Editorial

The other side of the coin

Two very different views of Slave Lake emerged in the course of newsgathering for this week’s Leader.
In one, the local RCMP commanding officer reported to town council on a fairly rosy situation. Serious crimes are down, traffic enforcement is up. More members on the job mean more officers out on patrol. Computer terminals in the cars mean some of the ‘paperwork’ can be done while still maintaining a presence in the community, rather than being holed up in the office.
Young officers are now maturing and becoming more comfortable with the job – hence doing better work and more of it. The new General Investigation Section is hammering away at the drug trade and making some fair-sized dents.
In short, things are good on the policing and public safety front.
That’s one way of looking at it. Here’s another.
A fellow called up to complain about one thing, but soon enough got talking about crime in his northwest Slave Lake neighbourhood. It’s rampant, he said. There are crack users and dealers galore. He sees them and recognizes them, he says, because he used to inhabit their world. He’s trying to get away from it but says he feels surrounded.
The petty crime that comes along with the drug scene is a constant problem, he says, and police don’t seem to do anything about it. Break-ins and thefts are all-too common and he says going to the authorities produces no satisfaction, so some people have been known to take the law into their own hands – in the form of a baseball bat – to go and try to recover stolen property.
It’s a bleak picture, and one that bears no resemblance at all to that painted by the RCMP before council – or indeed of the comfortable universe most of us probably inhabit. Yet there’s no reason to think it isn’t real, because the drug trade and the crime it spawns are definitely real. They affect real people and in some parts of town it is quite prevalent.
This second version of the community is incidentally confirmed by a prominent community member who has knowledge of the extent and damaging effects of the drug problem. From what he can see, very little has been done to curtail it. Meanwhile, lives are being wrecked and families torn apart.
Then we got another communication, from a law-abiding citizen whose home has been ‘egged’ five times in recent weeks or months. The most recent time ‘they slashed a brand new tire, then put mustard and ketchup on the car and egged the place again.”
The victims report it, the perpetrators – if they can be identified at all – get “a slap on the hand” and it continues. “It’s great to be young,” says the correspondent, “you can do whatever you want.”
There may be more to the story, and we’re not blaming the police for the situation, but nobody should have to put up with it.
What to conclude from all this we’re not sure. But it’s safe to say that while things may be rosy for some, for others they certainly are not.