Merritt Mountain Mayhem For Police

Saturday, July 14, 2007 06:29 AM

Extra RCMP officers are in Merritt to help maintain order as thousands have flocked to the annual Mountain Music Festival this weekend.

And it appears the police will have their hands full.

Already, they've had to deal with an incident involving a 25-year-old woman, injured when a driver-less pick-up truck ran over her tent. Constable Annie Linteau says a 19-year-old man who had just been in the truck prior to the mishap was handed a 24-hour driving prohibition. The female tenter received non life-threatening injuries.

A strange case saw RCMP called on-site to deal with an alleged domestic assault. A man reported that his wife had bitten him after she became upset with him for taking pictures of women's cleavage at the Festival. Police say both were uncooperative and were intoxicated when officers arrived. No word on any charges.

An 18-year-old Abbotsford man was taken into custody after allegedly throwing rocks at people inside the Festival's beer garden. He was detained by site security staff until police arrived and he was taken to the Merritt Detachment to sober up. The man had a pair of 'brass knuckles' in his possession and charges are being considered, as a result.

A 22-year-old man from Burnaby is facing impaired driving charges, after being spotted driving erratically on his first day at the event. He was stopped as he was leaving the Festival's west gate.

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Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007 06:29 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Fancycamper on July 14 2007 8:05 AM

You know this and other events are put on with a lot of hard work and usually a lot of volunteer hours, so that familys can come and enjoy themselves. It should be able to happen without a bunch of halfwits getting plastered out of their mind and being jerks. They just give the event a bad name and if it happens enough the event gets cancelled completely. Why don't they stick to a couple of beer in the evening, and keep their witts about them. If they are only going to get plastered and fight etc. stay home and do it. The rest of the country don't really want to see what jerks you can be.
And the people that organized the event, did not do it for you, they did it so familys could come and ENJOY some music.

Posted by: lmorg on July 14 2007 9:45 AM

Anytime you mix booze with this type of an event there are going to be problems of this nature. Its inevitable. The beer tents are always full during these things and some of the major sponsers are beer companies.

Posted by: what ever you saY on July 14 2007 10:12 AM

so you think that all the events in the province are for families, what about all the single people. Should they just sit at home? Its not a family event its a community event and I'm pretty sure we all belong to that community.

Never heard too much wrong with the Williams Lake Stampede...
'The 81st Annual Williams Lake Stampede went without a hitch this weekend...'
I don't know did they have a beer garden there?

Posted by: lmorg on July 14 2007 10:53 AM

yep the Williams lake stampede has a beer tent....and the police in the past have used a couple of Boxcars for drunk tanks.

Posted by: Bridge on July 14 2007 11:00 AM

Didn't go to the stampede this year but last year and prvious years they have always had a beer drinking section which provide a lot of entertainment for the announcer at the stampede.

I would think that the crowd at the stampede would be much different then at a music festival. You would have to strech your imagination to call a music festival a family event.

Cheers

Posted by: Andyfreeze on July 16 2007 10:22 AM

I have been to number of these events over the past years and decided they were not worth the trouble.
Now I don't bother.
The events themselves were great, and obviously a major undertaking to put together for all those involved.
Unfortunately,it was the some of the crowd who screwed it up!
Way too much alcohol, and far too many seriously drunk people.
Did they all go there just to get drunk?
I wonder if people would still show up if they banned the booze?