Todd Paris, Staff Writer and Salisbury Attorney
♦ Around lunchtime today Tonya Harrison alerted me on Facebook that Livingstone college was placed on lockdown and shots were fired on S. Fulton. Lunch break at the courthouse ensued and my lunch companions at Pancho Villa’s noted that reports were showing up in the local TV media online about Salisbury High being locked down as well.
I took a few minutes after dropping my companions off to run down Fulton Heights and saw Salisbury Police cars lined up by The Mean Mug Coffee Shop and spread throughout the area.
The Mean Mug is a popular destination in Fulton Heights to have coffee and listen to live music. It’s is particularly popular with Salisbury’s social justice set and I’ve seen pictures of County Commissioner Judy Klusman and City Council Member Maggie Blackwell taken there. In the past few years, almost anything liberal, progressive or democratic in Salisbury seems to have met there.
In late 2012 the building and surrounding area were treated to a Blockwork Extreme Make-over when over a hundred volunteers descended on the area to paint and work on landscaping. RCCC students erected the sculpture seen in our last report entitled “Helping Hands” and both the Robertson and Woodson Foundations chipped in with money. The entire effort created a small Charlotte NODA-like area for the Fulton Heights–Chestnut Hill neighborhoods.
And the Statue Cried Out: “Medical Attention! Medical Attention!”:
The folks operating Mean Mug today were gracious to help the Salisbury High student shot in broad daylight within feet of the “Helping Hands” sculpture. They remembered this young man from previous visits. They expressed concern that their business may get negative publicity, but felt good that the young student believed their establishment was a safe place and they were able to help him flee from someone attempting to kill him. Unlike other business owners who have had folks shot in front of their businesses and threatened to sue media for mentioning their name, the folks at Mean Mug were gracious and even handed out free bottled water to the media. We applaud them!
If you are traveling down Fulton Street and fancy a spot of tea or coffee please stop in and patronize the “Mean Mug.” They are nice folks and deserve to have a successful business. I did not see any “no carry concealed” sign on the door.
Two things come to mind. First, perhaps the city should consider a signage system for local businesses ran by good people that are willing to serve as “safe spaces” for citizens victimized and grievously injured on the mean streets of Salisbury where they can shelter until help can be summoned. Volunteers at those locations could be provided with blood-clotting wound dressings like police officers carry and simple instructions to stem bleeding until help arrives. We could even include Narcan dosages to save lives in the midst of Salisbury’s exploding opiates and heroin overdose tragedy. Seconds can count!
In the alternative, we could just pay SPD officers a decent wage, get Salisbury H-R to leave them alone, rebuild the SPD and try to take back our streets.
Signs All Over Salisbury Proclaiming Suboxone for Micro Loans:
In other great news, Salisbury’s opioid epidemic is so huge that an enterprising entrepreneur placed signs up all over Salisbury offering micro loans (some call micro loans loan sharking) so that addicts can afford to purchase suboxone a prescription medicine containing the active ingredients buprenorphine and naloxone and used to treat adults who are addicted to opioids (either prescription or illegal). Of course treatment programs exist to help folks taper off from that as well.
