Article

Damien Ferguson

Published by Damien Ferguson on the 8th of December 2016

When Criminals Lurk Among Us

A recent event, where one of this community is being sentenced to second degree rape, is something I think we should talk about. You always see random crime news story headlined as committed by a vampire but they normally are not members of the vampire community. They are simply described as such by the media because of some bizzarre activity that the writers relate to fictional vampires.

But sometimes they are.

This latest with [Dennis] is not new exactly. We’ve had it in the past. However, I think we need to do better as a community in addressing this problem.

Yes one of the issues in the difficulties of addressing this is drama.

Folks get mad at someone then accuse or spread rumors against that person. Those folks who do that are just as bad. By doing this, they actually help the real criminals in that if one has real concerns or legitimate allegations on someone who is a real criminal they fall on deaf ears. These drama-rumor folk help perpetrate a culture for criminals to thrive. These folks are, in my opinion, guilty as well.

The other issue is that the community is not a centralized or organized body with which to deal with these issues.

But rather than name names and point blame let’s focus on what we can do to help end this.

Those who are looked up to should be folks people could go to if they had issues or concerns or if they are even victimized themselves.

Now, not every person leader wise are good at handling that or at talking but they should at least be able to direct them to resources or someone. That’s why we network yeah? With different key persons in the community, I think it is possible. Network of resources and people that can help. Open up a place for those who need it to go to or report what happened to to get help.

Yes drama happens and always will. There will always be false claims against someone. However, there should be a away for us to rule against false claims of crimes against fellow community members. Just like it’s illegal to do so by law, we should enforce that in our communities.

And for those that are making the reports, it is also your responsibility to do the necessary and important steps to help support your case. File a police report, get statements from key witnesses, then share it to trusted key persons within the community.

And for those receiving the reports, do your best to listen. Investigate and ask as questions as you can to get to the bottom of things. If you can’t, refer them to those who you think can do that.

I am open to other ideas as well.

We can do better as a community and I have great hope that we will.