The Lucknow Sentinel, 1983-02-16, Page 7feature
Inicknow Senthrell„ Wyedviesday, February, Yb, ll'9h3—Pagr 7
The Cop down the Street
fa dicer% Note:
The Mowing article, taken firma the
RCMP Quarterly, was orightak pleb -
fished in The Golden Star, Golden,
B.C. It subsequently appeared iiia the
newspaper on the Bedford
area, Nova Scotia, k was submitted by
Fred Ward of beciatow is be printed lin
the Sentinel for the hiteirest of our
readers.
By Cpl. Dale Martel
This is an open letter to all parents
of all young people everywhere. I am
wriiting in response to some of the
questions you ask me daily. I am not
just one police officer; I represent
every officer in every city and town in
Canada.
You may know me only as the cop
who gave you a ticket last summer,
but I am also the guy who lives down
the street from you. I am the parent
of three children and 1 share with you
the feeling of shame, guilt and disap-
pointment when my boy or girl gets
into trouble. 1 am also angry and sick
at heart with trying to do my job and
being tagged the had guy, when all I
have ever wanted was to avert the kind
of tragedy i have just witnessed.
The scene was a long stretch of
highway with a sharp curve at one
end. It had been raining and roads
were slick. A car travelling in excess of
80 mph missed the curve and plowed
into an embarkment where it became
airborne and struck a tree. At this
point. two of the three young
passengers were hurled from the
vehicle, one into the tree, the other
into the roadway, where the car
landed on him. snuffing out his life
like a discarded cigarette on the.
asphalt. He was killed instantly. He
was the lucky one.
The girl thrown into the tree had her
neck broken and although she was
voted queen of the senior prom and
most likely to succeed, she will now
send the next 60 years in a wheel-
chair. Unable to do anything else, she
will live and relive that terrible
moment over again many times.
By the time I arrived, the car had
come to rest on its top, the broken
wheels had stopped spinning. Smoke
and steam were pouring out of the
engine, ripped from its mounting by a
terrible force. An eerie calm had
settled over the scene and it appeared
deserted except for one lone traveller
who had called it in. He had been sick
to his stomach and was leaning
against his car for support. , ),'
The driver was conscious, but in
shock, and was unable to free himself
from under the bent and twisted
steering column. His face will be
forever scarred by deep cuts from
broken glass and jagged metal. Those
cuts will heal, but the ones inside
cannot be touched by the skilled
surgeon's scapel.
Let Off With Warning
The third passenger had, almost
stopped bleeding. The seat and his
clothing were covered in blood from an
artery cut in his arm by .the broken
bone end that protruded from is fore-
arm just below the elbow. His breath
came in gasps as he tried desperately
to suck air past his blood-filled airway.
He was unable to speak and his eyes,
bulged and fixed on me pleadingly.
were the only communication that he
was terrified and wanted my help. 1
felt a pang of guilt and recognized him
as a boy 1 let off with a warning the
other night for an open container of
alcohol in his car. Maybe if 1 had cited
him then, he would still be alive now.
Who knows? i don't.
He died soundlessly in my arms, his
pale blue eyes staring vacantly as if
trying to see into the future he would
never have. I remembered watching
him playing basketball and wondered
what would happen to the scholarship
he would never use.
Dully my mind focussed on loud
screaming and 1 identified it as the girl
who was thrown from the vehicle. 1
raced to her with a blanket but was
afraid to move her. Her head was
tilted at an exaggerated angle. She
seemed unaware of my presence and
whimpered like a little child for her
mother. In the distance, 1 heard the
mournful wail of the ambulance
winding its wav through the rainy
night. 1 was filled with incredible grief
at the waste of so valuable a resource,
our youth.
The ambulance began the job of
king up and removing the dead
and njurved. 1 stood by, watching, as
hot tears mingled with rain and
dripping off my cheeks_
You ask me why did this happen? It
happened because a young person,
stoned out of his mind, thought he
could handle two tons of hurtling
death at 80 mph. It happened because
an adult, trying to be a —good guy",
bought for or sold to some minor, a
case of beer. It hppened because you
as parents weren'tconcerned enough
about your child to know where he was
and what he was doing, and you were
unconcerned about minors and alcohol
abuse and would rather blame me for
harrassing them when I was only
truing to prevent his kind of tragedy. h
happened because. as people say, you
believe this sort of thing only happens
to someone else.
