Sex Trafficking Allegations Bob Henry Park Incident Still Under Investigation ZEKE WILCOX Much of It,” Kathy Wrote
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Thursday, September 14, 2017 Issue 1, Volume 83 advocate.jbu.edu Siloam Springs, Arkansas Hurricane Harvey p.2 New businesses p.5 Megan Hansen’s art p.8 Soccer season p.9 Sex trafficking allegations Bob Henry Park incident still under investigation ZEKE WILCOX much of it,” Kathy wrote. “But they Opinion Editor just kept standing there staring at [email protected] me.” After exchanging a few words in Spanish, the man and the young On August 5, a woman girl moved to the swings, staring at contacted the Siloam Springs Kathy all the while. Police Department following an Feeling uneasy, she attended to incident with alleged sex traffickers her dog, preparing to give it a drink at the Bob Henry Park in Siloam from her son’s water bottle, but was Springs. startled when the man appeared According to an article release from behind, took her dog, poured by 5 News, the S.S.P.D. requested water in his hand and allowed it to the woman contact a detective in drink from it. the criminal investigation division “I was already feeling like to further examine the issue. something was off, and this made Lt. Derek Spicer of the S.S.P.D. me feel worse,” Kathy said. said the S.S.P.D. couldn’t comment She said he continued to stare on the cases until further notice, as at her, so she took back her dog, the case is still under investigation. moved away from the man, and sat The woman, a non-resident of on the steps of the jungle gym to be Siloam Springs who will be called closer to her children. Kathy, reported that the alleged sex At this point Kathy reported that traffickers spoke with her, filmed the suspect and the little girl moved her with a phone, followed her to a new swing set which was about the park, and surrounded her ASHLEY BURGER/The Threefold Advocate facing her directly. The man placed car when she attempted to leave Sex trafficking allegations in Bob Henry Park occured August 6 whena mother and her children were approached at a baby doll in the swing next to the with her children. the park. little girl and proceeded to film it The evening of August 6, Kathy According to Kathy’s Facebook Kathy was sitting on a bench, and Hispanic with dark hair in and the girl with his phone. wrote a detailed post on Facebook post, she visited the park with holding her dog and watching her his early to mid-30s. The girl was about her experience which her three sons around 5:30 in the children play, when a man and a around two or three years old. SEX TRAFFICKING she described as “horrible and afternoon. Other families were seen little girl approached her. “I figured she was wanting to continued on page 3 traumatic”. milling about with their children. She described the man as tall see the puppy, so I wasn’t thinking The changing face of Siloam Springs SAMUEL considers Simon Sager’s settlement to be Siloam’s true CROSS-MEREDITH beginning. If that’s the case, Editor-In-Chief then the town was first called [email protected] Hico, and saw its first settler, Sager, in 1834, making Siloam A fall Saturday morning Springs around 183 years old. on John Brown University’s Sager settled around a mile campus is a special thing. For west of where Siloam is now, those who haven’t experienced and Sager Creek is named after it, there’s a light air that him. blows through campus as the Now, think back to 1834: heat breaks and leaves start pre-Civil War America. What changing from vivid greens to brought a man to a random vibrant purples and reds. The spot in Northwest Arkansas students who aren’t trapped and invited him to set up shop? by deadlines, essays, or tests Sager’s arrival triggered a see this as the perfect time to domino effect, and after him stroll down Siloam Spring’s came many more settlers. Broadway street for coffee, ice Between 1834 and 1881, cream, or thrift shopping. people were drawn mainly It has become a sort of to the 28 natural springs that tradition among college were initially thought to have students to patronize local medicinal properties. Contrast businesses, but the face of that image with the cafés and business in Siloam Springs’s ASHLEY BURGER/The Threefold Advocate ice cream shops of Siloam downtown area has changed Downtown Siloam Springs opened many new businesses in the past few months, including Pure Joy Ice Cream and Chickadee’s. today. dramatically in the past stores, and ice cream parlors to look different now, but just how has been recognized as a decades, from doctors’ offices, a record store and even a J.C. different are they? town for around 136 years, THE HUB continued on page 