Sometimes the news can seem just plain mean, a frosty reflection of the cruelty that can visit the world, even in farflung places like Greater Port Arthur. Thursday may have provided an example.

A news release from Nederland police said that department had arrested a man for tampering with evidence but there was a larger crime suspected: the robbery of an elderly man.

Here’s our story lede, to give you the flavor: “A 19-year-old Port Arthur man was in Nederland police custody Wednesday afternoon, accused of robbing an elderly man at gunpoint.

“… The victim said the robbery occurred in his driveway. He was about to get out of his car, he said, when a lone suspect with a chrome automatic pistol pointed a gun in his face and demanded money.”

Chief Darrell Bush said police believe the suspect had waited in his car outside a bank, looking for likely prey. And what’s easier prey for a young, armed man than an 85-year-old victim?

Police believe the suspect watched the man withdraw cash from an ATM, followed him home in his own car, then ran to the victim’s car and robbed him at gunpoint.

There’s more to the story and some of it is encouraging. It starts with a neighbor who saw a vehicle – it is believed to be the suspect’s – parked outside the older man’s home. He saw the suspect run toward the victim, saw the gun, and took photos.

There’s more good news, too: Video at the bank shows the victim at the ATM and the suspect’s car nearby. And Nederland police, ever alert, later spotted the suspect and his vehicle and made an arrest.

None of that, of course, erases the unpalatable thought that a young man, heavily armed, would prey upon elderly people. The suspect was arrested and more charges were expected.

And suspects are just that: accused people who deserve a fair trial and presentation of compelling evidence before they are convicted. That’s our justice system and we respect and revere it.

It is encouraging, though, that some neighbors still watch out for each other, that they stay alert to the needs of others and respond to those needs. Well done.

It’s encouraging, too, that officers sworn to protect us take that role seriously, that they stay alert to their duties and faithful in carrying them out. Well done.

There will always be some meanness in this world, but it’s not something that can’t be offset by the world’s goodness. We might have seen some of that in Nederland.

Sometimes the news can reflect a cool justice that can visit the world, even in farflung places like Greater Port Arthur. Maybe Thursday provided an example.