4     May 29, 2008 - 11:33am | AK_Shooter

Airport Security / law enforcement

Anyone who has spent any time in the Bush knows that illegal drugs and alcohol are rampant in rural Alaska and the cause of over 90% of all crime. If the Governor and the Legislature were serious about rural law enforcement every hub airport in the State would have drug and alcohol dogs and every large village would have at least two full time Troopers. Alaskans should be ashamed of the level of law enforcement across the State. We have billions of dollars of excess oil money and this Governor refuses to provide even basic services.

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  3     May 24, 2008 - 8:26pm | Alaska_Dive_Master

Lets blame the victim

Yeah lets blame the victim on this one! It is her fault for importing the alcohol in the first place.

Just like it is the 16 year old girl's fault that went to a party and chose to drink and was then raped.... if she hadn't broken the law by drinking she wouldn't have been raped, so it is her fault, lets make sure we charge her with MCA and fine her as well.

I think we should blame the Troopers for not providing enough protection and stopping this lady before she ever made it to the village. Or maybe we should blame the legislature and Governor Palin for not providing the Troopers with enough funding to be able to have the adequate staff to not only respond to crime but to be proactive in PREVENTING it.

Really the blame lies with each and every one of us who live in this great and rich State for not demanding that those we elect provide us with the services our State Constitution mandates. We need to demand that our public services are the best we can afford.

We are making billions of dollars every year why isn't someone propsing the idea of a Public Safety Fund like the dividend- According to the state website the Department of Public Safety budget is around $140 million- If we put $8 billion (which is the surplus this year alone based on current projections) into an account that makes 8% a year- The fund would generate $640million a year- That means we could put 25% into the fund to inflation proof ($160million) and have $480 million a year which is 3.4 times the current budget- Rough numbers but right now 250 troopers and support staff use $140 million so that runs about $560k per Trooper- So $480 million at $560K per Trooper would give the state 803 Troopers or 3.2 times as my as we currently have AND AT NO Additional COST TO the State becuase it would be coming from a Fund set up specifically for Public Safety... if they ever needed more than the fund could provide or were providing poor service there had better be a very good reason.

Just a thought---- so we need to stop blaming the victim and put the blame where it belongs- on ourselves... let's fix it and tell our representatives that we want to be safe- give us more Troopers and Airport police to prevent bootlegging and crimes like this and others.

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  2     May 23, 2008 - 3:17pm | operator

Two-fold problem

Yes, if the woman hadn't been bootlegging in the first place this may not have happened. Did you know that we have the most unsecure airports in the nation? Only two, Anchorage and Fairbanks, have police. Juneau is "policed" by a private security outfit and no other airports have police - no K-9's either. No wonder bootlegging continues to be profitable while creating ideal circumstances for other violent criminals to offend. Alaska is an easy gateway for criminals and terrorists to enter the United States. Why are our ports not secured with highly trained and commissioned police officers?

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  1     May 15, 2008 - 9:02am | Wasilla_Patrol

SHE "COULD BE" facing charges of importing alcohol?

Come on AST- you list everyone else you arrest, or have charges against. Seems like she brought this on herself. Alcohol is the biggest problem in the villages and you "might" charge her with importing alcohol?

You should have a firmer stance against importing alcohol, but then again, the reporters often get slight facts messed up- would like to hear the outcome of this one!

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