Page 12 - OCtOBer 6, 2016 - martensville messenger
Cities Don’t Get Rural Sask. Crime
The saddest days in
Saskatchewan are when we
see people divided - especially
when that division is caused by
a lack of understanding. Such
days have been all too common
in this province this year. And
what’s even sadder is when
they relate to issues of safety something that shouldn’t di vide
us.
Sadly, though, city
people seeing the issue from the
outside may not fully appreciate
how unsafe some rural people
feel.
One of the flashpoints
has clearly been the racialcharged incident near Biggar
in which Colten Boushie of the
Pheasant Rump First Nation
died from a gunshot wound in
the farmyard of Gerald Stanley.
Stanley has been charged with
2nd degree murder and has
received bail that confines him to
the vicinity of his farm until his
trial date. The issue has created
a firestorm of controversy and
protest … and more than a
few highly inappropriate racist
social media postings.
Let us be clear that
the court will deal with the
facts of the matter in Stanley’s
trial process. But what might
be said is that it was just one
of many incidents throughout
rural Saskatchewan people that
illustrate the fear out there.
An
even
more
recent incident driving rural
Saskatchewan’s fear over
public safety was an incident
near Fiske, in which police
reported a complaint of three
masked men carrying handguns
trying to hold up a farmhand.
No one was hurt, but no arrests
have been made … even after
the RCMP commissioned an
aerial search for a black SUV
said to be involved in the
incident.
Admittedly, this is a
very isolated incident.
Less isolated, however, are
the stories throughout rural
Saskatchewan of vandalism,
break-ins,
vehicle,
farm
machinery and gas thefts, and
even occasional home-invasion
robberies
with
violence.
The Fiske incident and other
incidents have prompted some
farmers to carry firearms in
the cabs of their combines and
elsewhere.
Again, perspective is
needed here. Stories of how
often this has been occurring
are likely both exaggerated
and overblown. After all, it’s
not uncommon for farmers
to keep guns on hand to deal
with predators. And most of
us who built gun racks in high
school shop as a kid know that
they were designed to go in the
house or the back of a pickup.
But it is a different
era and the RCMP were right
to issue a warning about proper
use and storage of firearms.
Letter to the Editor
The last thing anyone needs is is
an unintended tragedy. And that
very different era that we are
now in touches on another issue
pertinent to what’s been going
on in rural Saskatchewan.
As farms have grown
larger, farmers have grown
farther apart. That has created
policing challenges in two ways.
There is sometimes no easily
accessible neighbour to watch
properties and it’s tougher to
get law enforcement to remote
locations to deal with an incident.
Also, with less people in rural
Saskatchewan, it is harder for
those that remain to afford the
policing costs.
Municipalities of fewer
than 5,000 people with RCMP
detachments pay $77.06 per
capita while those communities
without a detachment pay
$47.68 per person for policing.
Any additional positions at
a detachment would cost an
additional $130,000 per year,
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Provincial
Politics
with
Murray Mandryk
so simply paying for police is getting
harder. And maybe rural Saskatchewan
isn’t as peaceful as it once was.
A 2005 Statistics Canada
study showed 43-per-cent more crime
- break-ins, assaults, etc. - in smaller
urban communities than larger cities.
Perhaps to the surprise of some, there
is also a higher homicide rate in rural
settings.
One other big problem
may be related to the declining oil
economy and the problems that have
accompanied it. Rural people are all
too aware of the rare cases of drug
addiction that sometimes follow
rig workers. Well, the addictions to
fentanyl and other drugs don’t stop
when oil wages stop. It is a different
rural Saskatchewan.
Maybe it’s high time those
in the cities passing judgment better
understood what is going on.
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