Is there anything good that can come out of Nikiski’s crime wave? Well, yes.
The community met together on Monday evening to discuss the problems with drugs and the thefts spawned by junkies. In a packed house, many had plenty to say while others waited for answers — answers that were sparse and rather oblique.
Alaska’s finest were present to give their obligatory reassurance to the group, sans any really meaty answers to the problems. They are working, but they also face our judicial system that is bent on penalizing the victim rather than the criminal.
Certainly, the good people of this rural hamlet know what the problem is and intuitively what the historic solution is, but alas, we are told to rely on law enforcement and the courts. In short, we are people who struggle for an answer to a question that is deferred to promises made to us by the State’s machinery of crime control and the courts.
Well, the efforts so far are these: We have a computer set up in the fire station, but without Trooper staffing. We have a well-meaning and highly dedicated Trooper who wants to help if we can provide actionable intelligence. We have an a promise that someone, somewhere in the Alaska bureaucracy may want to make some changes; and, all-the-while we have a community that grows increasingly frustrated with each meeting called to restate the obvious: That the drug business in Nikiski is driving the theft business.
Will help come? Doubtful. Will there be answers? No, but we have plenty of questions. Are there solutions? Uh-oh — don’t ask the question if you can’t stand the answer. For millennia, civilized social groups have taken care of their own security. Let no one ever mention the “M” word. Don’t ever think to authorize strong and determined fathers and grandfathers from cleansing the trash from the place our families occupy. Don’t even think of community “defense.” Don’t even think militia.
Let it ride … let someone else do it … on and on and on we wait for someone else to provide for our protection and security.
What good can come from Nikiski’s problems? Glad you asked. We have ISIS attacking Kurdish border towns along the Turkish border. We have thousands of aliens crossing the border. We have Obama in the White House. We have Ebola. We have Russia flexing its muscles. We have a host of world problems that we could be worrying about.
Aren’t you glad you can focus on something local for a change?