One of the things I am finding myself writing about too often in this column and over at the News-Optimist blog, is the crime situation in North Battleford.
The crime beat is not one of my favourites. For one thing, it's depressing to see the toll taken on the community by crime. I've interviewed my share of victims and the reaction from all of them is similar: they feel victimized and helpless.
I've been there. When living in Portage la Prairie, Man., my car was stolen and wrecked by criminals. This happened months after an incident where some punks attempted to steal my car, only to flee after being caught in the act. Each time, I felt helpless and victimized. Being a victim of crime is no fun.
Here in the Battlefords, car thefts aren't a major problem. Everything else, though, is - whether it be the recent rise in break and enters to residences or the number of automobile windows that are smashed by people so they can steal things from inside the ca or the rash of vandalism and graffiti that hit the city in the past month.
It's vandalism that has the attention of city council, as they have heard an earful from residents who are sick and tired of being victims of crime.
I'll give you one example - the graffiti situation in the city. People are fed up with the graffiti that has been placed on buildings, which the victims are then forced to clean up and foot the bill for. And the victims are angry - angry enough to tell city council how they felt about being on the receiving end of a new property maintenance and nuisance abatement bylaw, which included a number of provisions added to provide for stepped up enforcement against run down and unsightly buildings.
You would have thought such a bylaw would have an easy time passing given all the "hawks" on council who want to lower the boom on run down properties.
But the bylaw passage had a rough ride, and the reason was councillors were concerned it was going too far in targeting home owners hit by graffiti. Councillor Trent Houk, himself hawkish about cleaning up run down properties, couldn't support the graffiti provisions.
The feedback he got was the provisions victimized graffiti victims twice - first by the vandals who placed the graffiti and then by bylaw provisions that seemed to put the pressure on to clean it up.
In the end, the concerns of graffiti victims were heard. The proposed bylaw wording was changed, as an amendment was brought in to ensure the victims of graffiti wouldn't have to face fines.
Still, it brought to council's attention the fact graffiti victims are fed up with being victimized, and that something needed to be done about controlling the vandalism.
The other big crime issue last month - and the tipping point for the whole community - was vandalism June 12 and 13 when young people went on a massive tire-slashing spree.
That resulted in over a hundred charges being laid and calls for stepped-up enforcement of the seemingly ineffective curfew bylaw, a bylaw Houk has called, correctly, a "useless piece of legislation."
Houk was himself a victim of that crime spree, and he reported back to council that in his discussions with people in his neighbourhood there was a desire by citizens to "take matters into their own hands."
It has started to dawn on people that relying on stepped-up RCMP patrols or even a "Safer Communities Task Force" is not going to be enough to stop this wave of property violence. The criminals outnumber all these police officers and justice workers.
However, there is one group of individuals the criminals do not outnumber: the law-abiding citizens of the community. And the law-abiding citizens are quickly realizing they need to step up to the plate as well and make their own stand against crime.
In the past few weeks we have seen moves by citizens to get organized and to take the community back from the criminals. The revival of a Neighbourhood Watch program is being floated and Houk has offered to spearhead the initiative.
The issue of graffiti vandalism was also discussed at the June meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, where the issue of controlling the sale of spray paint to aspiring graffiti-artists came up. Directors at the meeting showed willingness to do something as businesses to come up with organized solutions to the graffiti situation, based on their own experience.
Chamber directors need to follow through. If there is one thing businesses are fed up with, it's having to continually waste money cleaning up or repairing their buildings because of vandalism and crime.
Getting grassroots efforts going to show a united front against criminals will go a long way towards helping already overworked law enforcement officials take a bite out of crime. The stepped-up discussions at city council and in the community are positive developments. The dialogue shows people are aware there is a serious problem.
Clearly, as far as solving the crime problem is concerned, the city is not there yet. Clearly, they can use the help from interested citizens who have a lot to offer to make the city a safer place and are ready to take matters into their own hands in a positive way.
Seeing people show interest in taking the community back from the criminals is good to see. Now, it's up to citizens to get moving.
