FIGHT BACK

It was after he had been shot at for a third time that Harvey Keys
decided to move.

Life in LA County had never been without its flaws, but now it was
obvious things were becoming just too dangerous.

Taking the hint, the Edmonton native packed up his bags and said
goodbye to the area he had called home for the past 20 years.

He headed north.

A year and a half-ago Keys, a tradesman during the week and stock
racer on the weekend, arrived in Merritt along with his dog.

Merritt, he felt, would afford a slower, quieter pace than he had
been used to in California.

Up until about three weeks ago, that had been the case. However,
after doing some construction repairs on a house that shared a fence
with an alleged crack house, Keys had decided he had seen too much.
He had to do something.

"Everybody I talk to says crystal meth is already here," he says.
"It hasn't. It is mostly crack right now. I lived in LA County, one
of the biggest areas for crystal meth, and [what is happening] in
Merritt isn't even close. But if it does come, then watch out."

Keys says all of this by means of introduction to the four people
sitting in the living room of his house on the corner of Nicola and Voght.

There is also a small child present, no more than two, but he seems
more interested in getting his hands on Keys' trade equipment than
listening to Keys' introductory spiel.

The rest sit guardedly on the odd pieces of furniture arranged
casually in the wide living room as Keys brings his opening to a
close. The front door is open and the sounds of passing traffic
drift in with the cool Friday breeze.

Now, it is time for everyone else to introduce themselves.

There is Margot, Diane, a freelance moviemaker named Matt and a
women who doesn't introduce herself but everyone else seem to know.

Margot and Diane both ask that their real names not be used and,
although it is not a privilege often awarded by reporters, given the
circumstances, it seems like a smart move. Because the four citizens
gathered in Keys' room are here to talk about Merritt's drug
problem. They are going to name names and they are going to provide
the addresses of where some of the alleged crack houses are.

They are fed up and want something to be done. However, preventing
them from speaking publicly about their hatred for the drug dealers
is their overwhelming sense of apprehension. Some of them have
children. All of them have family.

Saying they are scared is an understatement. They are terrified.
That is why they are here.

"What can I do?" Diane asks. "I don't have the option of moving out
of the city and even if I move out to get away from it, my children
still have to come into town to go to school. That is a challenge I
have to face everyday."

Diane, who lives near an alleged crack house in the Diamond Vale
area, paints a horrifying picture of the enormity of the drug
problem in Merritt. On any given day, she says, there are up to 40
different "visitors" going in and out of the house. She has seen
people as old as 65 and as young as 13 enter and leave the
house. Twice she has almost been hit by cars that have sped off
after making their score.

And that is just one house in one of Merritt's neighbourhoods. There
are at least two more in the same area and many more around the
city. Some say up to 20.

As expected, Diane has notified the police on numerous occasions to
the goings on at the house in question. She has even gone as far as
offering the police her house as a stakeout grounds - anything to
get the ball rolling.

However, each time, she has heard the same response. We are working
on it. We are doing everything we can. There is only so much we can do.

"They tell us to collect license plate numbers, the description of
people and the times they go in," she says. "Isn't that their job? I
had to tell my daughter when she was six years old about the bad man
across the street and the people who go there. The kids can't
go out and play in their yard."

Margot, whose connection to the drug world is only recent via a
friend who is struggling with an addiction, says there isn't enough
being done. She says it is time people stop turning a blind eye to
the problem and deal with it.

"It is all over town," she says. "They are even finding it up on the
Bench. They are so busy promoting the town that they don't want to
say anything bad about it. It is a good town but you have this bad
crap that needs to be dealt with."

But how?

While both Margot and Diane speak of a need for action, they admit
they are, like many people in town, too afraid to do something about
it. What if they become a target?

"[People] want to see something happen," Margot says. "But they are
afraid of the repercussions. There is some big time people involved
in this. It is not just a couple of guys who decided to do this small time."

To confirm the reality of the threat, Diane chillingly relates what
she heard the alleged top dealer say about anyone who complained to
the police.

"All it takes is one phone call and they can be taken care of."

Still, Keys says there is hope. He has seen what drugs can do to a
community first hand. He isn't prepared to sit back and watch the
same thing that happened in his LA community happen in Merritt. He
doesn't want to move again although he has already been the target
of violence. A sizeable rock was thrown through his front window a
few weeks ago. Another one made its way through his truck window a
few days later.

Like today's meeting, Keys says people in the community need to
start getting together to talk about the problem. There are avenues
that can be taken. There is legal recourse such as the city's
controlled substance bylaw. In numbers they can shatter the fear the
dealers have imposed on them.

In his right hand he holds a bundle of 30 posters that have the
addresses of three alleged crack houses in the Diamond Vale area.
The posters showed up at his back door last week. He doesn't know
who sent them but has taken it as a sign that people are behind him.

With help, he plans on posting them up around the city to send a
clear message to the drug dealers that they will not be tolerated.
Already, he said, some have found their way to the front windows of
local businesses.

"There are a lot of things that can be done," Keys says. "You just
have to have the courage to do them."