Last weekend's arrest log doesn't make the people of Rochester feel safer

We haven't received the Columbus Day weekend arrest logs yet, but we hope when we do they are less disturbing than last weekend's logs, which beyond the typical plethora of arrests on bench warrant also contained incidents that will likely make Rochester residents feel less safe, even while in their own homes.

Last Thursday, Oct. 6, was supposed to include a casual night out for two at a downtown restaurant. The dinner was a success, but when the pair returned to their car around 10 p.m. they found one of the car's windows had been smashed.

The next morning Rochester Police received word from a Rochester Hill Road resident whose vehicle had also been vandalized right outside her home. She reported the vehicle had been "keyed" multiple times.

Later on Friday round 8 p.m. Key Collision personnel called to say they'd seen a male pushing a cart down the road, and he'd pushed it over by the auto body shop. It was then reported he was trying to get into cars. City transient Cory Deshong was arrested at the scene for unlawful activities, litter control and flammable material, contempt and theft by unauthorized taking.

Then around 10:45 p.m. someone called dispatch to say there was a man in a vehicle that had been there for an hour. They said they couldn't tell if he was breathing.

When police got there they arrested Christopher Clough of Portsmouth on charges of drug possession.

Evidently Clough was not deemed a public hazard as he was released only to be found nodding off again, this time in the parking lot at Cumberland Farms across the street around 2:15 a.m. This time police called a wrecker.

It didn't get better on Sunday.

First a transient by the name of Briana Gammon was picked up on charges of falsifying physical evidence and two drug possession charges. Gammon also had 10 bench warrants ranging from theft and criminal mischief to public urination or defecation, making two false reports to law enforcement and criminal trespass.

Perhaps the most brazen criminality occurred Sunday evening around 6:55 p.m. when a Knight Street Cumberland Farms clerk caught a male shoplifting and told them to get out of the store.

Believe it or not, the man refused, prompting a response from police, who found him gone when they arrived at the store.

The weekend closed out with a Milton Road man chasing a group of random people who were yelling and screaming in his own back year. The woman who called the report in said her husband had followed them into the woods trying to track them down. Police soon arrived but couldn't find any of the vagrants.

The most disturbing item from last weekend was that Clough was apparently let go after being found passed out behind the wheel and arrested for drug possession, only to be found in the same predicament three and a half hours later across the street.

That individual should have been off the street till he saw a judge the following Monday.

These may all seem like petty crimes, but not to the ones who are the victims.

Many of these are quality of life crimes.

If we can't feel secure in our own homes, there's little quality to be had.

- HT