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Crime wave hits downtown |
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Written by FRANK PEEBLES
Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
The exterior of Sarita Computers and Rocketfish Productions were closed and boarded up after being shot up. (Citizen photo by Chuck Nisbett)
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COLLEGE HEIGHTSDOWNTOWN PRINCE GEORGESHARI GREEN
The streets of downtown Prince George seem to be getting tougher, according to police and some business owners.
"I think in the last six months or so things have become, shall we say, more interesting," said JJ Springer owner Shari Green, president of Downtown Prince George.
She is well aware, and said many other business owners are as well, of the stabbing and the beating last Wednesday morning. In both cases the victims refused to co-operate with police in locating the attackers.
These are not the only instances. Mike Callewaert, owner of Sarita Computers and Rocketfish Recording Studios, recently relocated his downtown computer store to College Heights and placed plywood over the main entrance of his downtown office after it was shattered by someone shooting pellets or something. Seven holes can still be seen puncturing the street-facing window beside the door.
"What if someone had been in there at the time?" Callewaert said. "I have been doing my primary business in downtown Prince George for the past 20 years, all in that vicinity of Third and George. I have never seen it like this before, it is completely out of control. They do drug deals right out in the open, you can watch them do it, and they just don't care, they don't have any fear of anything happening to them if they get caught."
Another business owner in the same area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the street thugs have gone one step further. They even announce what they are doing.
"The street scum have actually warned me I was pissing in the wind by resisting. I've had three break-ins in a month and I've been taunted by the thieves telling me what they took," said the owner, who takes issue with the number of social services and agencies being clustered in the same area.
"You're paving the road to hell and the best pavement is within four square blocks all in the downtown," the proprietor said. "Crack and meth will turn a child into a prostitute in a snap. Don't you want to deal with that? I don't think you want that to happen. Drugs turn people into antisocial creatures with no respect for anything or anyone, including their own parents. They certainly don't care about someone's business. I've got more experience with that than I'd like to elaborate on, but you have to deal with the problems of downtown by putting your attention on getting real help for the people with the drug problems and sure, the mental health problems, too."
When two young brothers recently lost two locked bikes (one was recovered later) due to theft at the Four Seasons Pool, their father, Kerim Ozcan, said he could see it coming.
"I stated I had a great deal of discomfort with having the bikes locked up there. I stated I felt they would be stolen and within an hour they were," he said. "I am dismayed that this downtown is so socially corrupted that my sons had their bikes so predictably stolen."
They were even more affected, he said, when the boys had to go along for a car ride through the seediest corners of the city looking for the bikes, eventually finding one of them in the possession of a homeless man, who helped them get a lead on the other.
"It is appalling that I had to show my children what this town's downtown is like. It is a sad state of affairs for Prince George. We have lost control of the downtown core," Ozcan said.
The RCMP have been confronting the issue head-on, said Const. Lesley Dix, who agrees that the criminal element has been getting bolder and meaner in recent times.
"I believe we have experienced a rise in some criminal activity involving organized crime," she said. "What comes with organized crime is the drug trade, and that leads to violent assaults and attempts on people's lives when they run into disputes within that world, but it sometimes happens in public places and the public can be at risk. We have seen with more and more frequency that individuals who belong to organized crime tend to carry weapons."
Dix said the organized crime element has two main veins that bring it into conflict with the public. One is the street dealing and the property crime and prostitution that comes with it. The other is the crime that spills out of certain drinking establishments at night, both against property and people. The leaders like to socialize in these bars and are therefore magnets for incidents and also because their agents are out doing their routine dirty business.
"There are a number of drinking establishments downtown that are co-operative with police and want to keep their place safe from organized crime, but on the other hand there are a number where anyone and everyone is welcome, even knowing they are involved in organized crime," said Dix. "They, therefore, put the rest of their patrons at risk. The public does not know when a dispute is going to take place. When there is a concentration of organized crime members in one area, there is a higher risk of violence occurring."
The police are countering with stepped up patrols of the bars, more contacts within the bars, a regular set of reserve members on downtown foot patrols during the day, and more auxiliary constables involved in the walking of the downtown beat.
Pizzarico's owner Rick Lafleur said he has noticed the police presence and welcomes it, but said city hall needed to do more as well, as did his fellow business owners.
"You have a lot of people who dream of owning their own business, of turning their passion into a livelihood," he said. "They want to have their own yarn shop or pottery school, but these boutique stores don't work in strip malls ... they do work in the downtown. You have to foster that kind of business atmosphere."
Green said it used to be common for business owners in the downtown to put on a public smile and avoid talking about the social degradation for fear it would make the problem worse.
"That has changed in a big way," she said, advocating for throwing all possible light on the issue so as to deal with it. The problem has gone too far, now, for well wishes.
She said the proposed Good Neighbour Program for the business core would be a big push-back in the right direction, and also hoped city hall would oppose the proposed move of the gaming centre out of downtown.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 August 2008 )
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