Staying away from politics this week isn’t easy in a city like Somerville – but there is so much more to this community than the hustle and bustle of the pod people within our borders like the swallows returning to Capistrano. Maybe not as viscerally entertaining, but interesting and important, nonetheless.

One of the more important issues facing us as regular everyday residents in this urban jungle of ours is the increase in violence. Whether statistically real or not – the impression many people have is that violent crimes are on the rise and affecting neighborhoods that have seemed so docile for so many years. There doesn’t need to be a lot of ‚Äúshock and awe‚Äù involved to get people to think about it either.

There is little argument that there is increased violence in and around our schools and/or involving school-aged kids and young adults these days. Oh sure, maybe not in actual reported incidents, but you don’t have to look hard to see the signs – including gang signs – being ‚Äúthrown‚Äù by kids in elementary schools and etched into the stalls in the bathrooms – both boys and girls.

There have been physical and sexual assaults and attempted break-ins at all times of the day and night – you only have to look at the crime log to see for yourself the types of crimes committed and the time of day to get a good sense of the utter randomness of it all.

Road rage, dog attacks, fistfights, gang related violence – drug dealers and prostitutes – and that’s just the stuff we actually hear about – how about all the crimes that aren’t reported for one reason or another?

Many crimes against illegal immigrants are never known about until it’s too late. Some other crimes are within family units and between co-workers that never see a police report.

One of us here at the newspaper had his car broken into in broad daylight in front of his house – first time a car was broken into on his street in over 20 years – and never filed a police report because it was more of a hassle to say something than just get the window fixed and move on. We wonder how many times stuff like that happens and we never hear about it.

The bottom line is that we as a community need to have more open discussions on how we can prevent crimes that happen every day. Some hate the idea, but, neighborhood watches are something we need to start considering to augment the tremendous efforts of our police and fire departments. Let’s start talking.