Normally when a newspaper gets a story like “Police Arrest Frosty the Snowman,” particularly on a slow holiday weekend like Thanksgiving, there is a collective feeling of winning the lottery. It is a headline made in heaven for the news media, and the Spy, like our friends at the Kent County News, as well as the likes of the Washington Post and Fox News, had it flash over the internet within hours of Frosty’s arrest last Saturday.
Unfortunately, like most stories of this kind, there is a back story, and the Spy saw little joy in reporting on Frosty’s arrest. In this case, it is a story of a family and a town challenged for years by an individual unable (or incapable) to accept simple boundaries for public behavior. It has been an ongoing tragedy which seems to have no end in sight given the limitations (and individual protections) of our laws to manage a person’s conduct for the benefit and safety of a community.
In the fantasy television life of a small town, our Frosty would have been kindly led back to the jailhouse for a timeout, while Mayberry’s sheriff worked out a plan with the family and the town doctor to get Frosty back on his feet. By the next season, Frosty is back on the street waving at children.
For Chestertown, things are not that simple. As a community, we know too much not to be alarmed. On the other hand, the town is almost powerless to intervene other than to restrain or confine those who act out through the use of threatening language or actions.
In the end, there are no short term or easy answers here, but denial is not a reasonable option. We can only trust therefore that our law enforcement and social services professionals will work constructively with those in need of help sooner rather than later.
While it is hoped that our Frosty will come back some day, we need him to return with his health and good sense of behavior restored.
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