POLICE AT NORML MEETING RAISES POINTED QUESTIONS

Engage in virtually any discussion about downtown Belleville and
sooner or later someone will bring up the issue of safety and crime
and wonder where, oh where, are Belleville's finest.

You know -- Why aren't our men and women in blue patrolling our
downtown streets?

The answer from Belleville police officials has been consistent:
putting officers downtown means pulling them off duty somewhere else
and the crime statistics for downtown don't merit dedicating more
officers to the area.

We have argued in the past that more feet on the street downtown would
pay significant benefits in terms of cleaning up some of the issues in
the core and, if not attracting more people, than at least removing
one more excuse for people to avoid downtown.

That said, we also respect the fact that at the end of the day, our
police service needs to be the final voice on deployment of officers.

To paraphrase Voltaire, we disagree with the police department's
position on this but we defend their right to take that position.

At least we do if they maintain some consistency.

That consistency took a dive this week when three Belleville police
officers made an appearance downtown on Tuesday at The Studio cafe on
Front Street.

The reason for their visit was to observe (monitor?) a panel
discussion on the negatives of Bill S-10, also known as The Penalites
for Organized Drug Crime Act which would implement mandatory prison
terms for certain drug charges and "special penalties" if the crimes
target youth or are conducted by organized crime.

The meeting was part of a national tour by the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Canada, which argues the
bill imposes overly harsh penalties for what is generally a minor infraction.

While this is a contentious issue, to be sure, it's not exactly one
that we would expect to result in a melee breaking out between those
in favour and those against.

So exactly what were Belleville's finest doing there?

We suspect they were there because anything to do with marijuana tends
to get the police all hot and bothered. While we think this is rather
silly, again we support our police force's right to do silly things if
they see fit.

However, we don't like being told one thing then seeing
another.

If, as police say, manpower is an issue when it comes to cleaning up
our downtown, then why does a panel discussion on a political issue
warrant a manpower expenditure but making people feel safe on the
streets doesn't?

Quite frankly, there's an odour to this over-staffing of a what
amounted to a political meeting or a philosophical discussion and it
isn't pot we're smelling.