A troubled soul in the down town core

"It's a shame. There's cops sitting there watching him. They didn't turn the siren' on until it happened." -- a local business owner expressing frustration as a result of a morning incident in the downtown area. 

Thursday's edition of the Daily News provided some eyewitness accounts of a distraught man behaving in a strange manner and eventually causing a fair bit of property damage at a downtown exercise centre.

 Prince Rupert RCMP received a number of calls in the early business hours of Thursday, with workers and passers by in the downtown area asking them to attend to the disturbance which featured a man seemingly in some distress acting in an unusual manner, kicking buildings, attempting to break windows and in the end eventually succeeding, much to the disappointment of the owners of The Gym at the corner of Fulton and Third Avenue West.

The distraught individual was eventually coralled by police and taken to Prince Rupert Regional Hospital for further evaluation, Thursday's Daily News provided an untitled article on page three which recounted the trail trouble on the downtown streets of Prince Rupert.

George T. Baker and Monica Lamb-Yorski 
Daily News 
Thursday, April 15, 2010 

 A man who, according to RCMP, suffers from schizophrenia went on a rampage, smashing storefront windows on Third Ave. West yesterday morning.

Police have arrested what they term a "younger male." The man was taken to Prince Rupert Regional Hospital for evaluation.

"He has been charged with mischief and is at PRRH for assessments," reported Cst. Erin Stevenson, Crime Prevention Officer for the Prince Rupert RCMP.

It is still undetermined whether there were multiple males involved because, according to Stevenson, police received complaint calls describing separate men. For now, only one man has been charged.

For business owners along Third Ave. the sight of a grown man breaking windows in front of customers in broad daylight was both shocking and infuriating.

"We're going to charge him for restitution if we can because you're allowed to do that if somebody is doing that and the police caught him here on the street,” said Linda Lutz, owner of private fitness business The Gym.

However, Lutz was already resigned to the fact that she was at least going to have to pay for the initial costs to repair her window.

Lutz's deductible is $1,000, but she expected the window to cost more than that, meaning, for now.

"There'll be another sheet of plywood going up on Third Avenue because of the cost."

 Did Lutz believe she might actually be able to get restitution for her window? Not really.

 "It might be like getting blood out of a stone”, reasoned Lutz.

 "It's a shame. There's cops sitting there watching him. They didn't turn the siren' on until it happened."

Charmaine Gibson was working at The Gym when the man came up and smashed the window. When asked for her version of what happened, she replied.

"The usual suspects. A guy having a fight internally with himself breaks storefront window," recounted Gibson.

"I was on the phone, talking to Joe Gabor (The Gym co-owner and owner of King Koin Laundromat) and saw the whole thing."

According to Gibson, the disturbed man was walking along and bumped into The Gym business sign outside. He became angry picked up the sign and smashed the window.

 "I told Joe to phone the police right away,” said Gibson.

Another witness recounted the whole bizarre behaviour pattern exhibited by the man. "He was on the street crying and going down the street hitting things.

He tried to kick a car in. I was walking up the street and I saw him kick in the old audiovisual place. "He tried kicking in the drugstore, but he didn't break anything. He was swearing. Something's bothering this [poor fellow]."

Hey, you kids, get off of our, er, streets..

"These are hoodlums out at two, three and four in the morning with big rocks in their hands smashing windows for no good reason...I think we need to look at a curfew and the implications of a curfew and as a city try and help these [store owners] out." – Councillor Ken Cote, expressing frustration at the random acts of vandalism in the city in the early morning hours.

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The prospect of a youth curfew has once again been introduced to Prince Rupert City council, as Councillor Ken Cote returned to that theme at this weeks City council meeting.

Councillor Cote expressed his concern over the increasing number of vandalism cases in the downtown area, and asked council to take an in-depth look at the option as a way of removing potential trouble makers from the streets late at night and providing some much sought assistance to the local business community which has suffered the brunt of the mindless activity.

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Cote offered up no recommendation on Monday night, as to any time line he might have in mind as to when the curfew would be in effect for local youth, nor was there an age suggestion made during the course of the discussion at council.

The Mayor for his part, offered up the comment that the majority of Prince Rupert’s youth are well behaved and that only a minority are causing trouble, while also pointing out that the curfew option could run into trouble with the national Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

City staff was tasked with the job of seeking out further information on the issue and present their findings to council at its next meeting on July 21st, at that meeting council is also requesting that the RCMP attend to provide an overview of the situation in the city when it comes to vandalism and youth issues.

The Northern View featured a report on the curfew possibilities posted to their website on Tuesday.


Council to look at a downtown curfew
By Shaun Thomas

The Northern View

Published: July 08, 2008 10:00 PM

Updated: July 09, 2008 7:56 AM

Prince Rupert city council has told staff to take an in-depth look at the possibility of a curfew in the downtown core as merchants in the area continue to face broken windows on a regular basis.
The issue was brought forward by councillor Ken Cote, who said he is increasingly concerned by the number and frequency of broken windows in the downtown core.

"The reports I get is that it happens around two or three in the morning by people that are 13, 14 or 15, and the RCMP get involved but can't do much because there are minors involved," he told council.

"These are hoodlums out at two, three and four in the morning with big rocks in their hands smashing windows for no good reason...I think we need to look at a curfew and the implications of a curfew and as a city try and help these [store owners] out."

Noting that the majority of youth in Prince Rupert are good and that it is a minority of people causing the problem, Mayor Herb Pond said other communities that have tried curfews have run into problems with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"It's my understanding it is a violation of the charter to say that anyone under 18 has to be in at a certain time. It's age discrimination," he said.

Nonetheless council asked staff to look into the matter, and will be asking the RCMP to attend the next council meeting to provide feedback and information.

Look for more on this story in the July 16 issue of The Northern View.

Broken windows spree continues

Yet another boost in the sale of plywood this weekend, as we notice that the Quick Stop sub sandwich location on Fourth street had its windows broken in the overnight period of Saturday/Sunday.

It marks the continuation of the many troubles that downtown businesses are having with late night wanderers who seem to have ill intent on their minds.

The pace of the broken windows increasing as it has, is giving the downtown area a very rundown look of late, with a number of local establishments suffering from the unwanted attentions of roving troublemakers.

The visuals must make for an interesting conversation starter for visitors to the city, between the empty and run down store fronts of the third avenue shopping area and the broken windows of second, Third Avenue and adjoining streets.