Up & Coming Weekly

4 UCW JANUARY 20-26, 2010 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Tabitha Kidd tabitha@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Shannen Dill, Karen Poppele, Takeema Hoffman, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. STAFF Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 16 Concert Connection ........................ 21 TV ..................................................... 22 Movie Review .................................. 24 Movie Schedule ............................... 25 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 26 News of the Weird ........................... 27 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 27 Classifieds ........................................ 28 Games .............................................. 30 Dining Guide .................................... 31 INSIDE City's Crime Spree Explanation 'Lame'; What You Don't Know Can Hurt You by DAVID WILSON DAVID WILSON Contributing Writer COMMENTS? Bill@upandcomingweekly.com. OPINION I guess it comes with the territory. Being the police chief is a tough job. But why make it tougher? The Fayetteville Police Department's motto and mission is to "protect and serve." Keeping information from the public that reasonably would have spared some of the victims the terrible trauma of forcible rape and robbery is completely counterproductive to that motto. The community deserves to be kept safe by the police department and to that end the community must be accurately informed. Chief Bergamine's explanation regarding withheld information about the rapes and robberies of several women in our community over the past few months was quite lame — and very late. He did not want to "panic the public" by alerting the public about these crimes. Sorry Chief but that just does not wash. The Fayetteville community does not panic and the chief should know that considering all of his years as a Fayetteville police officer. The public, and women living alone in particular, have reacted responsibly. Some have had alarm systems installed. Others have bought watch dogs or mace or pepper sprays or hand guns. I expect all have a much greater level of concern and awareness as a result of the publicity regarding these crimes. But those actions were not proactive. They were reactive to the publicity and for some, the news came too late. So the police chief clearly dropped the ball. That begs the question as to why? The chief gets his marching orders from City Manager Dale Iman, who in turn gets his from the mayor and city council. All of these individuals up the chain of command have expressed great concern. They have eschewed knowledge of or endorsement of the police department's policy regarding dissemination of this round of serious criminal activity. I believe the complete story is not being told. I submit that an effort is afoot, and has been for some time, to suppress news that puts our community in a bad light. I believe this suppression of serious bad news was not initiated at the chief- of-police level. I also believe that Chief Bergamine will be left to twist in the wind. We do not want to alarm families moving into our community as a result of BR AC. But Fayetteville is not a sanctuary free of bad guys. We have our share, just as other cities have theirs. We also have gangs and gang activity on our streets and in our high schools, but we don't read about that. To put a best foot forward is understandable, but not if it involves a serious cover up of criminal activity. It is entirely probable that Chief Bergamine was acting as he had been advised but in the case of the multiple rapes and robberies a lid could not be kept in place. The city council is holding hearings. The matter is to be investigated. After that, the public will get a clear and unvarnished explanation. It will be just like the "Ticketgate" explanation. You can bet on it. 24 24 7 / Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sponsored by Thursday January 21 High 48° Low 44° Showers High 52° Low 34° Partly Cloudy High 57° Low 45° Cloudy High 58º Low 34º Showers Friday January 22 Saturday January 23 Sunday January 24 Monday January 25 Fayetteville Regional Airport www.fl yfay.com Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Call 910.354.1679 Call 910.354.1679 Tuesday January 26 High 54º Low 33º Sunny High 46° Low 33° Showers Don't Read All About It

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