A full week of basketball and law enforcement

Yet another All Native Basketball tournament has come to an end as Saturday night featured the last of the week’s action. The final game of the night began at 7:30 with Vancouver and Hydaburg tipping off in the Seniors final. It was another exciting match that ended with Hydaburg collecting the Seniors title.

The last week saw the streets, stores, hotels, bars and restaurants full of celebrants from points near and far. The tournament week is one of the highlights for the city, as the mid February influx of visitors adds some life to the normally bland second month of the year.

One of the more noticeable effects of the tournament is a sudden change in traffic patterns in the city. As the streets become a tad more congested, the parking lots fuller and with it apparently a more determined effort in traffic enforcement. Bolstered by out of town members of the RCMP who are sent to Rupert to assist the local detachment, it seemed like one could not drive down more than a block or two in the downtown core without coming across somebody pulled over ahead of the flashing lights of the RCMP.

Stories are many of a ticketing blitz across the city as the police cracked down on seat belt infractions, improper lane changes, speeding, failure to observe stop signs and other infractions of the motor vehicle code.

The extra officers also provided a more visible presence during the infamous bar crowd hours after closing each night, always a bit of a gong show in the downtown area on a weekend. The addition of hundreds if not thousands of visitors this week have made the downtown street scene even livelier than normal.

The extra hands no doubt were used to help keep a lid on things, lest they get a tad out of hand. For those that retire before midnight, the Rupert Bar Crowd scene is an occasionally worrisome thing to behold, as numerous alcohol assisted folks spill out into the streets around 2 am or so. It’s a common occurrence on a weekend in the city rain or shine to see the most boisterous of the group decide to renew hostilities either new or ancient. While many in the crowd are quick to head for home and a chance to let nature take its course, there is quite a core group of folks that seem to figure that’s the time to make a little mischief. It’s about at that time, that no doubt most in the downtown area hope for a good old Rupert Monsoon to help clear the streets quickly.

With the last three days of street blitzes on traffic offences, the message has probably been received that there is a larger than normal police presence in town, so anyone wishing to detract from the genial nature of the weekend will be dealt with accordingly.

From all accounts the basketball was once again riveting, close games exciting finishes and some superior skills shown on the courts. You can check out the enTel ANBT site for all the final results of the tournament.

For those more interested in law enforcement matters, check the Daily News next week for their crime beat feature, which on a weekly basis lists the local RCMP activity, they’ll have a scorecard of their own on the amount of incidents that they were involved with in the last week.