By: Megan Palera
mpalera@klkntv.com
From block parties to community center events, Tuesday night was all about getting to know your neighbor so that everyone can work together to keep Lincoln a safe place.
For some kids, Tuesday night is just another summer night filled with friends and food, but their parents know otherwise.
Roger Earl Junior made sure to bring his daughter to the 'F' Street Community Center for National Night Out. "It's so neat to see the diversity of the ethnic groups come together in the community and to have so much fun together," said Earl.
Bringing everyone together also means getting to know your local policeman and woman. "When the whole contact is because of good reasons rather than maybe because it started out as a bad reason, it makes for a lot better relationship. People know they can see cops and it's not necessarily a bad thing," said Captain Joseph Wright with LPD.
What better way to know you're safe than getting to play inside a real police car, or to wear a blue blood badge. It's a message of anti-crime that the city of Lincoln is hoping to spread across the community on this National Night Out.
So do these annual events ever really work? Even in the so-called, "bad" neighborhoods?
Just ask Earl Junior. He says he sees the pay off every day. "Especially with the gangs and the tagging. It's just so neat with how one person in the community will go buy paint and come over and paint the neighbor's garage where the graffiti was."
This is the 29th year for National Night Out. Around 37 million people are expected to participate across the country.
