If anyone complains to you, that CTV is a US style 'crime/violence/fear' TV newscast, well you can tell them the station doesn't do a very good job of it.
For instance at 6 PM Sunday, the anchor said Winnipeg had our 34th homicide tying the record, but didn't point out we have 2 months to go.
And the victim number 33, whose family declined to speak to CTV but who did talk to Richard Cloutier on CJOB radio, seems to have been a straight-laced Asian young adult of 20 who was in the passenger seat - the passenger seat mind you - of a car after going out Friday night, presumably to an Exchange District bar, for -- Halloween.
And the news script concluded, that police explained, "it's hard to predict who may have firearms and when they might be used".
How comforting, for parents whose kid go out trick or treating or to community parties, let alone their older kids who go to bars and socials. Just in time for the cops to admit, they have lost control of the streets of this city. Lovely.
It is notable how many of the killings and stabbings this year have been open-air, rather than inside dingy apartments or 1 star hotel rooms on Main Street.
CTV also, on this quite violent weekend after last years' pre-Halloween shooting and killing spree- split the crime reports up on the newscast. It separated the Lincoln Hotel shooting - which wasn't identified by either CTV or the Free Press as the second north end shooting location in 12 hours - from a stabbing at Aura nightclub on Portage Avenue one block from the University of Winnipeg (and showed the blood on the sidewalk).
Instead CTV did a 180, following the Exchange District murder with a glowing upbeat cheerleader piece about the opening of the new airport, mentioning that "problems with the underground pipes" led to a one year delay , but not connecting the delay to any increase in cost -- although the cost had been mentioned too.
Getting back to the crime aspect, the police department has to completely rethink the way it deals with the press and public. This week former deputy chief Menno Zacharias carved the sanctimonious piety of Crimestat upholders into little bits, stemming from Stefano Grande's recent comments and opinions on Twitter, blogs and, well, maybe some radio but not radio where the questions to the Downtown Biz director would be guaranteed in the Zacharias realm --- challenging Grande's fantasy that downtown is safe.
Zacharias showed that only the most serious of crimes- such as, oh, people being shot - made the daily press releases.
"In September 2011 the Winnipeg Police Service issued 26 News Releases. In those 26 news releases, however, the Service made reference to only 10 of the 787 offences reported on Crimestat during September... During the month of September, 59 of the 111 muggings reported city-wide were committed in District 1, which encompasses the downtown area. "
http://mennozacharias.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/crimes-committed-vs-crimes-reported/
North end blogger Rae Butcher, who has fought tooth and nail for accountability and proper information about her own street, noted how important measures of public safety such as stabbings are under-reported as robberies on Crimestat and arsons are not calculated into Crimestat at all.
"What is the actual purpose of the CrimeStat map on the WPS website? Is it to arm citizens with valuable information on crimes being committed throughout Winnipeg? Or is it designed to create illusions of Winnipeg as City Hall sees fit?"
http://adayinthehood.blogspot.com/2011/10/crime-stat-vrs-police-releases.html
She also enumerated recent PR and non-emergency bulletins issued by police email last Friday which the number of which dwarfed the real news. (Not to mention what Tom Brodbeck of the Sun has to say about the real news downtown and Mayor Katz.)
The time has come for the revival of placing someone the press and public can trust to meaningful compile press releases and reports with some basic comprehension that the idea is to report on crimes, not to promote Chief McCaskill's social work agenda and manipulative style (like when drinking parties turn bad, and the official lingo is " they were socializing".)
The time has come for a civilian spokesman who understands what the public needs to and wants to know, and to assign the officers to what we paid to train them to do - be cops and deal with crime and criminals , not with keyboards and microphones.
As of CTV, the segue to the weather was "I don't want to say we dodged a bullet yesterday - but we did"
You'd think on a weekend when 2 men are gunned down and a 14 year old gets dropped in broad daylight on Selkirk Avenue and barely survives, CTV would have thought thru how their "happy-chat" clever-word quotient would be expressed under the circumstances.
And you'd hope someone in the MSM will ask, what role the police chopper played in the response to any of the 3 (known) shootings this weekend. If any.
Happy Halloween.
(Next podcast is on Monday, this was a stand-alone blog piece. )
