Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2012
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Ron Corbett

MARKET CLEAN UP EFFORT FUTILE

I saw a drug deal the other day.

That's not news. I see one every weekday, Monday to Friday. It's so
common I hesitated to make that sentence the lead to this column.

It's the timing that convinced me. This particular drug deal happened
on the afternoon of June 13th, next to the Salvation Army Shelter on
George Street.

At the same time, directly across the street, the Ottawa Police
Service was holding a press conference to announce the culmination of
a five-month investigation into street-level drug-dealing in the
Byward Market.

It was called Project Firecracker, this latest investigation, and it
had resulted in 108 people being charged with drug trafficking and
other offences. Sixty people had been arrested by the time of the
press conference, the remaining 48 were being sought by police.

Drugs seized in the course of the investigation included Oxycontin,
crack cocaine, marijuana. Police also recovered $14,000 in cash and a
Glock handgun. None of the amounts were large, but that wasn't the
point of the exercise. Project Firecracker targeted street-level
dealers -- the lowest of the low -- and police had assembled on George
Street to call it a success.

At the same time, as I was parking my car, I watched a drug deal take
place. Like I said, I see one every weekday, and it was only the sight
of the police across the street ("Hey, that looks like Chief
Bordeleau") that made this particular transaction stand out.

The person buying the drugs I see all the time in the Market. He is
tall, has a full beard; looks to be in his mid-30s, although he hides
his age well. Maybe he is a young man. Maybe he is an old man. It's
difficult to say.

The drug dealer was also no stranger to me. A slight man in his early
20s, normally seen on a bicycle, numerous tattoos on his arms, almost
all of them crudely hand-drawn, a constantly moving advertisement for
having professional work done if you are ever considering ink on the
skin.

Anyway, the bearded man handed over money. The cyclist counted out
rocks of crack cocaine. One of the rocks fell and the bearded man
briefly panicked, fell to the ground faster than a marine recruit
ordered to do push-ups, but the rock was quickly recovered and in less
than 10 seconds the transaction was over.

Now, in case you think they were so high, or so preoccupied, they
never noticed the throng of reporters and police officers gathered
across the street, I don't think that was the case.

They didn't care. I think they had things to worry about in this
world, but getting arrested wasn't one of them.

And in that quick, 10-second snippet of life in the Byward Market, you
can see why police investigations like Project Firecracker will always
fail. Will always be a debatable use of police time and resources.

Fact is, these undercover operations will never stop drug dealing in
the Market. They don't even slow it down measurably.

One week after the press conference, the level of drug dealing around
the Salvation Army shelter had returned pretty much to what it had
been the week before the press conference.

Maybe if you permanently incarcerate every drug addict in the city,
you can eradicate the problem. But short of that, I don't know what
Project Firecracker accomplished.

It must be a frustration to police seeing the results of their
efforts. To constantly feel like they're piling sandbags after the
levee has broken.

What are they up against? Well, consider this - as soon as the drug
deal I witnessed was finished, the man in the full beard walked to the
west wall of the Salvation Army shelter.

There, he bent to his knees, rested his back against the bricks and
pulled out a crack pipe. He then took a lighter, got a flame burning
and started inhaling from the pipe, the deep, lung-destroying inhale
of the hardcore crack addict.

I was walking by him. As were other people. The chief of police was
across the street. And he didn't give a damn.

You could have shone a spotlight on him and he wouldn't have done
anything differently.

Police are helpless against a problem like that. We all are. Perhaps
it's time we considered some new solutions.
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MAP posted-by: Matt