Why?
For the record, this is in response to a recent news article.
I don't even know where to start, really. Everyone outside of town is making such a huge deal out of this. Not to say its not a big deal, but this is where I live. This happened on Thursday night. I didn't hear anything about it until I poked at facebook last night. I spent part of my morning reading the comments on the article.
I went from 'oh, LA, stay classy' to 'wow, people who don't live here are such ignorant ass hats' in very little time at all.
This incident isn't common to the town at all. We're far more likely to have bouts of vandalism and break ins. My husband commented once that if he were to ever write a memoir of some kind it would be called "Memories of Truck Burnings Past" in reference to the sheer number of burned out cars up here. You know, that sort of thing. That's my town and that's normal.
But this thing wasn't normal. I'm appalled at the behavior of these people. The article gives a number of 50-70 people possibly involved. Its a relatively small number compared to the population. (NOTE: The article claims there's 2300 up here. It's more like 3500 from what I've heard.)
commenter What happened sucks and I really hope the RCMP come down hard on those responsible, but for the commenters to compare this incident to the Vancouver riot is just plain ignorant, especially when followed by comments that they'd never come up here as a result. Plenty of other places in Canada have riots and no one boycotts them. This is a small town and there's not a lot up here, but every time I show people pictures from around here I get told its a beautiful place. And it is! Yes, there's a lot of gang activity. Yes, there's an issue with litter (and those Google street view maps mentioned in one of the comments are actually a few years old; the problem has gotten better now that the town actually has garbage cans set up for people to use). Yes, there are people up here who aren't the greatest, but you'll find that in every town.
The thing it, it's a beautiful area. Most of the locals I know are wonderful, hard working, dedicated people who try very hard to enhance the community. Ton insist that the RCMP and hospital services be removed from this town is...beyond wrong. Were this to happen, you would be leaving the majority of the population, local and otherwise, without protection and without medical care. The nearest village to us is Bear Creek, approximately a half hour's drive down the highway. After that, Buffalo Narrows is yet another half an hour away. Say those two services were relocated to Bear Creek (as Buffalo already has a hospital and RCMP). Say you are in need of emergency services. Would you want to drive that long to get them when you may well need it immediately? Somehow, I doubt it.
Blaming the incident on the fact that those responsible for the rioting were First Nations doesn't help. Most people this far north just happen to be either First Nations or Metis. This is a town were Caucasians are a clear minority and that's not even getting into the East Indian family that lives here now or the Chinese that run the convenience store at the end of my street. It's true, but it's irrelevant. It would be like going down to an Asian or Hispanic dominated community and saying that those involved in a riot there were of those ethnic backgrounds. No, really? In a community with that kind of population? *rolls eyes* The stereotypes don't need any more feeding. It's bad enough as it is. I'm well aware of the issues involved in this kind of community; I've lived here for four years now and going on five. There's not a single native stereotype that I haven't heard of or seen first hand. Not racist, I'm just saying...it's easy to see where it comes from.
I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that I'm sick of people bashing this relatively nice little place based on the idiotic actions of a really small percentage of people. Yes, they make the rest of us look bad (and I've been up here long enough to count myself as a part of the community), but the people I've met are all pretty nice. Granted, most of my exposure comes from having a husband and many friends who work as teachers and from working as a substitute teacher myself at both schools. It's a position where you don't just deal with the hard working locals who work at the schools, but you also deal with the parents of some of the more difficult children. There are some parents who genuinely try to get their kids to school every day and try to help them succeed. And then there's those who don't really care what their kids do.
LA, as it's known by those who live or have lived here, has its issues. Every town has its issues. Don't try to argue otherwise. I like it up here most of the time and I'd really like people to do some damned research into the town before they go and make snap judgements about it. Talk to the locals. Come up here and do some fishing, or hunting if that's your inclination. There's lots of great camping sites as well.
I don't even know where to start, really. Everyone outside of town is making such a huge deal out of this. Not to say its not a big deal, but this is where I live. This happened on Thursday night. I didn't hear anything about it until I poked at facebook last night. I spent part of my morning reading the comments on the article.
I went from 'oh, LA, stay classy' to 'wow, people who don't live here are such ignorant ass hats' in very little time at all.
This incident isn't common to the town at all. We're far more likely to have bouts of vandalism and break ins. My husband commented once that if he were to ever write a memoir of some kind it would be called "Memories of Truck Burnings Past" in reference to the sheer number of burned out cars up here. You know, that sort of thing. That's my town and that's normal.
But this thing wasn't normal. I'm appalled at the behavior of these people. The article gives a number of 50-70 people possibly involved. Its a relatively small number compared to the population. (NOTE: The article claims there's 2300 up here. It's more like 3500 from what I've heard.)
commenter What happened sucks and I really hope the RCMP come down hard on those responsible, but for the commenters to compare this incident to the Vancouver riot is just plain ignorant, especially when followed by comments that they'd never come up here as a result. Plenty of other places in Canada have riots and no one boycotts them. This is a small town and there's not a lot up here, but every time I show people pictures from around here I get told its a beautiful place. And it is! Yes, there's a lot of gang activity. Yes, there's an issue with litter (and those Google street view maps mentioned in one of the comments are actually a few years old; the problem has gotten better now that the town actually has garbage cans set up for people to use). Yes, there are people up here who aren't the greatest, but you'll find that in every town.
The thing it, it's a beautiful area. Most of the locals I know are wonderful, hard working, dedicated people who try very hard to enhance the community. Ton insist that the RCMP and hospital services be removed from this town is...beyond wrong. Were this to happen, you would be leaving the majority of the population, local and otherwise, without protection and without medical care. The nearest village to us is Bear Creek, approximately a half hour's drive down the highway. After that, Buffalo Narrows is yet another half an hour away. Say those two services were relocated to Bear Creek (as Buffalo already has a hospital and RCMP). Say you are in need of emergency services. Would you want to drive that long to get them when you may well need it immediately? Somehow, I doubt it.
Blaming the incident on the fact that those responsible for the rioting were First Nations doesn't help. Most people this far north just happen to be either First Nations or Metis. This is a town were Caucasians are a clear minority and that's not even getting into the East Indian family that lives here now or the Chinese that run the convenience store at the end of my street. It's true, but it's irrelevant. It would be like going down to an Asian or Hispanic dominated community and saying that those involved in a riot there were of those ethnic backgrounds. No, really? In a community with that kind of population? *rolls eyes* The stereotypes don't need any more feeding. It's bad enough as it is. I'm well aware of the issues involved in this kind of community; I've lived here for four years now and going on five. There's not a single native stereotype that I haven't heard of or seen first hand. Not racist, I'm just saying...it's easy to see where it comes from.
I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that I'm sick of people bashing this relatively nice little place based on the idiotic actions of a really small percentage of people. Yes, they make the rest of us look bad (and I've been up here long enough to count myself as a part of the community), but the people I've met are all pretty nice. Granted, most of my exposure comes from having a husband and many friends who work as teachers and from working as a substitute teacher myself at both schools. It's a position where you don't just deal with the hard working locals who work at the schools, but you also deal with the parents of some of the more difficult children. There are some parents who genuinely try to get their kids to school every day and try to help them succeed. And then there's those who don't really care what their kids do.
LA, as it's known by those who live or have lived here, has its issues. Every town has its issues. Don't try to argue otherwise. I like it up here most of the time and I'd really like people to do some damned research into the town before they go and make snap judgements about it. Talk to the locals. Come up here and do some fishing, or hunting if that's your inclination. There's lots of great camping sites as well.