The Deal

The other night I left my apartment to walk over to Dairy Queen for an evening blizzard run for my wife. I was walking down Ash Street, and at the end of the street behind the library, I saw a car stopped in the middle of the street, with the driver talking to a guy standing at his door. I didn’t hear anything, but I assume some pleasantries were exchanged, then the guy standing reached in his pocked, pulled out a little goody bag, and passed it over.

One of the things I love about this neighbourhood is how family friendly it is. There are always parents out and about with kids, gaggles of teens around, and the playground half a block away at Moody Park is packed whenever the sun is out. So seeing this going on in the area I am raising my children and so many others are too pisses me off.

Getting rid of the drug problem will take a lot of people doing a lot of things, but I think one of the main things we need to do as a community is stand up and say we will not allow this in our neighbourhood. By this I don’t mean marches and rallies, or groups claiming to ‘take back our streets,’ though those events do have their place. What needs to happen is all of us in the community need to stand up – alone, with a friend, with neighbours, building managers, and stop this from happening whenever we see it.

This means moms calling 911 on their cell the minute they see a deal going on. This means recording license plates, getting descriptions and passing them onto police. This means telling them to their face they are not welcome to ply their trade here, and we will take every legal recourse available to ensure they cannot.

So it is with a lot of embarrassment I admit that as I walked by the deal that night, I did not call 911. I did not get a good look at the dealer or the buyers. I did not remember a license plate, make or model of car. And I did not tell the dealer to stop what he is doing. That night, I was part of the problem. But from this point forward, I will not have to say that again.