Pubdate: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2007 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329 Author: Ron Corbett, Sun Media Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) RECLAIMING OUR NEIGHBOURHOODS There's A New Ally, And New Resolve On City Streets It's a small park, not much more than 20 paces by 20 paces if you walk the edges. The street it's located on is small as well; a butt-end, block-long street with a peeler bar at one end and this little city park at the other. On this day, in the midst of the first winter storm of the season, Insp. Alain Bernard stands in the centre of the park and says he's heard stories of what it used to be like here. How city work crews had to cut down trees, so people making drug deals wouldn't have a place to hide. How prostitutes would walk the 20-pace-by-20-pace perimeter every morning, looking for work. How mothers wouldn't let their kids play in the park until they had completed a search for discarded used needles and condoms. "Can you imagine living like that?" he says. "Can you imagine trying to raise children and have to deal with that every day? No wonder people are fed up." Bernard is in charge of a new street crime unit set up by the Ottawa Police. The undercover, specially trained cops hit the streets last week, as part of a nine-month pilot project. As we continue talking, he turns and walks towards his car, shouting over his shoulder: "Come here. I want to show you something." He rummages through a lawyer's briefcase in his backseat, then pulls out a laminated map of Vanier. It's a specially drawn police map, showing the locations of known crack houses. "The addresses in white are crack houses we have recently shut down," he says. "The addresses in red are the ones we're currently investigating. This, by the way, is Emond Street." I stare at where his finger is pointing, then let my gaze widen over the map. The addresses for the crackhouses are shown in what resemble caption balloons from the comics; the balloons either white or red. There are so many coloured balloons it looks like the circus just pulled into town. I start counting the balloons. I finish when I reach 32. I remember a time when police in Ottawa denied there was such a thing as a crackhouse in our city. For a few years it was great fun, filing stories about crackhouses and asking the police what gives, but those days -- of fun and denial -- are behind us. If there are 32 known crackhouses in Vanier, then you can extrapolate from that, add in other areas of the city that are also dealing with a crack cocaine problem -- Lowertown, Centretown, Hintonburg, Sandy Hill, Mechanicsville, whatever-you-call-that-area-off-Gladstone-Avenue-near-Bronson - -- and you'll come up with a number that should frighten you. It certainly frightened our new police chief when he took a ride last summer through some of the hardest hit areas in Ottawa. Not long afterwards, Police Chief Vern White approved funding for the new street crime unit. The mandate of the unit, according to Bernard, is simple -- "Clean up our streets." The eight-officer unit is not targeting upper-echelon drug dealers, but rather the street-corner pusher; the addict who needs help; the street prostitute who never seems to move along. The undercover officers took to the streets last Wednesday. After years of denial -- the sad, civic-boostering kind of denial accomplishing nothing -- it looks like we're finally getting serious. The snow is now falling heavily on Emond St. I asked to meet Bernard here because this street has become important to me. Last year, in the wake of a murder in a crackhouse on the street, I wrote a story that upset, I think, everyone down here (with the possible exception of the people in the strip club). I remember being in an angry mood when I wrote the story, wondering how such an obvious crackhouse was not shutdown. Where were the police? Where were the neighbours? Funny thing was, the people who got upset with me were good people. The anger of fools is never a problem, but when you annoy good, hardworking people, it lingers. I can't drive down Montreal Rd. anymore without taking a detour down Emond St. I can't read a story about crack cocaine and not think about the people on this street and wonder how they're faring. A couple months ago, the first Neighbourhood Watch program in Vanier was established. It was set up by people living on Emond St. I have been told, and have seen for myself, things now are different on this street. After getting angry, this community decided to fight back. "The people here have taken back the street," says Bernard. "We want to help other communities do the same. We don't have to put up with this anymore." - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath