ROTHENBURGER: ‘They really must do something’ about crime but what, and who’s ‘they’?

We’ve been complaining about the seemingly exponential growth in street-level crime for quite a while. The difference is that the fed-up letter penned by NSBIA president Bryce Herman and executive director Jeremy Heighton makes a clear distinction between social-issue crime and everyday crooks, lowlifes, and gangsters.

As they somewhat dramatically but accurately put it, “we are in a state of siege.” The city doesn’t feel safe anymore due to “out of control criminality.” In other words, let’s stop using social issues as a catch-all rationale for what’s gone wrong.

So what to do? And who must do it? Obviously, the problem needs to be clearly identified, analyzed and assigned for action.

Is a shortage of police the issue? If so, the responsibility for that is with City Hall, which pays most of the bills for policing. Where can the City find the money? If it’s at the expense of other services or projects, are taxpayers willing to give up something to help get things under control?

I strongly suspect the answer is yes.

And then what? A war on the drug trade? Enhanced community policing and more foot patrols? The City’s own anti-gang squad?

What can the courts do about it? Is ‘catch and release’ to blame?

Though there’s a clear distinction between dysfunctional street people and the guys with guns who execute each other in motel rooms or public places, there are also overlaps.

Social issues often grow out of conditions created by those making big money from other people’s misery and misfortune. So is effective drug-addiction treatment the answer? Decriminalization of all drugs? Free drugs?

It’s not for lack of trying by the City and RCMP. They work with community groups, professionals and businesses to try to wrestle it to the ground. Sometimes mistakes are made, sometimes results are achieved.

While Herman and Heighton write about failures, their letter isn’t an exercise in finger pointing but an urgent call to action. It’s not a copout. They’ve done their part in searching for answers along with other stakeholders.

So, a comprehensive plan has to be developed, and what will it cost? The community needs to know and feel that something is being done and that better results are in the offing — because the current results are clearly not acceptable.

And, back to my opening and the old “they really must do something,” I believe the community — that is, average everyday folks and organizations not normally engaged in fighting crime — are willing to get involved and do their share if provided with direction and the resources to do it.

I don’t believe there’s an appetite for vigilante justice as some are saying, but the “they” in charge of doing something really must take it to a whole new level.

Otherwise, the sidewalk scumbag who told the owner of the Jamaican Kitchen as he was cleaning up after a break-in the other day, “We own these streets so f*** off,” is right about who is and who isn’t in charge.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: ‘They really must do something’ about crime but what, and who’s ‘they’?

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