Cronyism in Cardston

"On February 22, 2006 RCMP Cardston received a complaint of an alleged sexual assault. The investigation that followed has resulted in D'arcey John West, age 51, of Cardston, Alberta, charged with one count of Sexual Assault. He is scheduled to appear in Cardston Provincial Court on March 27, 2006 at 10:00 am. The investigation has shown this to be an isolated occurrence."
-Cardston RCMP news release

Before I go on with this entry, I should probably provide some context. I grew up in a peculiar town in Alberta, Canada called Cardston. Cardston and most of the smaller communities which surround it are populated largely by LDS people. In short, it's more or less accurate to call it a piece of Utah transplanted into Southern Alberta, Canada. And as Mormons are wont to do as they gather in numbers and start to gain a little power, interests of church and state collide with cronyism the union's bastard offspring.

This entry is not intended to bypass the due process of law by passing sentence on this man. But I find something very peculiar about the final sentence of this release: "The investigation has shown this to be an isolated occurrence."

I was the editor of the weekly newspaper in Cardston longer than I care to admit, and I've seen thousands of news releases cross my desk spanning a wide spectrum of crimes and misdemeanors. Yet I have never seen such a statement inserted into an RCMP release -- I wonder if such a courtesy would ever be extended to, say, a First Nations individual convicted of the same crime.

Possibly the main reason you never see sexual assault being referred to as "an isolated incident" is because it rarely is. Why did the RCMP seem to go out of their way in an attempt to prove that this was, indeed, "an isolated incident?" I can merely speculate, but my thought is that it comes down to -- you guessed it -- good, old-fashioned cronyism. The old boys club. The big fishes in a small pond dead set against having the reputation of one of their own impugned -- even if done so on just grounds.

The ironic thing is, knowing the people of Cardston, the friends and family of Mr. West are likely going to condemn the local newspaper (which has an adopted responsibility to report such matters) for printing this news release distributed by the Cardston RCMP (which has a legal responsibility to report such matters).

The big question the people of Cardston, and by extension the local church infrastructure that drives the majority of its community philosophy, need to ask themselves is whether they're more concerned about the reputation of one of their key players than the safety of their children. I'm afraid that if many Cardston residents were to honestly and sincerely answer that question, the answers would be disturbing.

Is this man a threat? It's been established that he's enough of a threat to warrant an arrest based on "an isolated incident." Does he have the potential to become a growing threat? I guess that's up to the courts to decide. However, I fear that the Cardston RCMP have already tipped matters in his favor, whether he's indeed guilty or not.

This is a problem that goes right to the heart of Mormon culture. You can count on the Maverick Mormon to explore the macro implications of cronyism in the church/state in the future.

As always,

The Maverick Mormon