Although I’ve lived in Tallassee for a number of years and worked here even longer, I’ve never let go of my initial impression of our community as an idyllic little mill town.  Certainly, it’s easy to see on a week like Homecoming – our town comes together and recognizes the class from 20 years ago and it’s celebrated with a bonfire, a candlelight ceremony, a parade and a couple of pep rallies – but there are those darker moments, too.  These are the times in which you can see that even a small place like ours can somehow find itself dealing with issues that used to only affect big cities. 

The Broken Window Theory is a widely circulated set of concerns first put forth by sociologists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982. Wilson and Kelling posited that small criminal acts within a community, such as graffiti and broken windows, create a breeding environment for greater and more serious crimes.