5. dealerships, coffee shops, thrift Penny’s back in the day. Things Siloam Springs, Arkansas technically longer if one A Letter from the Editor-In-ChiefPage 6 September 14, 2017 2 NEWS The Threefold Advocate Hurricane targets Texas homes NOAH FRANZ of places provide monetary support. Parishioners are Life Styles Editor opening up their homes to two [email protected] or three families per house. That’s the Texas way. Texas has When Category 4 tropical taken this disaster in stride,” storm Harvey made landfall Smiddy said. Smiddy described on August 25, 2017, no one several Texas residents outside expected history in the making. the doors of his church one Residents of Rockport, Texas morning after Mass. “There observed 130 mph vortex are just so many people to keep winds, and soon, a large swath track of, we just can’t post it.” of Texas braced for the first Many have used Harvey hurricane to strike it and the as an excuse to blame certain surrounding Gulf of Mexico individuals for their lack of since Wilma in 2005. willingness to help in the effort, Since Harvey’s dissipation casting aspersions on religious over the arid plains of figures like Joel Osteen or Central Texas, government political figures like Houston environmental researchers and mayor Sylvester Turner. “The emergency responders are still mayor has gotten grief for calculating the depth of the not forcing evacuations for hurricane’s damage. Loss has everyone. But everyone getting been estimated up to 75 billion out on the highway can be just dollars, according to catastrophe as dangerous. I don’t fault the modeling firm AIR Worldwide, authorities,” Bower said. making this the costliest Rather than casting blame, natural disaster in US history. humanitarian groups like the Jonathan Smiddy, resident American Red Cross have raised of the Wedgewood suburb support through various means, of Houston, witnessed the including a Donate feature on devastation firsthand. Facebook’s front page. Smiddy Smiddy said the water was also has other suggestions. two inches from entering his “Donate directly to GoFundMe home and the houses on his pages for people who’ve lost lot. He said that there are EMILY CHERRY /TheThreefoldAdvocate their homes, vehicles, or other around 1150 homes in the the water up four feet.” those average people, a lot providing it,” Smiddy said. property. Another interesting neighborhood, and about a Bower and his family of flood victims would’ve Concerns about the solution is to donate sheet rock third of those are filled with moved all their furniture up been hurt in a big way.” ability of authorities and and dry wall,” Smiddy said. four feet of water. He further to the second floor and hoped Smiddy described the local groups to provide for Hurricane Harvey is the commented on the flood damage the water would subside. complex flood insurance the overwhelming need for first of perhaps several record- that rendered his children’s Both local and governmental situation many affected by the food, water, and shelter have breaking natural disasters to middle school inaccessible. support for Houston and the rising waters now face. “My mounted, especially since it strike America during in 2017. Todd Bower, another surrounding area during neighborhood isn’t on the 500- comes on the heels of last year’s Predictions about upcoming Texas resident from nearby and after the disaster have year floodplain, so none of us hundred-year flood, an event Tropical Storms Irma and Juan, Fulshear, lives adjacent received mixed responses. have flood insurance. We’re that flooded portions of Texas as well as fires throughout to the Brazos river. “People with boats started at the mercy of the Federal with nearly 20 inches of rain. the Midwest and a recent “At one point, we were pulling residents out of our Emergency Management “My parish is a designated earthquake in Mexico, leave getting five or six inches of neighborhood,” Smiddy said. Agency. There’s a $33,000 center for the Galveston Food many with concerns about rain per hour,” Bower said. “As “The government provided cap, and the government Bank. If someone loses their the future. “Continue to pray more rain filled the Brazos, air support, but if not for is notoriously bad about house or their car, these kinds for recovery,” Bower said. the river crested, bringing Opioid use fuels further addiction SAMUEL are being given medications to keep them out of pain, and CROSS-MEREDITH these medications are incredibly Editor-in-Chief addictive,” Hostler said. [email protected] Addiction is, in fact, one 4 out of 5 of the biggest problems with Opioid addiction in the 2012 prescribing opioids, especially United States has claimed heroin users started in treating acute pain.