Bethel Park is a small town in Western Pennsylvania about 25 minutes outside the city of Pittsburgh. The community is tightly knit and work together to make the community a better place. Recently, the citizens of Bethel Park have had conflicted opinions about moving the local magistrate building from inside the police station in the town to its own separate building still within the district lines. The new building is just outside a neighborhood in the town. The people of the community are worried that the move will cause criminals to be brought into their neighborhood and could disrupt the peace that the neighborhood is used to. This concern is highly irrational because of the overall crime rate and definition of what a magistrate does.
Of the crimes that the
…show more content…
In this article, it does not depict the amount of civil cases that are heard in the magistrate building as well as felony cases that are heard by the judge. According to the US Court system, magistrate courts have been hearing felony cases less and less every year and have been statistically hearing more noncriminal cases throughout the past decade (“US Magistrates…”). This indicated that of the cases that are heard by the magistrate judge, most are nonviolent, civil cases or summary cases such as traffic violations, public health nuisances, and young offenders of “small” crimes. Many cases heard in the magistrate court in Bethel Park are juvenile crimes that happen in or around the high school. Many people are against the move of the magistrate building because of the thought of criminals roaming throughout their neighborhood are most likely thinking of the crimes committed by juveniles within the township. These hypothetical crimes that community members are worried about are drastically decreasing nationally and for my community. The violent crimes of minors that people are worried about entering their neighborhoods has decreased by nearly 10% within the last