WHO DO POLICE SERVE?

Part of me is still hoping that you misquoted Victoria police Deputy
Chief Bill Naughton in your March 2 article, "AIDS group plans move,"
which details the problems around Victoria's needle exchange.

According to the article, Naughton said: "Despite allocating a
significant amount of our resources to the issues that have been
occurring on the 800 block of Cormorant (Street), it's been clear to
us that we haven't been able to achieve a satisfactory outcome. We
recognize the increasing gentrification of downtown is placing a
tremendous amount of pressure on police and social agencies as new
residents and businesses come into conflict with our client base."

In his most dystopian fiction, George Orwell couldn't have done better
than this. Instead of remembering that it's the law-abiding,
tax-paying "gentrifying" citizens who are paying his salary, Deputy
Chief Naughton seems to think he has "clients" (law-breaking drug users).

Deputy Chief Naughton's comment suggests that he is willing to ignore
the open abuse of the law by "clients," even as their collective (and
individual) actions steadily diminish everyone else's quality of life.
A deputy chief who talks of "client bases" has drunk the Kool-Aid of
social work, which is not what I want my taxes to fund.

Call me old-fashioned, but I want police officers to prevent crime,
not just respond to it once it has occured.

Shooting up in public, defecating in public, trashing other people's
property: these actions are illegal and should be prevented. These
actions are also rightly seen by residents as threatening and
dangerous. People have to feel safe -- otherwise their civil rights
have been violated and their government has failed them.

I wish Deputy Chief Naughton would remember who he works for: we, the
citizens, not a troubled "client base" corroding the city.

Yule Heibel

Victoria