WHY HAS NOTHING BEEN DONE?

Dear Editor,

I'd Like to Start by Correcting an Error in Last Week's Cover Article.

Deanna Johnston is the resident and tenant, not owner, of #107
Chancellor Heights, but "It's a rental" most definitely doesn't fit
into her way of thinking.

It shows in the way the place is kept, inside and out. It shows in
her determination to not be intimidated by dealers, thugs, threats
and posturing bullies. It shows when she and her young family are
still there after all that has happened in the last year.

Would you have the guts to set up a video camera and record licence
plates for months while the dealers threatened you and yours for doing so?

How long would you endure this if you could pick up and move at any time?

So why, for over a year, have our tenants endured countless verbal
threats at home and at work, verbal abuse, excessive foot and vehicle
traffic at all hours, addicts walking in or knocking on the door at
all hours asking to buy crack, shady people lurking, babies crying in
car seats for an hour while their parents party, loud music,
altercations, vandalism, complaints against them, and who knows what
else to come?

I think we all know the answer. We are the ones who have a right to
be here. The dealers sold that right a long time ago. Dealers belong
in jail, not in the neighbourhood.

Countless times we and our tenants have called the RCMP to report
these incidents.

The standard responses: "There's nothing we can do. Our hands are
tied. We're working very hard to solve the problem. We have limited
resources. We need more information," and so on are, just cliches
now, old, worn, and ineffective.

We've heard all the reasons why nothing can be done to stop what's
been going on for over a year now. Patience shrinks while frustration grows.

Dealers get busted, charged and released so they can deal while they
wait for the court date they have no intention of appearing for.

So they get another court date and another few charges, but continue
to deal until the next court date comes and goes. No one stops them.

Whose rights are being protected? And the whole time, people like
Deanna and her family, who work hard, pay their bills and taxes, have
children in school, and definitely are contributing in a positive way
to our community, must watch the same dealers sell the same drugs to
the same addicts.

Talk about your vicious cycle. And now the dealers' customers
threaten her as she walks her daughter to the school bus stop. Why
does she have to put up with this?

Most of us middle-class folk live in blissful ignorance of what goes
on in this town, unless of course we happen to have a dealer move in
next door to our residence or rental property.

Then it turns into your problem instead of a newspaper article you
read as you relax in your nice warm house on the hill.

Don't let it happen to you. Dealers and addicts are sons and
daughters of teachers, judges, and lawyers, skid row bums and
everyone in between.

Don't fool yourself into thinking your kids will turn out right if
you hope for the best. They might not and I can vouch for that.

I think the residents of Cedar Heights Mobile Home Park will use last
week's events as the catalyst for further communication and with some
hard work and sacrifice, show the dealers how difficult it will be to
do business there.

How about some laws that do more than merely inconvenience the drug dealers?

Tom Cook,

Port Hardy