LIVING THE HEADLINES

Trust Me, The Police Are Doing A Vital Job In Taking Out The Trash

A year ago, I moved into an apartment near Central Park in downtown
Winnipeg. A major advantage to living downtown is that you get to
live the headlines rather than just read them. I used to just read
about things like crime, and crime prevention programs like Operation
Clean Sweep. Now I see it all firsthand.

Operation Clean Sweep is a concentrated effort to arrest drug
dealers, sex trade participants and other criminals. It started in
the West End. I heard that my new neighbourhood was next on the OCS
list of dirty laundry and we sure needed some taking out of the dirty
laundry and trash when I first moved in.

I spent my first night in bed listening to some drunk female swearing
endlessly at some man in the parkade next door. It ended when he
silenced her with a slap. I didn't do anything about it because the
couple left before our busy police force could possibly get there and
I felt safe because my apartment building is well secured. But I did
hang a poster I have of New York at the foot of my bed. To see one
crime-riddled Central Park on my wall and another out my window made sense.

Even more so the next day when I learned that buying milk at the
convenience store at Carlton Street and Cumberland Avenue involved
running a gauntlet occupied by gangly youth with baggy pants and huge
hats that hang sideways off their heads.

Despite the "horror slasher" and "nutbar standing in the shadows
crying while holding a teddy bear and a hatchet" images that ran
through my head, it really wasn't that scary.

As a matter of fact, the boys always seemed to be more than willing
to strike up a conversation. "Whaddup, man?" Translation: "Looking for drugs?"

"Need some rock?" Translation: Crack cocaine.

"Looking for green?" Translation: Marijuana.

"Need to get 'er up?" Translation: Viagra or Ecstasy (double
translation: Date rape drug).

"Points here! Get your points here!" Translation: Methamphetamine.

Then, about nine months ago, police issued a media release indicating
Operation Clean Sweep had swept up 23 drug dealers. I didn't have to
read about it. I could just look out my window and see a new, clear
path to my milk store.

But, as everybody knows, sweeping is only a temporary measure and you
have to sweep a floor again and again. After about three months, the
Mad Cowz and Mafia and Posse were back, only this time on another
corner, on the other side of Central Park. Operation Clean Sweep, as
good and effective as it was, seemed to be just moving the dirt around.

Drug dealers can always arrange bail because our justice system
doesn't allow for any kind of Operation Vacuum. So we have to keep
sweeping. Again and again and again. Trouble is, that costs coin, and
it takes a major announcement from Mayor Sam Katz every time the
police ask for more money to keep Operation Clean Sweep going. Katz
has to keep in mind that a lot of his tax dollars come from suburban
Winnipeggers who would rather see their money spent on wasp control.
They don't have to buy milk after dark near Central Park.

Meanwhile, the majority of people who live near Central Park are the
ones who really pay. The area is heavily populated by immigrants from
Ethiopia and young aboriginal families who only get to use the park
on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. This is when the potential in this
community can be seen. Parents playing soccer with their children,
pushing their kids on swings, putting on a picnic and so on. But come
evening, a small minority takes over this tranquil setting and it's
hip hop music and car hop drug deliveries.

The only way to shut down these corner drug stores is to keep the cop
cars cruising 24/7, but our present policy is to sweep in and close
them down and, once the neighbourhood looks clean enough, we
re-direct our efforts elsewhere.

Thus, two months ago, I stepped out the front door of my apartment
building and found 10 youth swarming another youth. Since living
downtown provides a much more interesting perspective than reading
about this kind of thing in the newspaper, I casually observed the
scene from a distance, until one of the swarm pulled out a knife with
a three-inch handle and an 18-inch blade. Even though my vantage
point offered a better view than even the TV news provides (which is
usually just a shot of the murder scene cordoned off by yellow police
tape), I stepped back into my apartment and called the police on my
cell phone. By the time the cops arrived, the swarm was long gone
and, since I didn't read anything about it in the paper the next day,
I assume the swarmee outswarmed the swarm.

This past week, I simply had to follow a trail of blood splatters to
get my milk. The newspapers told me an elderly man had been struck
over the head by a bottle and had managed to stagger to the store
where he collapsed but got some help. The incident took place at
three in the afternoon.

Operation Clean Sweep couldn't prevent such incidents, but they did
make another pass through the hood this past week, and the corner
drug store is no more, for now. Of course, my new neighbourhood
knowledge told me to expect the drug drops to reopen in a couple of
months, but something new is happening around here.

Somebody finally got wise to the fact that the drug dealers and pimps
and punks were carrying out their business right beside a plethora of
apartment blocks owned by the Manitoba Housing and Renewal
Corporation. So, the MHRC has hired a private security company to
patrol the area.

I had a late night chat with two of three rent-a-cops. They were nice
but no nonsense kind of guys and they keep our floors swept clean.
Unfortunately, they couldn't assure me how long the MHRC was going to
keep them on the job. So we can't assure tourists or the rest of
Winnipeg's population that our downtown is safe yet.

The only way to convince people to move downtown (or tourists to come
on down) is to ensure them that it is safe. And the only way to keep
downtown safe is constant vigilance. Unfortunately, you've heard it
all before, most of it from writers and reporters who do not live in
the area, or from sources like Statistics Canada. I simply hope that
the case for safety and protection downtown is stronger when it comes
from someone who actually lives it.

Bottom line is that you might be convinced to support Operation Clean
Sweep (and convince Katz to keep it up) by seeing it through the eyes
of someone who sees the success of the sweep every day.

All I have to do is throw the newspaper in the cat box, click off the
remote control, and step outside.