March 21, 2007
Wednesday AM

Of all the crazy things I have heard since moving to Alaska 20 years ago, I have finally come across an event alarming enough to make me want to speak out. A family member was walking along Main Street on Saturday night, holding his wife's hand and heading to the Pioneer Restaurant before going home for the evening. Out of the blue a gang of 8-10 younger men and women attacked the couple and literally beat them both. As 3 of the men were beating his wife, my family member was being beaten by 5 or so of them. This was a vicious attack for no reason, one that lasted the better part of ten minutes. They had already retrieved the wife's purse from one of the attackers,

When the police showed up then they arrested (you guessed it) my family member. The police did not even get the names of the attackers, or concern themselves too much on finding out what had happened, no offer of medical assistance, they just let them all go and took my family member to jail for the night, so his bruised, beat up, traumatized wife had to find her own way home. The next morning in court the judge could not understand why my family member was even there, there was no arrest, no charges filed, no complaint, the Ketchikan police just decided to keep him in jail over night.

I think the officer that made this decision needs to go back to school, get into another line of work or preferably get fired. Although most of Ketchikan's police force does a wonderful job, there are a few of them that seem to suffer from some type of common sense disability.

It is my understanding that this same group of budding humanitarians have been involved in numerous problems around town, I guess I'm wondering when is enough going to be enough for our police force. Let's review, why would a happily married couple, active in the community, business owners, parents of three little kids, out for an evening on the town, hand over their possessions, and then pick a fight with 8 or 10 gang bangers? That would be a no brainer, the more interesting question is why would Ketchikan Police Officers allow this type of gang activity to go on in Ketchikan. Another interesting question is how long are the people of Ketchikan going to put up with gang type activity?

Sincerely,

Laura M Warren
Ketchikan, Alaska



Received March 20, 2007 - Published March 21, 2007

About: "I have lived in Southeast Alaska for 20 years, 17 on Prince of Wales Island and the last 3 in Ketchikan. "

 

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