ROTHENBURGER: The quest for a made-at-home plan to fight social disorder
RCMP officer guards crime scene in Kamloops. (Image: RCMP)
IT’S GOOD TO KNOW, sometimes, that we’re not in it alone.
Social disorder on the streets is the biggest topic of public discussion in Kamloops, with everyone trying to find the answers to the joint issues of crime, addictions, mental health and housing.
We look to our municipal and provincial governments for leadership and it often doesn’t feel as if we’re getting anywhere.
Other B.C. communities, though, are going through the same struggles, trying to fight on all these fronts and make sense of their complex interconnections.
Kelowna is third in the country on the national crime severity index. That’s a measure of the severity of police-reported violations. The Okanagan city is calling for five more prosecutors to chip away at court backlogs. In one horrendous case last weekend, a female security guard at the university campus was beaten to death.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, 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.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
We contract out our safety to others and depend upon them for answers. It seems natural to look to city bylaws, the RCMP and our justice system for the answers. Somehow, those have failed us.
BC Housing and CMHA have constructed a dwelling place called Moira House. It resembles something more like a cage match ring for mixed martial arts or an exhibit at a zoo to display caged animals. One way in and one way out; surrounded by a steel chain link fence 8 feet high. It’s not exactly the picture of “Welcome Home”.