Editorial: The good guys: Small town, big job

Talk about it

Man charged with police battery

Officers hurt while subduing intruder suspects

We don’t expect to read these headlines in River Falls, yet they’ve appeared this summer in the Journal.

Nor do we expect to find that four police officers were banged up and missed work this summer while carrying out their duties to protect the public. None of the injuries were life threatening, but all resulted from unruly suspects putting up a fight rather than accepting arrest.

As local residents, we may take the police department for granted. We maybe see officers monitoring parades and other large city events, patrolling in a squad car or directing traffic after a fender bender.

And while River Falls doesn’t have gang or drive-by shootings, or murders, the potential for such violence exists. Earlier this month officers were called to Kwik Trip on South Main Street. A suspect there was running around pointing a gun at a couple in a car.

Police work, even in a small town, can’t be taken for granted. Just ask the woman on Vine Street who was home alone at night two weeks ago with her small child. She heard noise on her back patio, switched on the light and came face to face with two male intruders.

Her 911 call later set the stage for those same two men to be questioned at Park and Main streets. Soon after one of the men went wild and a brawl broke out.

Two officers were hurt, one temporarily blinded by pepper spray used on the violent suspect. Other law enforcement officers from outside River Falls came to help restore peace and quiet to the neighborhood.

The community-minded dedication of our police goes beyond catching the bad guys. Consider Chuck Golden, a former patrol officer who now investigates child abuse and sex assault cases.

A father with young children himself, Golden has teamed up with state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls) to push a bill through the Legislature that adds penalty enhancers to anyone convicted of domestic violence in the presence of kids.

The kids don’t even have to be physically hurt, just present. Golden says children exposed to domestic violence bear emotional scars that can ruin their lives and others around them.

Golden’s efforts are a reminder that River Falls cops work under tough, volatile situations while retaining a sense of compassion.

River Falls remains a tightly knit, compact community but we’ve grown to the point where it’s nearly impossible to keep up with everything going on in town.

Checking bulletin boards and chatting with neighbors still works, but a Journal website feature provides another way for our growing town to stay in touch.

Anyone with Internet access can submit an event they’d like to announce to the public. Just log onto www.riverfallsjournal.com.

When the home page opens, scroll to the bottom and find the calendar on the left. Click “add new event” and follow the prompts to submit your activity.

Keep it clean! Before they go online, these submissions pop up for approval by our editorial staff, but there are few reasons they’d be refused.

You can submit paid or free events held by private companies or nonprofits. You can submit the local play or an out-of-area presentation that might be of interest to locals. You can post recurring meetings or activities, as well as one-time events or a series of them.

The calendar shows five days at a time, but people can ‘set’ their announcement information as far in advance as they would like, and at any hour of the day it’s convenient for them.

This forum offers a place for people to announce the occasions too numerous to list in the printed paper. It gives citizens a free, high-traffic place to exchange information and keep informed.

We hope you’ll take advantage of it.

The Journal’s online poll question about Brett Favre provoked a split, but one view floated to the top: There’s more interest and passion for his successor with the Packers, No. 12, Aaron Rodgers.

Describe what best fits your reaction to Brett Favre signing with the Vikings.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Journal online readers said: