Pubdate: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2009 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Sel Burrows Letter Of The Day WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Five children were selling crack at 261 Austin St. and I didn't know who to call. A nice new grey car pulled up -- licence plate number noted. One of the kids pulled his hoody over his head and ran behind my car to sell his rock of crack. I yelled at the driver, a 30-something white guy, "I've got your licence plate!" He yelled a few obscenities at me and screeched away, his crack hit ready for the poor young girl in the seat beside him before he used her. This isn't a plot from a TV show. This happened at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, in Winnipeg. I had received a phone call from a member of our community safety team on the "Powerline," alerting us that there was a ganglet still selling crack from the side of 261 Austin St. This had started a couple of weeks ago with one kid. When I attempted to take his picture he had pulled out his bear spray and tried to spray me. I left quickly with the 911 operator telling me to keep out of danger. The police responded promptly, but he was nowhere to be seen. The poor police are dealing with shootings all over the city, two murders by gang types on the other side of Main Street. How can they cope with kids selling crack. The youngest is probably 12, then older -- 13, 15 two about 16. Who do you call? If you call child and family they ask you for the kids names and addresses. I don't know their names and only one of them lives at 261 Austin. These are kids. They should be playing video games and thinking about puppy love. If we call the police, we know they are totally busy trying to track down the killer at the Polish Club on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Powerline gets two phone calls about a drunk passed out in a park and two totally pissed people having sex on the sidewalk in front of an apartment block full of children. The 911 operator is wonderful, each time she reassures me that they will do their best. The paramedics arrive to deal with the passed-out drunk. The paramedics arrive to deal with the drunks screwing on the street. We are doing our best to make our community a better place. None of the murders has happened in our community so far. Our community safety team, all 100 of them, call us when they see "stuff" happening. But what are we to do when there are five children selling crack? I had set out to write an article about how to deal with the gangs in Winnipeg. We know how to deal with them. We've successfully driven them out of Point Douglas and if anyone in authority wanted to listen we could show them how to drive them out of the inner city. But what do we do with the children who are dealing crack? SEL BURROWS Winnipeg - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr