Numbers don’t lie. Do they?

In the world of public perception, a fact isn’t a fact unless you believe it.

And statistics, as straightforward as they may seem, are no match for public perception.

Our world isn’t what it used to be. Doors need to be locked, children don’t obey and Mayberry is only a fictional TV town.

For Americans, it’s easy to trace our most recent perception of safety back to one day — Sept. 11, 2001.

The national realization that we could be hurt at home hasn’t gone away. And it’s molded us, at least a little, into what we are today.

It’s not international terrorists who are breaking car windows and shooting bullets into apartments in Natchez and Adams County.

Few of us fear a threat from al-Qaida in our Miss-Lou backyards.

Our homegrown criminals are just local thugs and thugettes who grew up among us and strayed from the desired path.

A wandering out-of-town criminal comes through town sometimes, but for the most part our crime is our problem.

And those local criminals can capitalize on the national fear 2001 brought.

Our country is uneasy now. We assume the worst and forget the best.

So when the numbers say crime is down, it’s difficult to believe.

We remember the rash of home-invasion burglaries that shook our community last winter.

We think of the newspaper headlines about shootings.

We recall the story our friend told us about their neighbor’s cousin who lives in the county and had his four-wheeler stolen.

We perceive the worst.

Both the Natchez Police Department and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office have released crime statistics this month that show local crime has decreased this decade.

But many, myself included, find that a bit difficult to believe.

It just doesn’t seem right.

What about that shooting last week? What about so-and-so whose house was robbed? What about the bar fight?

We can all think fast on our feet and point to a handful or more local crimes that seem to argue that crime is not down.

But we don’t have the numbers.

The authorities do.

Yes, the police officers and sheriff’s deputies do keep their own statistics. Sure, an officer could simply fail to report a crime the proper way. And yes, corruption is always a possibility.

But doubting the numbers put forth by our local law enforcement agencies is an unwarranted example of disrespecting our leaders who’ve not given us good reason to doubt.

It’s also a bit of a conspiracy theory, I think.

The statistics do, most likely, contain errors, bits of corruption and failure to follow procedure, but not enough to drastically sway the arm of crime in another direction.

Instead, we are letting perception win.

When Natchez opened its arms to hundreds of Katrina evacuees from New Orleans, many locals feared the New Orleans crime would take over Natchez.

Yet, law enforcement has repeatedly said the criminals here are our own, not New Orleans transplants.

They’d have no reason to lie about that.

If we continue to remember only the bad, we let fear win.

The world is changing and so is Natchez. Crime is real, but it’s not out of control.

Let’s put our perception on the shelf and keep the numbers in mind. Our quality of life will be better for it.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551.