I have been in small towns all my life, and as Louis L'Amour said, the biggest fallacy in the movie and tv Westerns is that there is a villain, there is a hero, and there are a bunch of "frightened townfolk" who have to have a hero to come in and save them from the bad guys. That frightened townfolk will let the evil folks do their thing is a bunch of baloney.
To come out West, in the old West, you had to be a pretty tough, pretty strong, pretty brave and in many cases, highly principled person. You fought your own battles. Most of us still do this today. I have seen many people get to be the Boss Hogg in many little towns. In every case, they eventually came down, weren't able to do much, even in the bad old days and in the peak of their so-called power. To suggest that some small town baddie could overrule any town in America, could get more than a few people to cooperate with them, not to mention all the law enforcement community, the city and county government, the state and federal agencies, and the local churches, synagogues and whatever is ludicrous.
Yes, it's true, I've heard some local law enforcement that used to joke that if they could make ten people in a small place disappear and of course the idea was, let them pick which ten people, they could stop 95% of the crime and trouble and mahem in the area. But that joke was based on tough experience, those people they were talking about had worked hard for the kudos.
I have also seen examples of small time thieves, welfare cheats and even habitual child abusers who would go from town to town as they became well known in some area or another and the locals got to paying them too much attention. Would suggest that is what this family should pack up and do, even if they're innocent as lillies.
I have a huge feeling we are not getting "the rest of the story."
