STRANGE CONNECTION

     An infamous murderer, originally from my little city, has been sitting in a Montana prison for 35 years. Ronald Smith marched two young aboriginals into the trees at the side of a road and shot them for their vehicle and his pleasure of watching them die.

     Smith and his partner were caught immediately and charged with murder. They were both convicted and Smith requested the death penalty. A few days later he changed his mind and has been fighting for his life for the last 35 years.

    Bits and pieces have emerged about his life in my city. His mother and a sister have been identified and interviewed by the press.  The middle school Smith attended has given information about his time in school. Very little other information has been given. 

    About age 15 Smith's life went off the rails and he became addicted to various drugs one of them being LSD. He also became a petty criminal to support his drug habit.

    Now  few days ago Smith's father spoke to the press just before his death. This is the first we had ever heard of Smith's father. Smith's father has longed to see his son's legal problems settled. Smith's father admitted that he spent very little time with his family as he worked in the oil industry and spent time in many places around the world.

     Now here's the strange connection. Smith's father worked with me for a few years. He was a caretaker at my school. He was a hard worker and very meticulous in his work. It was a treat to have somebody clean your classroom as well as he did. We had our daily visit which was most pleasant. Not once did this man give any indication that his son was Ronald Smith.

    One wonders what pain went on in this man's life. He chose to remain anonymous. In the end he had to disclose his connection and make piece with himself.

Clubber

    Clubber was in one of my grade eight classes in the early 60's. Clubber was a little different than most thirteen year olds.

    Clubber was a loner and very quiet. There were some good reasons Clubber was a loner. Clubber was a quiet kid but that doesn't mean that he was nice. The other kids were somewhat afraid of Clubber as he could look after himself physically. Clubber didn't hesitate to use force to get what he wanted from other kids. Kids didn't report much of this behavior as they were always afraid of how Clubber would retaliate. If you did pal around with Clubber you were probably going to get into trouble and kids did not want to find themselves in trouble.

    Clubber learned the pleasures of tobacco early in life. Clubber had to have his regular supply of tobacco. He got his tobacco in several ways. Thirteen year olds could buy tobacco in the early sixties but they didn't have enough spending money for a full supply. So shoplifting helped in the supply of tobacco. Of course, he was caught quite regularly. Clubber may have been smart but at being a crook he was pretty dumb. Clubber also picked up other things from stores. As a result everybody in town watched Clubber. His third supply of tobacco came from other kids. Kids would give him a cigarette as he would probably take all their cigarettes if they resisted. 

     Clubber entered a few places he wasn't supposed to enter. Pool rooms were closed on Sundays in the sixties. One Sunday the owner of the pool room checked his facility and there was Clubber playing pool all by himself. The back door was not very secure so he just walked in. He had probably been doing the same thing for quite a while.

    Teachers tried to watch Clubber very carefully but it was difficult. Clubber was not a behavior problem in class.  He was sneaky but also an opportunist. It was interesting to watch him as he was always looking two steps ahead. He saw things nobody else saw.

    Clubber's parents were at their wits end with him as they didn't know how to handle the situation and at that time there was no support for them.

    You could see where Clubber was headed. He had no concerns about getting things he wanted by using illegal means.

   Five or six years later I read a news item in the paper that Clubber had been sentenced for armed robbery.

   It was rather sad to see a person so young get into behavior patterns which were not only destructive for him but others.
     
    I will certainly remember Clubber for a long time.

System Failure

    Eleven days ago an RCMP officer, David Wynn, was brutally gunned down in St. Albert, Alberta. The officer and a partner were responding to a stolen vehicle report and had located the suspect in the nearby casino. As they were arresting him the suspect quickly shot the officer in the head. The suspect , Shawn Rehn, was later found dead of self inflicted wounds.

   My sympathy goes out the the officer's wife and family and the larger family of RCMP.

   These two officers had no idea of who they were arresting. The dispatcher had no idea who they were asking these officers to find.

   Who was the suspect? He was Shawn Rehn and his criminal record was horrendous.
     
     Shawn Rehn had a record of 57 convictions...assault, assault with a weapon, drug possession, possession of prohibited firearms, obstruction of a peace officer, escape lawful custody, drive while disqualified, break and enter, theft and possession of stolen property. At the time of Shawn Rehn's death he was facing 30 outstanding charges. I would also have to think about how many offenses he had committed and had not been charged.
   
