Editor, The News:
Re: Woman attacked downtown (The News, Oct. 19).
In reading Wednesday’s edition of The News, I was literally enraged by three articles. Sadly, I’m uncertain as to whether the RCMP are to blame or the judiciary. Fact is, heads should be rolling and citizens damned angry.
A female employee of a downtown business goes out back of the location to throw trash into a dumpster and is assaulted, grabbed from behind, tackled to the ground (fortunately able to fend off the attacker, lest, goodness knows what the end result of that could’ve been).
RCMP state the suspect escaped, however the story takes a sad path as it seems local businesses people were not informed of this assault by the police.
I have no idea what lead to that reasoning, but to me any determination to do so was flawed.
If you were a secretary downtown, a boss responsible for your staff, would you not want to know there’s a potential rapist lurking in your alley?
Then two men were arrested after another assaulted, granted liquor was involved in an apparent targeted attack.
Another item states one man was found badly beaten (so badly he’s still in hospital with serious injuries) with suspects successfully tracked down and arrested.
The story ends in a suspect charged, but who has since been released from custody.
It would seem beating someone senseless and leaving them badly injured by the side of the road as you go home isn’t deemed a risk to the public considering you very well could bump into this guy tonight. Then two teens were stabbed in Maple Ridge.
One victim was airlifted to hospital, but is expected to survive.
The suspect ran away, gets tracked by a police dog and arrested.
It is determined it was not a random attack. The suspect was charged, then released from custody with a promise to appear in court at a later date.
I’ll spare you my angst, suffice to say, I cannot imagine a parent anywhere who can understand how someone can stab two people at a party, run from the police and be sent home with the promise you’ll come back later.
Big flipping deal about him going to court later, I bloody well hope so, but why on earth is he walking the same streets we are, as we speak. He just stabbed two people.
I always try to be on the side of the RCMP when they get criticized, with the belief I wasn’t there. I’m not a police officer, who am I to judge such circumstances. If I call them, they come running and that’s what counts. Far be it for me to complain.
But the judiciary, well that is a whole other thing – what people get away with floors me.
I had my little run-in with the law in my teens, I was cut more slack than even I thought I deserved. Fact is, though, the whole experience was an eye-opener and life-changer, so I’m both grateful for it and understand the whole principle – it works also for many first offenders.
Then, again, I shoplifted, I didn’t beat someone bloody or stab anyone.
In closing, I get the point: in one attack you don’t want to cause undue excitement in announcing the woman being assaulted; in others, because they were not random, or as they were targeted, the risk to the public is low, so opinion is, release them pending.
My question is, whose best interests are being served in doing so?
I sure do not feel it is mine and ours, and people should be as screaming angry, as I am, at the end result.
Add onto all this, considering the RCMP’s image has taken a beating recently, here the RCMP are catching the people – a well deserved huge pat on the back definitely.
But then the courts release these people (pending a court appearance at a later date).
Just think, if they turned around and re-offended – how stupid in ineffectual the RCMP would look, keeping in mind they did a noble job apprehending the offenders.
They must be as livid as we are when people get caught for serious stuff and merely walk away before the ink on the paperwork is barely dry.
It’s enough to make your head spin, and is actually pretty scary.
Robert Adams
Maple Ridge