I become sick with anger and
frustration when 1 think of parents and
leaders who believe a little bit of
alochol won't hurt anything. I am
filled with contempt for people who
propose lowering the drinking age
because they will get booze anyway,
so why not make it legal. 1 am
frustrated with laws, court rulings and
other legal manoeuverings that re-
strict my ability to do my job in
preventing this kind of tragedy.
Who Bought The Booze?
1 would give anything to know who
furnished these young people with
that booze. I spent several hours on
reports and now will take several
months trying to erase from my
memory the details of that night. I will
not be alone. The driver will recover
and spend the rest of his life trying to
forget.
Yes, I am angry. and I pray to God
that I might never have to face another
parent in the middle of the night and
say your daughter. Susan, or your son.
Bill, has just. been killed in a car
accident. For your sake, I hope it
doesn't happen to you, but if you
continue to regard alcohol abuse as
part of growing up, then please keep
your porch light on because some cold,
rainy night you will find me at your
doorstep, staring at my feet with a
message of death for you.
letters to the editor
*from page 6
CRTC does not go far enough in recognizing its power to
ensure that material such as the Playboy network offers in
the United States is kept off licensed television in Canada.
For years, the question of community standards has been
a troublesome one in Canada. We are caught between
respect for the individual's right to make his own decisions
on matters of taste and morality, and a respect for the moral
standards of our heritage and of the majority. My own view
is that in the present case, there is no moral dilemma. Pay
TV licenses are issued under the federal government's
authority and thus clearly fall within the sphere of
community decisions. To prohibit the airing of erotic or
pornographic material is to assert a community standard. it
is not to take away any individual right, for there is no
individual right to decide how the public television band will
be used. if any individual right could be said to exist in such
a matter, it would be the right to remain free from exposure
to public programming of a hurtful or offensive type. To me,
it is clear that the CRTC has a mandate and a responsibility
to protect individuals in just this way. it is not an easy
responsibility, for whenever a public body has the power to
make value judgements affecting the community. it has the
capacity to make bad ones. Yet the CRTC exists to make just
this kind of judgement, and one reason why this power was
given to a commission was so that such decisions would not
be subject to political pressures of a partisan nature.
In the present instance. I would like to see the CRTC fulfil
its responsibility to the community. if any individual right
could be said to exist in respect to the kind of programming
aired on television, it is a right of immunity, not a right of
prerogative (hat is, the individual might nerd protection
from prop• amniing which could harm him among his fellow
citiiens. This is what immu•'it' v otild irvelvc. B t, if a right
to he immune from some kinds of broadcasting exists.
certainly no prerogative exists by tihich an individual or
group may claim a right to view a certain kind of
programming. Our rights as individuals are, in matters of
this community nature, freedoms from, not freedoms for
any particular course of action.
As the controversy surrounding the question of erotic or
pornographic Pay Television continues, i shall continue to
argue for a prohibition of such material on any Canadian
licensed television channel. My preference would be to see
the CRTC act as its mandate dictates, to take a firm decision
on this matter in line with views it has already expressed
opposing pornography on television. if the CRTC will not
take the decision itself, it may be that Parliament will have
to act, and i shall push for Parliamentary action if it proves
necessary . 1 hope that it does not.
Thank you for forwarding your concerns to me on this
subject. i appreciate the opportunity to express my own
views on the matter. You may rest assured that i shall make
both the Minister of Communications and the CRTC aware
of the degree of support from our part of the country for a
ban on pornographic programming.
Yours sincerely,
Murray Cardiff. M.P.
Huron - Bruce.
Enjoy Sentinel
to the Editor:
F ncloscd is my cheque
rate for the Sentinel.
It arrives reguharlv cac
receiving it. Wishing you
for $12.75, senior's subscription
h week and we look forward to
continued success.
Yours truly,
Gladys Moore,
Hamilton.
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Your headquarters for residential, commercial
iradullstrial gas. oil. 'wood, coal tired boilers.
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Every Thursday Night at 7:30 p.m.
Early Bird at 7:15 p.m.
y, Ems. 20 REGULAR GAMES
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NIGHT OWL
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