    Shawn Rehn had served about 7 years at various times.

   My question is , "Why was Shawn Rehn allowed the be free on the street?"

    Shawn Rehn was given parole which he blatantly violated.

   The situation is that this creep was on the street and there were many reasons for him not to be free. The system completely failed to adequately look after such a criminal. Obviously the justice system failed along the way to cooperate and share information that would have kept Rehn incarcerated. Our laws give all kinds of support and guidance in looking after a such a career criminal. The whole system failed.

   As a result an RCMP lost his life. What a waste.

   

Footsteps # 2

     Your comments, as usual, add much more to my thinking and description of my last post. So it seems like another post is needed to reply.

     This event was probably some kid looking for some easy money. In other words , he was looking for unlocked cars and most cars contain a little change. He also got lucky and found an unlocked garage.

     From your comments, I gather that crime is very different in other places. I had a couple of planters stolen but that's it. A few years ago somebody saw a kid going up my driveway at 1:00 AM. My security light scared him off. The kid walked across the street and found an unlocked car and got $8.75. How do I know? He got caught.

     We are fortunate in this country to have fairly low levels of crime and the crime rate has been going down for years.

    Now here come the stats!

    Last year murder rates dropped in Canada to the lowest rate since 1966. We had 505 homicides in Canada in 2013. Now that's 505 too many. 25 % of these homicides were committed with guns.

    The overall  crime rate has been falling since 1969.

     I cannot see why our government is foaming at the mouth about crime when the rate is going the right way. We try and keep people out of detention as much as possible as prisons are the best crime school in the country. Very few houses have guns in Canada. The crooks know there probably are no guns so they are not armed and as a result less murder and weapons involved in crime.

    The drug world is completely different. They go after each other and they use guns.

    So I feel like I live in a very safe country. Yes , there are places in my city that I would not go to at night, but overall I feel very safe.

    

Crime Update

     My last post was about a break in three doors from my house. There has been some development in the case since then.


     The two dirt bikes were found in another subdivision. A woman was checking her garage and found two dirt bikes  that didn't belong to her. She asked her son if he knew anything about them. He said he was keeping them for a friend for a little while. His mother pressed him for more details and finally said that she wanted more info or she would phone the police. So she phoned the police. Meanwhile the kid took the bikes to a school yard and ditched them. 


    The police picked up the bikes and asked my neighbor to come and identify them.


     The police told my neighbor that they know who the guy is who stole the bikes and that they have a description of him.


    So progress has been made. Hopefully the shock of such an event will fade.

A Crime Too Close for comfort.

     At 2:00 AM last Friday morning thieves took two dirt bikes and a quad from my neighbor Barb's  garage.


     Now for the rest of the story!


     We have a security light at our front door. It goes off and on during the night for various reasons. Seldom do we get up to see if anything is amiss. At 2:00 AM last Friday morning my wife did get up to look out. She noticed someone standing at our corner. The guy appeared to be looking around as if looking for something. My wife came back to the bedroom to get me to look out. By the time I got there the guy had disappeared. We also noticed that the light was on in Barb's garage. So my wife said the guy looked clean cut. We debated phoning the police but somehow thought that it was unnecessary. I also said, "Well Barb probably forgot to shut the light off." So we went back to bed. 


     On Sunday morning I asked another neighbor if he had seen anything early Friday morning. He hadn't seen anything but he told me then that Barb's garage had been broken into. 


    The bad guys had found Barb's car window down a tiny bit. They entered the vehicle and took the garage door opener and so entered the garage and took the loot. 


    On Friday Barb didn't go to her garage and didn't drive her car.. After supper she was going to go to the store and found a mess in the front of her car. She couldn't understand why the mess. Then she noticed the garage door opener gone. She checked the garage but didn't notice anything missing. The bikes and quads belong to her son and the bikes and quad went in and out of the garage. Just to be sure she phoned her son on Saturday. He said that the bikes and quad should be in the garage. 


     So the wheels turned very slowly and finally more than 24 hours later it was discovered that there was a theft.


    Meanwhile my wife and I felt very badly that we hadn't reported the person on our corner. Just maybe he or his friends may have been found and questioned in the area.


    So this was a crime that was close and so far away in many ways. There are the what ifs? There's the feeling of being too trusting. There's the feeling that it could have been me for some strange reason.


    So it's a wake up call for our community to join together and be much more aware of what is happening in the neighborhood.