Letter Of The Day

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

Five children were selling crack at 261 Austin St. and I didn't know
who to call.

A nice new grey car pulled up -- licence plate number noted. One of
the kids pulled his hoody over his head and ran behind my car to sell
his rock of crack.

I yelled at the driver, a 30-something white guy, "I've got your
licence plate!"

He yelled a few obscenities at me and screeched away, his crack hit
ready for the poor young girl in the seat beside him before he used
her.

This isn't a plot from a TV show. This happened at 6 p.m. Tuesday,
July 28, in Winnipeg.

I had received a phone call from a member of our community safety team
on the "Powerline," alerting us that there was a ganglet still selling
crack from the side of 261 Austin St.

This had started a couple of weeks ago with one kid. When I attempted
to take his picture he had pulled out his bear spray and tried to
spray me. I left quickly with the 911 operator telling me to keep out
of danger. The police responded promptly, but he was nowhere to be
seen.

The poor police are dealing with shootings all over the city, two
murders by gang types on the other side of Main Street. How can they
cope with kids selling crack.

The youngest is probably 12, then older -- 13, 15 two about 16. Who do
you call? If you call child and family they ask you for the kids names
and addresses. I don't know their names and only one of them lives at
261 Austin.

These are kids. They should be playing video games and thinking about
puppy love.

If we call the police, we know they are totally busy trying to track
down the killer at the Polish Club on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Powerline gets two phone calls about a drunk passed out
in a park and two totally pissed people having sex on the sidewalk in
front of an apartment block full of children.

The 911 operator is wonderful, each time she reassures me that they
will do their best. The paramedics arrive to deal with the passed-out
drunk. The paramedics arrive to deal with the drunks screwing on the
street.

We are doing our best to make our community a better place. None of
the murders has happened in our community so far. Our community safety
team, all 100 of them, call us when they see "stuff" happening. But
what are we to do when there are five children selling crack?

I had set out to write an article about how to deal with the gangs in
Winnipeg. We know how to deal with them. We've successfully driven
them out of Point Douglas and if anyone in authority wanted to listen
we could show them how to drive them out of the inner city.

But what do we do with the children who are dealing crack?

SEL BURROWS

Winnipeg