Advocate helps older senior adults deal with crime

By John Gordon*

The Rev. Edna Morgan (right) counsels Oneita Fisher, who is afraid to leave her home due to crime in her neighborhood in Pine Bluff, Ark. UMNS photos by John Gordon.

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (UMNS) - Surrounded by suspected drug-dealing activities, Oneita Fisher feels like a prisoner in her own home.

"I'm to the point now where I feel like I just can't take it anymore," says the 69-year-old Pine Bluff resident. "I'm afraid to leave, and I'm afraid to come home if I'm away. There's a lot of vandalism, and I have personally had my car stolen several times."

Fortunately, Fisher has a friend in the Rev. Edna Morgan, a crime victims' advocate for the elderly and the head of Healing Place Ministries, housed at First United Methodist Church in Pine Bluff. The ministry is funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Justice, the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Some 23 million crimes are committed every year in the United States, according to the Justice Department, and elderly people are especially vulnerable.

Many older senior adults live in a constant state of fear in crime-infested neighborhoods, Morgan says. "They are afraid to go out and empty their wastebaskets. Some of them are letting their wastebaskets pile up in their homes."

Morgan offers counseling for older crime victims, and she has started a monthly support group for them. She also works closely with police and prosecutors to help make victims aware of help that's available, such as reparations to cover medical bills, funeral expenses and other costs of crime.

"When the elderly come in, they are very, very upset," Morgan says. "In fact, they've usually reached their last straw."

Ripped off by relatives
Morgan works with elderly residents in the Pine Bluff and Little Rock areas who are victims of neighborhood turf wars, burglaries, robberies, insurance fraud, identity theft and consumer fraud. Relatives, she says, are responsible for most of the abuse.

"Their children and their grandchildren steal their identity, taking their charge cards, writing checks on their checking accounts," she says. "We've had several victims who've had $10,000, $20,000 (stolen), and even one who had her house - the deed to her house, the entire house - stolen from her by her children."

A stranger, however, was responsible for robbing Carolyn Ghotra, 57, and her husband at gunpoint. Ghotra says one robber hit her in the eye with a gun while another tied up her husband.

Though they survived the crime, emotional scars remain for the Ghotras, who are part of Morgan's support group. "I think the fear is always going to be there; it's not something that leaves you," she says. "You have flashbacks, you know, keep thinking that they're coming again."

A root cause: drugs
Fisher says she is alarmed by the frequent sounds of gunfire outside her home.

"All of a sudden you hear 10 or 12 bullets going off and they are racing down the street, and it's very near, it's very close to you," she says. "It's very scary because bullets will come inside a house."

Officer Robert Treadwell of the Pine Bluff Police Department says officers and landlords are making progress in pushing drug dealers out of neighborhoods.

"Ninety percent of the problems are drug-related," Treadwell says. "You get a person that's addicted on drugs and, of course, they're unemployed because most jobs require drug testing. They have to spend time trying to figure out how they're going to get these chemicals."

Morgan spends just as much time fighting for the rights of elderly crime victims.

"Our community should wrap their arms around the elderly and care for them," she says. "They made our country, and we owe it to them to love them and to care for them and make their last years their best years."

*Gordon is a freelance producer and writer based in Marshall, Texas.