EDITORIAL – Assault on 71-year-old security guard deserves extra punishment

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

MEDIA HAVE A BAD HABIT of stereotyping older folks as helpless; others have an equally bad habit of stereotyping them as irrelevant.

Anybody over the age of 59 is, in the eyes of reporters who yet have little experience with the world, elderly.

So when media stories about an assault on a 71-year-old security guard in Riverside Park repeatedly made immediate reference to his age, my first thought was, here we go again.

But, in this case, the age is important. In case you missed the story, he approached a guy on a bicycle who was smoking in the park and asked him to stop. Bicycle guy responded with an expletive, an insult about his age, and a punch in the face before riding off.

What a cowardly thing to do, hitting someone because you’re younger and stronger and know you can get away with it. Police have arrested a Surrey man in connection with the incident.

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Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.