BOY TRAUMATIZED BY POLICE RAID, MOM SAYS

NIGHTMARES fill his sleep and he's constantly asking why police wear masks
and kick down doors.

Six-year-old James Clark was playing with a friend on a Rosedale Avenue
sidewalk when he watched heavily armed police drug officers -- some wearing
masks -- use a battering ram to break down the front door of a home a week
ago. They were looking for cocaine believed to be linked to the Hells Angels.

"He watched the whole thing," mom Tannis Fleming said yesterday. "Now it's
the only thing he talks about. He's wet the bed twice and he's having
nightmares.

"And through the whole thing, no one told him he should move or go home. If
they did that, he wouldn't have seen anything and he'd be the same kid."

Fleming said she wants city police to change their policy so that during a
raid, an officer makes sure no children or passersby are in harm's way.

"My concern is that I don't let him watch this stuff on TV and now he sees
it on the streets in Winnipeg. This is nuts."

Vice Insp. Stan Tataryn said police haven't confronted this issue before,
but added they'd be willing to improve raid protocol to protect children.

Police raided two homes Friday night and arrested three people with ties to
the Hells Angels. They seized 1.475 kilograms of cocaine, worth about
$120,000. Both raids happened during the dinner hour in residential areas.

Fleming said she's also considering appealing to city councillors to force
police to become more sensitive to young minds when combating crime.

"Some of the officers were wearing masks and now he's asking why police
wear masks. How do you explain these things to a six-year-old boy?"