An Interesting Take on Salem, Indiana and it Corruption Issues

That's the main problem that Salem has is that they want to be a retirement community with poverty level jobs with the people that live there. It might be more quiet crime wise than other places in the country or even where I live (Jeffersonville) but that doesn't make it that great of a place. I've lived there and lived there 25 years growing up and seen how things were conducted and if you like good old boy cops, relatives in politics all over the place, the government run by only a few small families that want to keep it that way then Salem is for you. If you like a town where the cops know who the drug dealers are and refuse to do anything about it, then that's Salem. Or that the legal eagles around town are some of the biggest drug dealers, that's Salem. Or that the judicial branch of government knows who these people are and no one ever goes to jail except nobodies, then that's some more Salem. Add in the fact that Washington County has tons of low wage retail/service jobs and not much in the way of higher paying professional or technical jobs much less many factory jobs left, then that is more of the problem. Which is why people get hooked on drugs and hang with bad elements. Add in a poor educational system where the Salem Schools get C and D rankings at the Elementary School and Middle Schools, etc. Not my type of environment for sure where these problems are known and no one raises a finger to do anything about it. Why? Because the local yokels like it that way and choose to keep the same corrupt politicians and family members in the same offices for years. Washington County had the same sheriff for the better part of 20 years and he was once replaced after his son was boinking an inmate while working at the jail. What happened? They turned around the next election after he was thrown out because they didn't like the new sheriff cleaning house and not allowing all the crap that had been going on. So all of the morons and inbreeds turned around and voted the same corrupt one back in. So now you perhaps understand why some people have such an antipathy towards their own home town which is where they were born and raised. Add in the fact, that the same people have ran the courthouse and county offices in Salem for years and most of them have the same family names around town same as the previous sheriff whose jail was staffed with his relatives. I had a friend that worked for the Washington County Sheriffs Office until 2010 and he had to leave because the stench was so bad that he went back into the military because he was tired of the corruption and family butt kissing that was going on. Same goes with the judicial system where the same judge keeps getting voted in because he has the right name and no one has the fortitude to run against him or probably even paid off. The same judge has been in office almost 25 years now and his own father was a prior mayor for about 12 years. That's the kind of crap that goes on in Salem and Washington County. Its not what your qualifications are, your education, your public decency, its all about who you are related to. That's why about half or more of my graduating class in the 90s left Salem and have never returned there to live. Even the ones that wanted too found it to be too economically limiting and not enough to do. The town doesn't really care about bringing in new businesses that would threaten to take employees and workers away from the businesses around town that want to keep paying substandard wages. The only thing that they've actually did in the last 10 years was finally get a WalMart in November 2016 and Dollar Tree, Goodys and a few other smaller stores in 2009 or so. That's their idea of economic development to keep wages low, people where they can't better the community, and things in control of the old cronies and the criminal syndicate that keeps running Salem. You would have had to lived in Salem to understand the level of political, law enforcement, and judicial corruption and nepotism to understand. If you lived in some state like Kentucky, West Virginia, or some other backwards state you would understand Salem completely. Just as this write this, I've been reading about Salem having a flood and its about 30 miles away now as I live near Louisville. This kind of flooding has happened a couple times in the past but the city fathers and city council/political syndicate members along with the county doesn't bother to get flood protection and proper drainage for the town/city of Salem which might as well be a town. That's the thing is that they've had years to assess ways to prevent these types of storms, rebuild infrastructure and develop roads and new development. Outside of a bypass around the town and some stores that's all they've did. Anyone that wants to make a good living has to drive elsewhere including 40 miles to Kentucky in Louisville or other parts of Southern Indiana that have economically exploded over the years and grew jobs and sustainable economics where people can live, thrive, and achieve. Salem doesn't believe in that and will not adjust to modern thinking. For some reason, change is not in the DNA of these people both running the town and even most of the people in the community. They are impervious to economic progress, jobs, development, etc. It was so hard to try to get people to figure out that a Wal Mart wouldn't be such a bad thing for the town as they were paying twice as much for products at the local stores or having to drive to Scottsburg, Paoli, Bedford, Seymour, Corydon or Clarksville/New Albany just to shop at Wal Mart. While Paoli, IN population 3500 has had a Wal Mart for 20 years and Salem has twice the population of Paoli, etc. Same with other towns in the region that they have had other shopping for years while Salem had nothing and the town almost blew away in the years of 2000 to 2012 or so when they finally started figuring out they couldn't totally be cut off from the rest of the world. That's why Salem has been the way it is and that's also why drugs have been ignored as a problem because the local syndicate didn't want anyone taking over their business. That made for a profitable business for the lawyer class types that have been busted in Florida trying to bring their stashes back to Salem all the while the local cops and prosecutors ignored the problem along with the local judges. There's plenty more to be said/written but there's only so long to discuss these problems. Just giving people a heads up. Read more: https://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/8351-salem-indiana-4.html