HERE'S HOPING MOUNTIES MAINTAIN PRESSURE

Editor:

The Kamloops RCMP deserves thanks for their recent effort to reduce
the number of prostitutes in our city.

As a member of the North Shore Citizen Safety Patrol, I see firsthand
the number of prostitutes, drug dealers and johns who use the
Tranquille Road business area and nearby residential area to run
their illegal activities.

The people who live and work in this area have had enough.

Would you like the outside of your place of business or your yard
used as a bathroom, a place to shoot up or a place to sell sex? How
about going out for dinner with your family and getting approached by
someone trying to sell you sex or drugs?

As for the no-go red zone area, what could possibly be wrong with
banning a person from engaging in criminal activity?

This can only be a good idea.

I hope that a prostitute who comes before the courts and is given a
no-go order will maybe -- just maybe -- look for help to get out of
the sex trade and away from the drug dealer who feeds her addiction,
the john who uses her for his own pleasure and the "boyfriend" who
lives off her.

Maybe if she is sent to jail, she can get some help in getting clean
and getting away from the negatives that rule her life.

She is not getting this help while staying on the street.

Do I wear rose-coloured glasses? Perhaps.

Our group is out there trying to make our city a better place for
families, as are the RCMP.

We may not be there at 7 a.m., but we are there at 7 p.m., and our
streets are not looking like any ghost town I have ever seen.

The business owners and residents of the North Shore appreciate and
support what the Mounties are doing.

Let's all work together to send a message to the johns and drug
dealers that they are not welcome in our city.

Maybe by doing that, the prostitute on the street has a chance to
change her way of living and better her life.

Did I put rose-coloured glasses on again?

I really hope not.

Betty Nelson

Kamloops