Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 2015 Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2015 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329 Author: Ron Corbett Page: 6 IT'S A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE Cop Sweeps Not Halting Drugs, Byward Merchant Says "That's the problem. Right there. You're looking at it." I follow the direction of a man's pointed finger until I am looking at a recently shutdown restaurant on George St. "You want to help me?" he continues. "Then forget about project-whatever-it-is-you're-calling-it this year. Keep the streets clean. Every day." The man is a merchant in the Byward Market and we are speaking one day after Ottawa Police announced the results of Project Shadow, a four-month investigation into drug dealing in the Market, Rideau St. areas. You'd think the merchant would be thrilled by the news. Instead, he stands with me at the corner of Dalhousie and George Sts., and after being assured he won't be identified, for fear of reprisals, he points toward the restaurant again and says: What do you think they're doing right now?" I stare at the vestibule of what used to be the Honest Lawyer and I see a woman lying on a sleeping bag, three men standing above her in a semi-circle, paying her no mind, one man stuffing bills in his pockets, one man counting something in the palm of his hand, one man hopping from foot to foot, anxious, the vestibule hemming him in, or maybe its something else. "It's a drug deal," I say. The man nods. "Have you noticed any change since the arrests?" "Yep. Not as many dealers out there today. So they get swarmed when they show up." "That's it?" "Seems like they're taking over the Honest Lawyer a bit too. Sleeping in the front. I think they're off to the side as well, behind the fence. Looks like some people have been evicted because of this and are sleeping outdoors now." "That restaurant has been closed since Christmas, right?" "That's right." "So, more people living on the street, and a gong-show when the dealers show up. That's what you've noticed so far?" "Yes." "I'm thinking that's not your definition of cleaning up the area." "You would be right." And then the merchant goes on to make the argument he has contacted me to make. An argument he'd have found ludicrous 10 years ago, before he started working in the Market and saw what street-level drug dealing actually was. For starters, he now believes this is a public health issue, not a justice issue. He tells stories of seeing people early in the morning drudging down George like zombies, staring at the ground for slivers of crack cocaine that may have fallen to the ground during the night. He has seen those people bump into each other. Byward Market merchant Without acknowledgment. Bump and move on. In silence. Never lifting their eyes from the ground. It creeps him out a bit when he sees it. "The only crime I see going on down here is what these people are doing to their bodies," he says. "I would be willing to give a safe-injection site a chance." The other reason he doesn't think this is a justice issue is because he has been around now for a few of these drug sweeps. In May 2012, Ottawa Police had Project Firecracker, a five-month investigation into drug dealing in the Byward Market that led to dozens of arrests and the confiscation of $51,000 in drugs. In 2014 came Project Sweeper, which again led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of around $50,000 in drugs. There were another 24 arrested in a Market sweep in March of last year, and this year's four-month investigation- Project Shadow-has picked up 34 dealers so far, with another 18 being sought. Roughly $50,000 in drugs was seized. Yet after Projects Firecracker-Sweeper-Shadow - I am still standing at the corner of Dalhousie and George staring at people who seem to have moved into the abandoned Honest-Lawyer building and started a crack cocaine business. "They should have done something about that building instead," says the merchant. "That would have been helpful. Get that building boarded up properly if they're not going to have a business there for a while." This is the last part of his argument. If you want to clean up the Market and Rideau St. area, then you need to physically clean up the area. You need to adopt the busted-window philosophy. Don't tolerate graffiti. Don't tolerate petty vandalism. Don't tolerate people dealing in the doorways of abandoned buildings. And when you see crime, stop it. Don't bother investigating it. "These investigations don't seem to accomplish much," he says. "I'd rather cops walked beats and stopped crimes the minute they saw it. I think that old-fashioned approach would do wonders down here." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom