Vandalism.
Lately, in 100 Mile House, it seems you can’t get away from it. Earlier this month we wrote a story about a resident’s door being kicked in by young people. At last week’s council meeting mayor and council talked about how much time and money is being spent dealing with petty acts of vandalism.
Now, just days after being opened for the summer season, the District announced on social media the spray park in Centennial Park is closed until further notice.
Why?
Because somebody decided to break the control panel. Evidently, all the kids looking to cool off this summer will have to rely on Bridge Creek until further notice.
It would be easy to blame all these incidents on bored young people but not only is that unfair, it’s likely not the full story. In the case of the spray spark, as reported in our story, an unknown individual jammed a knife or screwdriver into the control panel busting it up.
Could teenagers have done this? Certainly, but so could any adult who ought to know better.
Then again when it comes to graffiti, there have been eyewitnesses that confirm some teenagers are doing that. Mayor Maureen Pinkey told the Free Press that the District’s gardeners once saw a group of kids spray painting the stage. Even when asked to stop the vandals carried on, which speaks to a certain level of contempt for authority. Moreover, the fact so much of the vandalism around Centennial Park, what many consider 100 Mile’s jewel, is disappointing, to say the least.
It’s worth asking why these acts of vandalism are occurring. Is it malice or simply boredom that’s causing these incidents? The RCMP has said that people have been seen in the park drinking and acting belligerent, so it may be simply drunken decisions made in the heat of the moment.
Short of these offenders coming forward, we’ll likely never know. However, we can do our best to continue to provide new outlets for people to become engaged with our community. With the 100 Mile RCMP restarting the restorative justice program we will hopefully be able to get to the bottom of why these acts occur.
Once we do it will be up to us to turn our indignation at these acts into a positive change for the better.
newsroom@100milefreepress.net
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