Font Size:

This time yesterday, an ice cream man in South Omaha had just been beaten and robbed.  Omaha police arrested a 19-year old and two juveniles, age 16 & 17.  Now it's up to the court to decide.

I couldn't help but notice all the disgust in the neighborhood.  Especially the youngsters who had been buying $1 treats from the guy for years.  Who would do such a thing?

There was something else that was unusual a couple blocks away where police had tracked the possible robbers.  There seemed to be a polite give-and-take between the teens in custody and all the adults that were there and the officers.

Normally when police have suspects cuffed and sitting on a curb -- and there are family members present trying to figure out what had happened and why their loved one was in trouble -- tempers flare.  Voices are raised.  There's a lot of anger.    Sometimes it's even directed at us.

While we were there, we didn't see any of that.  Granted we missed the first few minutes of the arrests while we interviewed witnesses near the ice cream cart.  But if there had been a problem early on with attitudes -- I think we still would have been present.   

Perhaps calm heads understood from the get-go what had happened down the street.  Perhaps the parents quickly sided with police instead of what we often see at the scene of a crime -- a mom or dad never believing their son or daughter could do such a thing.

Whatever it was from this perspective, it was refreshing.  Especially considering how all of it started with the assault of an ice cream man. 

Brian