Michael Staples, Fredericton, NB (Daily Gleaner) – Someone in Oromocto dislikes the RCMP.
Firefighters were scrambling early Wednesday morning after two vehicles belonging to RCMP members from Nova Scotia were set ablaze in the parking lot of the Days Inn Hotel.
The members, in the area on business, were staying at the hotel, located within eyesight of RCMP District 2 headquarters.
The cruisers were engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at 1 a.m.
Both vehicles were destroyed, with the loss estimated at $100,000.
One nearby non-police related vehicle sustained minor damage from the fires.
Insp. Mike O’Malley, commander of District 2 RCMP, said members are taking the incident personally because fighting crime is what they do for a living.
“It’s an attack on the establishment. It’s an attack on us as an organization and us as police officers.”
O’Malley said investigators don’t know what the motive is, but some people have an axe to grind with police.
“We have been working extra hard on our crime reduction strategy and we’ve been successful in doubling our clearance rates in reducing the crime rate in the area,” O’Malley said.
“Certainly our hard-working efforts are paying off in the community, but it’s also rubbing the criminals the wrong way and maybe that’s what they’re trying to say.”
If the perpetrators are attempting to send the RCMP a message, it would be that they’re not happy with us, O’Malley said.
“I don’t think it was meant as a threat or form of intimidation or anything like that. I think it was more like, ‘We’ll show these guys. We’ll burn a couple of their cars.’
“I think it was more out of spite or vengeance or something but, then again, it is all just speculation on my part.”
Michael Boudreau, a criminology professor at St. Thomas University, said while the arsons were brazen acts, the community shouldn’t be concerned that it’s a sign of things to come.
The police, however, should be aware.
“It does send a message, whether intentionally or not, that there are some within the community that have very little, if any, respect for the RCMP and what they’re doing,” Boudreau said.
It could also be interpreted that the actions were done to make a statement – that these individuals can do whatever they want, to whomever they want. If that’s the case, this is probably a deliberate targeting of police, Boudreau said.
“In that sense, the police should be very concerned. Being that close to a detachment is also a concern.”
He said there’s also a possibility what happened was done on a dare.
“It’s almost like throwing down a gauntlet and saying ‘try catching us.’ ”
O’Malley, meanwhile, said the burning of the police cruisers isn’t connected to previous fires in the community.
In April, someone kicked a door open on a storage shed owned by the Oromocto Minor Baseball Association and set the building ablaze. The fire destroyed the association’s T-ball equipment and an expensive pitching machine.
Over the last year, the municipality has lost port-a-potties to fire, as well as having a comfort station by the running track substantially damaged.
O’Malley said those fires are still under investigation.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the police or N.B. Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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