustrating for all of us who want to know what’s true and what’s not.
If we report the incident (as we’re going to do in Friday’s edition), we make more of it than what it actually was. If we don’t report the incident, people think we or the police or Wal-Mart or all three of us are trying to cover up a Rocky Mount gang problem.
Any advice? We’re scratching our heads over this one.
Comments
By Holt
July 12, 2008 12:25 PM | Link to this
As with most things the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Unless one of the folks who spoke to you on the phone wants to come forward and be quoted by name then I wouldn’t report it officially.
Many of the so called “leaders” of Rocky Mount view reality through rose colored glasses. If things make Rocky Mount look bad or in a negative light then its not desirable to be made public. Its bad for business and luring business and new residents.
By Tom
July 13, 2008 1:40 PM | Link to this
Good story on ElectriCities but there is MORE.
We are more than bloggers - we are people with small business who want leadership and accountability. No CEO screws up like this and sits around screwing up more.
What are the staff salaries and the timing of big raises so we can see if Tilton was jacking their salary up so he could get his jacked up. The top management makes a couple million dollars. Clay Norris got 60% in increases over 5 years. People rolled in from Progress Energy and got big raises when Progress Energy let them go. Current staff have provided documentation on this - did you get the records on the millions for staff salary and increases?
Have any legislators turned in their PAC money? Seems like that would be a no brainer because of the stigma of taking money from this place now.
We need the communications with the rating agencies too. What did ElectriCities tell them and the Board and the power agency and when? The story has changed constantly.
Anyone actually able to cite hospitals or airports who did this refinancing that is as screwed up as this one? Seems everyone is hiding behind the excuse “everyone did it” so we are not alone. Pretty flaky argument to tell people in cities.
I will gladly save 2% on the 14% if that is the REAL number, with someone who knows how to refinance properly and keeps the public informed. What is the issue here - these people act as if this is not the business of the people.
By tari
July 13, 2008 10:48 PM | Link to this
Re ElectriCities Story
Please make another formal public records request with the agency so you can see what the senior management salaries are and what they have been for the past three years so you can see the LARGE RAISES THEY HAVE BEEN GETTING.
Why is Samuel Noble Jr., the town manager of Tarboro and chairman of the ElectriCities board, and Fred Turnage taking their $1000 a month salary on the board if they helped make the BAD REFINANCING DECISION?
A turnaround of expecting to save $10.5 million a year to new service payments that are rising $12 million a year, or equal to a 2 percent hike in the wholesale rate IS A HUGE MISTAKE not a poor decision.
“Who could have predicted the sub-prime (mortgage) crisis?” Raper said. “If the same set of circumstances (in 2004) presented itself today, we’d probably make the same decision.
There’s your reason for getting rid of them right there.
MOST people work in their job for 15 or 20 years to get incremental raises accordingly. I think the salary scales for many of these jobs are so far out of line with reality that it just makes me wonder…..who hires these folks???
Don’t give me that BS that you want the most qualified…most of the time the most qualified don’t even get an interview. What makes that person really think they are worth that much money??
Apparently,this Tilton fella and his co workers aren’t as qualified as they should be or we wouldn’t be looking at such a huge increase in utilities. Either they need to be fired or their salaries need to be taken way down ($50,000 seems to be Wilson’s favorite number) to compensate for their “little error.”
By judge
July 15, 2008 7:51 AM | Link to this
I suppose that last years closing of walmart on july 3rd was nothing also. The fact is that every year after the fireworks show the young adults gather around the walmart pva and raise hell and sometimes fight.
In 2007 walmart was closed by the RMPD for about an hour to clear the store and the Parking lot This I know bwcause I was one of the responding officers.