Help a fellow citizen, a public servant
(Reprinted with permission from Adam at The Unknown Studio.)
I’m sure many Edmontonians heard and were disgusted by the vicious, unprovoked attack on a City bus driver this week. According to passenger accounts, someone boarded the bus, got miffed that the driver wouldn’t allow him to ride unless he paid, and even when passengers fronted this guy the change to ride, he started punching the driver, dragging him off the bus and mercilessly beating him.
When I heard this story, I felt sick to my stomach. Of course it was a random act of violence. That’s what made it so terrifying.
Thankfully, as City Councilor Don Iveson pointed out in a recent tweet, the alleged perpetrator was apprehended:
“An ETS bus operator was assaulted very seriously this morning. Police caught the guy. Assholes beware, buses have cameras http://is.gd/5bMXA“
But now an Edmonton-area family has to worry about a father and brother who did nothing but his job. I asked the City of Edmonton on Twitter if there was somewhere people could donate money to help the family out. Hey, it’s the season of giving, and I don’t know about you but if my dad were in a condition like that I would be so grateful to have the community rally behind me and help out.
That’s what it means to be part of a society. Helping others.
The City responded this afternoon:
“Trust fund has been established @ River City Credit Union (any branch) for ppl who wish to donate to driver Tom Bregg’s recovery.”
I know it’s not a whole pile of cash, but I’m going to be donating $50 to this fund, and hopefully Tom Bregg’s family will have one or two less things to worry about this holiday season.
I challenge each and everyone of you readers out there to throw some money toward the Bregg family as well. Pledge your donation in the comments, and get to any River City Credit Union branch and donate to the fund.
And stay safe out there, everyone.
Get some weekend
Hello there, Edmonton.
Yes, it’s the weekend. You’ve earned a little rest and relaxation.
You know, there’s going to be some mighty fine football on television if you just want to watch that.
Oh, you’d like something a little more? How about this then…
The Royal Bison Craft Fair takes over your life Saturday and Sunday. And David Berry and Josh Holinaty will be selling chapter 1 of their serialized graphic novel too.
Don’t forget to get your pre-craft fair party on.
Oh, and if that’s not enough to keep you from handing over your Christmas present money to giant corporations (who are welcome to advertise here, a lot) there’s a fair trade fair as well.
If you’ve got some non-perishable foods just sitting around your house, how about dragging that stuff down to a Save-On Foods location Saturday and helping the ETS “Stuff-a-Bus,” for the Edmonton Food Bank. Money is good too.
You can always check out the Festival of Trees. That’s a good time.
The Hidden Cameras and Gentleman Reg are playing the Avenue Theatre, Friday.
There’s a “Save Alberta Hospital” concert Saturday, at the Edmonton Events Centre.
It’s Band of the Month time at the Pawn Shop. Thanks, Sonic!
And The Artery has a couple of cool shows. There’s blues tonight with Bombchan’s CD release and Kinnie Starr Saturday.
Bombchan is also playing the 2nd anniversary party of The Empress Ale House next Tuesday.
Plus, New City has You say party! We say die!, with Christian Hansen & The Autistics and Little Girls.
And ZZ Top is playing the Jube Saturday night to top off a weekend of great music.
Get your 2 cents ready
Whether you have something to say about any thing, or you’ve got something to say on certain things, tonight could be your night.
It’s information session 1 of 2 for the Southeast LRT extension. Tonight’s open house and info session is down in Mill Woods, 5-9:30pm. The follow-up will be Wednesday at the Old Timers’ Cabin.
Just another busy morning of LRTing.
(If West LRT is more your thing, you have to wait until next week.)
The sessions will allow you to take a look at just where the LRT will go over the next generation. You also get to ask questions of City and ETS staff, and give them your ideas and input.
If crime is more your thing (dealing with it, not actually being a criminal) then you may want to swing over Edmonton police town hall #3 tonight, at the Holy Cross Ukrainian Church, 7-8:30pm. This is part Chief Mike Boyd doing a new series of town halls and part community involvement in local and city-wide police issues.
(Interesting things that caught my eye: Southeast LRT meeting #2 is Wednesday, and so is the next police town hall…both of tonight’s venues will be somewhat easier to access once LRT runs west and southeast…)
You time things out right and you could hit both meetings and get all your questions answered/venting done for a little while. Isn’t engaged citizenry fun!
