Louisiana residents go on armed crime patrol

[Termite]

KENTWOOD, LA.
Two residents of St. Helena Parish loaded two AR-15 assault rifles and a couple of pistols, climbed into a pickup truck and began patrolling the back roads of the northeastern portion of the parish Friday, looking for anyone breaking the law.
Angered by a recent rash of break-ins and burglaries, Alton Travis and Bill Birch are part of a community that have not only started a Neighborhood Watch program, but are also actively patrolling the area on their own.

“There’s a bunch of people that’s been out riding around, trying to catch (thieves),” said Dan Wall, one of the principal organizers of the Neighborhood Watch program in the parish’s Sixth Ward, in which both Travis and Birch live.
Birch, whose welding shop was broken into earlier this year, said he rides around “about every day.
“I am armed everywhere I go,” he said. “I may catch somebody breaking into my buddy’s house.” “We are just trying to help the police out,” Travis said. “We are going to all costs to try to avoid violence.”

The two are armed, they said, so that if they do find somebody committing a burglary, they will be able to hold the person until the police arrive.
“If we have to, we will make a citizen’s arrest,” Travis said.

One Sixth Ward resident did just that when he saw people breaking into his cousin’s house. “I went and got some help, and we held them until the cops got there,” said Alvin D. “Pee Wee” Thompson Jr.
Thompson said that he was not armed, but that one of the men with him was armed.

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[Aglifter]

I always thought that reviving the tradition of evening walks through a neighborhood would be good for the community - both because it would encourage neighbors talking to one another, etc, and getting to know people*, and because it would have decent men circulating in an area. (Preferably armed, and w. well-behaved dogs.)

*Single women, living alone are bizarre creatures. They can get themselves into surprising scrapes because "they don't want to make a fuss" or the refuse to see how dangerous a situation really is. Not all of them, but most of them really do need a surrogate older brother/father in the area to help them deal w. certain situations, or at least recognize when a situation that seems "odd" to them, is actually dangerous.

[Termite]

I assume you are referring to younger single women, not middle aged or elderly widows. Elderly widows can make for excellent "alarm dogs", if you are their neighbor and you befriend them.

[Flintlock Tom]

I pity the poor soul who locks himself out of his house and decides to climb in the window...

[Steamforger]

I pity the poor soul who locks himself out of his house and decides to climb in the window...

Almost nothing good comes of Kentwood. Except the water. The water is good. Other than that, we could carpet bomb the place, not lose anything that really mattered and would probably have a chance at getting Brittney and K-Fed in the same place. $%&* I hate North Tangipahoa.

[Aglifter]

I pity the poor soul who locks himself out of his house and decides to climb in the window...

I don't know that it would be any different than if a cop saw you do that.

[Aglifter]

I assume you are referring to younger single women, not middle aged or elderly widows. Elderly widows can make for excellent "alarm dogs", if you are their neighbor and you befriend them.

Yes, I was referring to younger women. The "little old widow ladies" I knew growing up were raised to fight Commanches* - and fit the full definition of "tough old broads".

*The last Indian battle in Central TX was ~1912 or so.