Heartbreaking crime victimizes our entire community

The Wasilla Police Department is working to solve a heartbreaking crime of violence that occurred a couple weeks ago against a local teen.

As detailed in a story in today’s paper, the 17-year-old girl was stopped on the side of the road to deal with her own car trouble when she was approached by a man asking for money. When she reached for her wallet to offer what she could, the criminal stuck a knife in the girl’s face and took every cent she had.

Armed robbery is a relatively rare crime in the Valley, but it’s one of the most terrifying someone can face because of the danger it presents. The violation of trust and emotional damage that can be done to the victim is devastating, and hopefully the victim is able to recover from the trauma inflicted upon her.

The fact that this young woman was trying to help her attacker makes this crime even worse. As someone in our newsroom pointed out, random crimes such as this don’t just impact the victim, but our entire community. That’s because it erodes the trust we have in one another and hardens our hearts toward those in need. After reading today’s story, it’s a safe bet people will be just a little bit more guarded when they’re approached by someone who says they’re in need.

When community members feel they can’t trust one another, the community ceases to exist. Instead, we become a mass of strangers, each of us casting sidelong glances at each other out of fear.

With the holiday season upon us, our wish is that crimes like this don’t dampen the spirit of giving. If we let such callous and despicable crimes define who we are, we all lose part of our shared sense of humanity. We cannot let that happen.

Here’s wishing the Wasilla Police Department a speedy resolution to this case. Hopefully, whoever committed this violation will see the error of their ways and turn themselves in. If not, lets hope someone who knows the criminal tells the police what they know. People who commit such crimes have no place in polite society, and the best place for this particular perpetrator to spend the holidays is behind bars.