Kidnapping, armed robbery, shootings, burglaries – suddenly the headlines on the pages of this newspaper seem more fitting for a large metropolitan city than Natchez, Miss.

But the headlines aren’t fanciful dreams of some fiction writer, they’re real.

And for folks in Natchez and the rest of the Miss-Lou, the reality of the crimes behind those headlines is frightening.

We don’t want to think that armed men would walk into a grocery store, demand money and shoot an employee, but it happened. Our hearts beat a little quicker when we think of the resident who was tied up by an armed assailant who’d broken into her home.

It’s easy for us all to go through life with the it-won’t-happen-to-me attitude. But as the recent headlines can attest, it can happen to you and it does happen here.

We don’t mean to frighten anyone – hardly. But it’s a good idea for all of us to learn a valuable lesson from the recent crimes in our area. We must take crime seriously.

Our area is lucky. Serious crimes are much more often the exception rather than the rule.

But the recent rash of crime should make us realize the importance of having proper law enforcement personnel available.

We’re lucky. The Miss-Lou is filled with good, quality law men and women.

The key thing to remember is that in order to have excellent law enforcement officers, we must pay them well, treat them with respect, make sure they are trained well and ensure they are equipped with the best tools our community can provide.