I dig the new bus benches
This is a plan from the ETS I can get behind!
The new bus benches look really comfy.
ETS and its new relaxed approach to taking the bus.
The problem is when they get all soggy in the rain.
Symphony Under the Sky
I have never considered myself smart or cultured enough to enjoy something as high end as the symphony. I envision any attempt I make to go to the symphony as being received about as well as Julia Roberts shopping for clothes in Pretty Woman.
“I’m sorry, Samsonow, We have nothing for you here. Please leave.”
But this weekend, there’s an event that may change my mind.
First off, “Symphony under the Sky” is in Hawrelak Park. So tuxedos and evening gowns (or whatever people wear to such events) are out. It’s a park, the weather is supposed to be decent (it better be, Classen!) and the atmosphere is casual. Interested? You’re interested. (more…)
Where’s my bus?
Dude, where's my bus?
Ah, fall.
There’s a crispness to the air, the leaves are changing colours, and your bus is nowhere to be seen this morning.
Now, before you go firing off angry e-mails to your city councillors, let’s just check and see that things haven’t been changed with your regular bus route with the ETS Fall Service Changes. You might find you’ve got time to do this, while waiting forever for that next bus…
Holy crap that is a lot of changes to a lot of routes. Thanks a lot, kids going to school.
Oh, alright, some of those changes are NOT just summer-to-fall changes, but permanent. (ETS: Improving stuff, eventually.) One of the biggies involves 102A Avenue closing to traffic, between 99 and 100 Streets.
p.s. stay in school
Letter from the Editor – Jeff – August 4/09
You have to make a lot of tough calls in a regular, 24-hour, newsroom. I don’t envy people making those calls.
Newsrooms are under constant pressure to churn things out in the 24-hour news world, and that means they’re bound to get things wrong (as a former reporter for radio stations across the country, I’ve been there). There’s also the ongoing case of stories running without all the facts, perhaps to be added later.
Last week it was clear how tough things can be for the 24-hour newsrooms.
The recent story of police officers being swarmed by a group of teens is the kind of thing that grabs headlines, nay, creates headlines, and makes people want to watch and listen. It’s the sort of story that will fill talk radio with middle aged folks wagging their fingers, and saying it’s time to “teach young punks” some respect.
I mean, it’s not every day a police officer is assaulted (thankfully) and it touches a nerve that even those who protect us can still be vulnerable. But how do you tell this story in an even-handed way?
Because, as we all know, news isn’t a movie or television plot; in real life, things are rarely as black and white as we’d like. It’s incredibly difficult to get these stories across to the greater public in a fair way. It’s tough for a lot of crime stories, actually.
I bring this up because the accused in this swarming case is telling the Edmonton Journal police have it wrong. It’s easy to dismiss this as someone trying to defend their name. But sometimes the story does end up being very different from the initial version.
Days before this story of violence, a case of assaulting a police officer was thrown out of court by a judge. Here, the judge says the police officer went too far. It took the trial process to get more on the case. The information wasn’t readily available or provided at the headline-grabbing stage.
(Notes: The case could always be appealed and there are still other legal avenues being pursued. I’m also not linking the two stories to say this latest one will be thrown out.)
So what do you do? Do you just put up a little blurb mentioning the charges and wait for details at court?
The fear there would be that your competition will have a front page or top story all about the charges and people will wonder why you didn’t do anything more than a brief update.
Though, the days following the Journal story with the accused show that not everyone went full-out on that story. Even the Journal went from the front page with the assault allegations to page B4, with the story from the accused teen.
Another example of why newsrooms should ease up on the crime headlines (or work on the story thoroughly before publishing) is right here; this story was all about how four teens beat a man to death on an ETS bus. Turned out that’s not at all what happened. Again, things had to go to court before all the facts could be learned.
I think limiting sensational headlines (and possibly, most of the sensational story), especially when details are coming from one side, would be a start.
It would take bold newsroom decisions though. You might have to work on the story for a couple of days, watching the other guys produce stories one fact at a time, before you could give a full and/or fair balance.
It might also take some feature and in-depth reporting to make up for the lack of easy-to-cover stories. But wouldn’t it be better to have the story correct, all the way through?
