The Proprietor Review

Well away from crime scene to keep from contamination of evidence. File photo KDG

A news person waits for info and pictures in the public interest, at an alleged murder in Merritt. Voght park in Merritt saw evidence collecting  people in full white coveralls scrutinizing the scene. RCMP constable Collin Brant( a former editor at the Merritt Herald) was on the John Collet Memorial Bridge, in his maroon un-marked car on the other side of the park keeping people out of the marked off area.

The 20 year old victim in this 2002 crime lay off one of the tracks used for school track meets and trace evidence of hundreds of people lay all about. This crime was solved however many are cold and details of the crime are kept secret for interviews and investigation for years.

The fewer  that know the details the better making the  chances of finding the guilty party who also knows the exact details.

Chief justice of the BC Court, Thomas Crabtree and entourage were in Merritt on Tuesday and met with local First Nations elders and had a public conversation with students and those interested in aboriginal engagement with the court. Topics that came up were restorative justice and culture.

Bigger pools of people making for a bigger circle of those that might pollute a serious crime investigation with numbers of people! Leaving their trace evidence and muddling of details.

In our view restorative justice  may have some value for those already convicted of lessor crimes but the involvement of the unprofessional and those not in the justice system is can be counter productive.

The justice heads the Student Journalism Education Program for the court and there was little interest coming up at the meeting, publication bands and restraints of criminal evidence collection by journalists and the public is important to not polluting the case however it remains that anything in public view can be openly commented on even to the end of being a case public.

The disposition of evidence remains on the professionals….

Investigation should be an exact science as liberty is really all free people have and needs to be safeguarded. Debacles with chains of custody  and information are intolerable.PP

A vehicle used by plain clothes Mounties at a 2002 murder.
File Photo KDG

On this Day: March 3rd 2005
An around the world airplane navigation is accomplished by Steve Fossett, the trip was solo and nonstop.