Herschlag: Attack the Victim and Ignore the Problem

“Thank you to the two officers who responded very quickly when our car and another family’s car was broken into on Friday night. The officers cared very much and offered many good suggestions on how to protect our accounts, monitor our credit, and clean up the car. We went from not knowing anything about the escalating drug problem to being hit by it in less than a week.”

This is part of a letter sent to the Concord Police by a resident of our city after his car was broken into while dining on the closed Sewalls Falls Bridge with his girlfriend. I brought this incident up at our July 13, 2015, Concord City Council meeting to highlight the continuing problems that drug addiction has caused in our community and to recognize how fortunate we are to have a police force that is both professional and caring in how they go about patrolling our city.

On two occasions I have asked my fellow city councilors to recognize the drug issue here in our city as a priority. On both occasions my fellow councilors opted not to do so. I strongly feel that by having the city council prioritize drug addiction, that we - as a city - will be better able to deal with this issue in a coordinated manner that has all city departments and agencies sharing information and working together. As reported in the July 13, Concord Monitor, the drug abuse issue in Concord is not going away, while heroin use may have leveled off, we are now seeing an “alarming spike in methamphetamine” use.

So what happened at our city council meeting after I addressed the issue of the two cars that were broken into at the parking area off of Sewalls Falls Road? A fellow council did show concern. However, the concern that was stated was not for the break in. The concern that was mentioned was not that this was in all likelihood another drug related crime.

No, the concern the councilor felt needed to be addressed was the issue of two people dining on the closed Sewalls Falls Bridge. After all isn’t the bridge closed and what is the city going to do about this horrible issue of people walking, biking and eating on this bridge. Not one word of sympathy for the victims. Not one word about the drug issue that is plaguing our city. Not one word about how even though our police force is doing all they can to combat this issue we are still losing ground. And not one word that perhaps our city council should recognize the drug addiction issue as the plague it is on our community.

I should mention that before the bridge was closed to traffic this past December, our city engineer was asked if bicycles and walkers would still be able to access the bridge. The answer was that until construction started - yes.

So what are we to make of this. We have a city in the midst of an ever escalating drug crisis and we have a city council that refuses to recognize this issue for what it is. There is not one neighborhood in our city that has not felt the destruction of drug addiction. And yet we have a city council that continues to refuse to prioritize this problem.

The illegal use of drugs in our community is responsible for the vast majority of thefts, break-ins. With the advance of methamphetamine use in our community we should only expect to see the frequency and seriousness of these crimes escalating.

Who’s at fault here? The resident of our city who decided to have a funky romantic dinner with his girlfriend or those who are addicted to drugs and are destroying our city?

So while we are expending our time and energy trying to decide if we want a water fountain in front of the Statehouse, our city is awash in illicit drugs.