“I am begging for you to help me,” Nicholas Street resident Harriet Cooper told members of the Henderson City Council on Monday evening.
Cooper described in detail for the council how she was mugged on her doorstep on December 24, 2008, and how her house was subsequently burgled on January 11 of this year.
The Nicholas Street resident claimed that her house was broken into because there is no deterrent for crime. She was frequently critical of the response from the Henderson Police Department, stating that she does not think police tried to catch the person who invaded her home.
Cooper noted for the council that Nicholas Street is very poorly lit at night, and she claimed that she has never seen a patrol car in the neighborhood.
“I’m not criticizing, I am frightened,” Cooper told members.
Blanche Davis, another Nicholas Street resident, told council members that if she had known the neighborhood was “like this,” she would never have bought a house there. She told members that neighborhoods with $200,000 to $300,000 houses have lights and patrols. She said that she deserves the same because she pays taxes too.
Council member Garry Daeke asked if there were enough neighbors to form a Neighborhood Watch. Davis said that there is a “handful”, but that they are “scared to death”.
Nicholas street resident Karen Peace said that she is worried when her children are home. She said that she wants to be able to play with her small child outside, in front of her house, without worrying.
At issue in the public comments of Cooper, Davis, and Peace is a small store on Nicholas Street where, according to the Nicholas Street residents, young men, teens, and younger children congregate all day long. Cooper identified the sale of alcoholic beverages by the store as a source of concern, while Peace claimed that the crowds have attacked several people and been the locus of fights.