Letter: Murders shouldn't happen on small-town streets. There've been 2 where I live

I moved to Cypress Street in Elizabeth City about five years ago and hated it. There was a constant parade of house-shaking cars playing rap music, people threw garbage on the roads of their own neighborhood and didn’t take care of their pets or yards, and prostitutes walked the streets.

The neighbor directly across the street used to let his dog out on the roof to defecate instead of walking him. My one friend in the neighborhood got his motorcycle stolen by a kid in the same neighborhood, who wrecked it, injuring himself, I didn’t feel sorry for him.

No one was friendly. It was like the entire neighborhood was in a contest to see who could be the rudest, and competition was fierce. Gunplay was a part of life there and murder occurred on my street.

I decided to move to an apartment downtown; last weekend, there was another murder on my street; the police killed the perpetrator after he refused to drop his gun. I didn’t feel sorry for him, either.

I have never lived anywhere else where murder took place on my street, but it has happened in this small little town twice, not to mention all the other streets here and across the U.S.

Guns are not toys and they are not fashion accessories. Being a thug and a gangster is not something our children should aspire to be or celebrate. I don’t know the solution, but it’s not what we’re doing now.

JOHN STILES

Elizabeth City