POINT DOUGLAS GETTING RID OF DRUG DEALERS ONE AT A TIME

Point Douglas has had its problems but in the last two years, in
response to the appeals from grade 5 and 6 kids at Norquay School,
the community has taken back its streets from drug dealers.

Point Douglas has over 100 anonymous people who keep an eye around
their own homes, watching for crack dealers, gangs, ganglets and
other stuff that degrades a community and report it on a phone line
we call "Powerline." As a result, we have had our share of drug busts
and gang arrests in partnership with the police and Manitoba Justice.

One of the neatest drug busts was when a team member phoned the
Powerline to say there was a strange Hummer coming onto her street
regularly. Licence plate number in hand, the Powerline co-ordinator
called the police street crimes unit. "Give me the plate number
please." The officer paused while the licence plate was run through
the computer. "Very interesting. Could you let me know every time
that Hummer comes into the community?"

Over the next couple of weeks, three residents on that street watched
and reported time, address visited and who was in the Hummer. That
info was immediately transferred to the police. Three weeks later, a
major drug bust happened and an incipient Asian gang attempting to
start up in Point Douglas was in jail, with a large cache of drugs,
money and guns seized.

We know the police felt pretty good, but the three people who tracked
the Hummer, ordinary people who wanted safe streets, felt pretty
powerful, as did the rest of the Powerline crew when news of the
arrests came out.

The Powerline did a similar intervention with police; this time it
was a bunch of skinhead white guys in a Corvette. Big cocaine dealer,
we were told. The fellow they were meeting with is now in jail and
his network of crack dealers and sexually exploited girls dissolved.

We save the police for heavy lifting. If there are guns, knives or
bear spray involved, or if the people are known gang members, we
depend on the police.

Known gang members don't last very long in Point Douglas. We had a
bunch take over a small apartment block. The neighbours, white and
aboriginal, together decided they didn't like the illegal behaviour
and started identifying what was going on. The landlord was contacted
and soon all of them were evicted. It took four weeks.

Another small crack dealer started up recently. In the past we would
have called Manitoba Justice's community safety act enforcers, who
would have moved in and had them evicted. Now we are so sophisticated
that we just called the landlord and told him he had someone who was
couch-surfing at his place and selling crack. The next day the
landlord called the tenant and told her to get the dealer out since
he wasn't on the lease or he would have to evict the family. The
crack dealer was out the door the next day.

We have discovered that eviction is more effective than a short jail
sentence. The macho gangers brag about how tough they are in jail.
They actually look pathetic wandering around with their little
suitcase looking for someone who will let them couch-surf. We
discovered this is also empowering mothers and girlfriends. They now
have a way to say no to their ne'er-do-well dealer kid. Sorry, you
can't stay here, you might get us evicted.

The Powerline got a phone call one night from a very scared
aboriginal woman. "The Posse's moved in next door and he has a gun."
The Powerline lady emailed the info to the police and 48 hours later
the posse member was led out in handcuffs. A very proud young woman
was heard telling her friends, "I got rid of the Posse."

The strangest event was our very own drug bust last week. A call came
into the Powerline from an older gentleman. "There's crack in my
house and I want it gone... " the Powerline lady responded
hesitantly: "You want me to come and get it?"

"Yeah, aren't you trying to clean up our neighbourhood? My kid
brought this stuff in and I want it out before he comes home."

We jumped into the car and the Powerline lady went into the house and
came out with a baggy with about 10 rocks. I quickly called the
police. After telling us we shouldn't be doing this and us explaining
the person didn't want to call the police because he didn't want his
son getting into trouble, we were directed to take the crack to the
central station on Princess Street.

We parked the car and walked along with probably $500 worth of crack
and presented ourselves to the young police officer sitting bored at
the desk. He hadn't handled anything like this before but gratefully
accepted our baggy.

We realized as we left that we hadn't asked for a receipt.

The principal of Norquay School was heard telling a community group
that she had several new families move in with their kids because
Point Douglas was such a safe neighbourhood.

We aren't crime-free yet. But we have more than 100 community
volunteers -- Europeans, Metis and First Nations -- working together
to show that a low-income area doesn't have to be a high-crime area.
We figure we are closing in on being a low-crime area.

Sel Burrows is a Point Douglas activist.