The drive from Central City, Missouri to Galena, Kansas can feel like a journey into another era. Confederate flags can be frequently seen lining the highway, and more than a few “Trump Can Do It!” bumper stickers are on display.
Galena is a community hard hit by current state of Kansas economics, where home values and average income continue to put pressures on members of the small Kansas town to leave, in hopes of finding opportunity elsewhere.
The environment is also ripe for hatred, fear, and distrust. On December 15, 2015, the Cherokee County Police Department and the FBI engaged in a search for Doug Alexius, 40, a man who had been charged with assaulting a police officer, along with several other federal and state crimes. Alexius was known to the local police department as a member of the Joplin Honkie gang, a group of white supremacists who had, according to many, no respect for the law.
Based on a tip provided to the department by an unnamed source, the FBI and local police converged on the home at 1009 E 5th Street in Galena. And this is where things began to go wrong.
Because of prior instances of violence surrounding Doug Alexious, Sheriff David Groves surrounded the home and, using an infrared camera, believed Doug Alexious to be hiding in the attic. Despite assurances from the resident, Nita Lane, that Doug Alexious was not present, a siege began at the household. Neighbors informed me that, “I think this has been sensationalized. The Sheriff was committed to getting his man alive, this just went too far.”
The linkage of Nita Lane to Doug Alexious was not difficult. The couple had been together, years before, and he was the father of one of her children. Still, neighbors noted, they hadn’t seen Doug in a while.
Vonda Macklin, a resident nearby informed me, “Nita was working to get her life on track. She owned her house, and she was busy working as nurse’s assistant. She was trying to do the right things.”
The stand off lasted 20 hours, with police and FBI waiting while a home sat empty, only the ductwork in the attic from a furnace pumping away, apparently, giving the false impression to law enforcement that someone was present.
As tear gas flew, the FBI was alerted that the next-door neighbor was pregnant and would need to be removed from the scene to avoid being gassed.
Her working plans to try and support herself and her family came crashing down as battering rams, and puncture devices were used throughout the home, in hopes of finding the subject on the run.
Every room in the house suffered holes in the walls and ceiling. Furniture was destroyed, appliances toppled. Beds were thrown out of windows. The rear wall of the small home was torn from roots, leaving structural deficiencies engineers have said cannot be repaired.
The home, originally purchased for $8,000, was a hope for Nita Lane to make a go at life as a nurse. It would always be a roof over her head, in an area of town that neighbors referred to as “not a nice place to live,” but for her, there were hopes it could be home.
Driving up to her house in Galena, children gathered in the yard of their next-door neighbor. Nita was at work, fulfilling her shift as a nurse, once again, trying to start over.
“I think…I think this has just, you know, frazzled her,” said neighbor Vonda Macklin. “I mean, she’s hunting for a place to live, and she never thought she would have to do that again. And for the kids, what do you tell the kids?”
The week following the incident brought the FBI, who offered Nita Lane emergency assistance in the form of $2,500. Confused by the offer — and a bit wary of whether or not accepting would mean she would surrender her house or simply give up on the property, Nita told neighbors she was still trying to “figure out what the right thing to do here is.” Neighbors and others informed me the FBI offered an additional $8,000, the original cost of the property, for her loss.
“She put work into that house; they had just finished working on the electric, and she had appliances and furniture, and it’s Christmas.” Vonda explained. The recompense of the home didn’t solve the problem facing the children, now left homeless.
Lilly, her youngest, a 3-year-old girl reached out for the door handle of the now boarded up home, as Vonda moved to get her away, “there is still a lot of broken glass, you can’t go in there, Lilly.” “But it’s home.”
According to a post on the Sheriff’s website, David Goves spoke to Nita following the event and offered his apologies, and likely, he and his offices were aware of the offer of short term assistance.
Following the release of the news story, a GoFundMe was setup for Nita Lane and her family. Because of the page’s link to groups that may have over-sensationalized the story, other commenters began to blame Nita Lane, her family, and others, insisting that this was either “her fault” or that she got what was coming to her.
Her past relationship with Doug Alexious, as well as her economic standing within the community, had led many to believe that her poverty and prior choices meant that on some level, she deserved what happened. The small children, though, had nothing coming to them but the hope of Christmas. A journey through their now destroyed living room had toys crushed underfoot; an XBOX gaming system torn apart, the remaining stand of small gifts crushed and a set of futon bunk bent and unusable in a child’s room.
Lilly, a young sandy-blond-haired girl, sat on the stoop in front of her house; a crumpled Christmas wreathe lay down in the mud, in front of her, as she cried, angry her mom couldn’t just let her into what had been the only home she had ever known.
Despite past bad will of an ex, and despite any misgivings the community has toward Nita Lane, the children in this situation are simply victims. For the next few weeks, they will likely house-hop, until resources are available to find Nita and her children a new home.
Outrage and venom will follow Nita and Sheriff Groves as people look for a scapegoat to blame and an easy way to justify both what happened, and what will happen next. The reality is far more difficult.
Doug Alexious, a petty criminal, fell into a gang of white supremacists in prison. Rather than be rehabilitated, by numerous accounts he was radicalized, and his problems continued to increase. A single mother with 4 children at home and no real financial support, Nita Lane wasn’t living the American dream, she was working to get by.
In many communities, she would be easily dismissed as “a problem”, and chided for bad decisions of her life.
For others, blaming Sheriff Groves, who admitted he went too far, is the easy answer. He tore a home apart, leaving a family homeless.
In truth, no matter what recompense is made toward Nita Lane and her children; many have made up their minds and chosen sides.
None of the discussion back and forth addresses the real problem: what kind of future do we want to provide to the children, who have done no wrong and who deserve a real shot at success in life?
Community members took to Facebook and GoFundMe to decry the fundraising effort aimed at helping her kids, but regardless of whether or not the KBI/FBI’s offer of repair is just or not; regardless, of whether or not the Sheriff is to blame, the effort to provide Christmas to small children isn’t something that needs to be politicized.
For Nita and her family, all they are after is a chance to start over, to try and figure out what to do next.
There are three days until Christmas. It will be weeks or months until we have a clear understanding of exactly what happened that night in Galena. But we do know that there is time to do the right thing, the just thing, and in a community deeply vested in faith, the righteous thing.
Children deserve to believe — at least for a while — that the world loves them, and cherishes them, and wants things to turn out all right for them. Those who have funded the GoFundMe don’t have to choose a side as to what they think happened. They just have to find it in their hearts to be a bigger person, and hope that a small family can do the right thing and put themselves back together.
Because after all, isn’t that the spirit of the season?