Get down with pigs, mud sticks to you

A friend of my wife’s lived in a small town in Crittenden County, Arkansas. The woman and her husband owned a good-size farm. They had a son. As happens in rural America, the son decided he could make more money dealing in illegal drugs than by working the farm.

West Memphis is the largest city in Crittenden County. Drugs make up an important part of crime in West Memphis.

One morning the wife and husband woke up to find someone had parked their son’s car in one of their fields and set the car on fire. They also discovered their son’s burned body in the car.

No one was ever arrested in the homicide. Police know all the bad guys in a city and in a county, but linking a particular crime to a specific bad guy is not always possible.

Marion, Arkansas

Marion is county seat for Crittenden County. The Mississippi River borders the county to the east.

Marion has experienced much population growth since 1980, going from 2,996 to 12,345 in 2010, with an estimated population of 12,362 in 2016.

Marion’s population is about 68% white and 28% black, as garnered from the 2010 census. A bit more than 7% of the population has incomes below the poverty line.

On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and burned a few miles north of Marion. The wreckage drifted ashore near Marion. Approximately 1,500 Union soldiers died from the boiler explosions, from fire or drowned in the river. The soldiers were recently freed prisoners of war and going home when the boilers exploded.

Allegations of malfeasance and bribery were alleged, but never tried in court.

Here is a link to a satellite photograph of Marion:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.2204792,-90.219253,19852m/data=!3m1!1e3

Strangely, the Mississippi River is not always the border between Arkansas and Tennessee. Those squiggles on the land are areas where the Mississippi sometimes flowed in the past. Generally, the U.S. and state governments have stopped rivers from flowing where they will. One of these days the rivers will say, “No more! We’re going where we want!” The rivers will burst through banks and levees and flood the land as in the past.

When an 80-year-old woman with a gun says ‘Get out of my house’

Well, in Marion, Ark. …

“A woman shot a home intruder Sunday morning, killing the 19-year-old man, authorities said.

“The Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department said ADT alarm company received a burglar alarm call at a house on Marion Lake Road at 3:31 a.m. Sunday.

“The alarm company made contact with the homeowner, who is in her late 80s and lives by herself. They called officers in Marion and Crittenden County, who responded.

“The woman told authorities she called out to the intruder who forcefully entered the home and ordered him to leave her home. She said he advanced toward her and that’s when she shot him in self-defense.”

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=75692

Government gathers all these numbers …

…and then tries to make them fit into categories that oftentimes don’t make sense.

Clarkedale, Arkansas, is an example.

Clarkesdale’s 2010 population was 371. It is a small town.

The people have to fit into government categories, because … Well, the government said so.

Of those 371 people, 216 were employed, in these areas, ranked top to bottom: educational services; health care and social assistance; transportation and warehousing; agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting; retail trade; construction; public administration; manufacturing; finance and insurance; professional, scientific tech services; admin, support, waste management; real estate, rental, leasing; and wholesale trade.

The most common country of origin: Mexico, Russia, Costa Rico.

Citizenship: 100 percent U.S.

Most common non-English language: French, French Creole, Spanish.

Degrees awarded: 744 – 53.9% from Arkansas Northeastern College; 46.1% from Mid-South Community College.

Median household income: $85,000, with the largest share of households at $75,000 to $100,000.

Median property value: $205,000.

http://datausa.io/profile/geo/clarkedale-ar/#demographics

Here is a satellite view: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3092804,-90.2364441,555m/data=!3m1!1e3

Looks like one church, a dozen houses and 12 grain silos in the town itself, surrounded by miles and miles of fields, probably soybeans and some rice.

The numbers just don’t seem to match the ground.