COMMENTARY: PINE BLUFF — SAFE OR NOT?

Crime hit Arkansans way too close to home these past couple of weeks, and we felt that sting right here in Southeast Arkansas.

An attractive, personable, blond Little Rock morning anchorwoman is brutally beaten to what ultimately was her death. Someone we all felt we knew. She made our morning just a little bit brighter. Her last “Daybreak” assignment was a 5 a.m. pep rally just down the road on a chilly Friday morn in Rison. Several of those folks who met her then mourned her passing on KATV’s Web site.

As the shock of Anne Pressly’s death hit us where we live Saturday night and left us numb most of Sunday, shots rang out on the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on Sunday night. Something like eight bullets from a passing car that left two students dead, one a promising former Dermott High School senior class president, Chavares Block, just 19. Gone before he could reach the potential his family and friends knew he had in him.

We find out later that in the wee hours of Sunday morning in the midst of a celebration of UAPB’s first football victory of 2008 and an exciting Homecoming celebration that brought many dignitaries to town, shots also rang out here in Pine Bluff outside Jefferson Square. Just random bullets, luckily killing no one. Two wounded. But shaking up at least those two people forever.

Connections to the UCA shooting to come later that night were explored.

On a serene college campus in a town where people once felt so safe they wouldn’t have to lock their doors at night, you can bet they do now in Conway.

In Little Rock’s poshest neighborhoods, there is fear over either a thug perhaps armed with a baseball or softball bat and looking for a quick score, or worse, over someone who not only targeted 26-year-old Anne Pressly but beat her to death so savagely every bone in her face was broken.

A ball bat was apparently used in the robbery and beating deaths of an elderly Pine Bluff couple not equipped to fight back. Their alleged killers were just charged this week.

How safe are we in our own homes? On the streets of Pine Bluff? Those of us who work the late shift in these parts might need to know.

We want to know how you feel. So we’re asking one important question in an online poll. Please participate. We’ll run it through the weekend, then compile the results Monday.

Here’s the final jeopardy question:

How safe is it to live in or visit Pine Bluff?