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Tuesday,
August 5, 2008
by F.T.
Norton
Appeal Staff Writer,
Carson City Sheriff’s Department
participates for seventh year in National Night Out gathering
Last year at National Night Out, an
8-year-old boy learned what methamphetamine looked like when he visited the
Federal Drug Enforcement Agency booth, said Sheriff Ken Furlong.
A few months later, a patrolman spotted the child wandering alone at night and
picked him up.
“He said that he would not go home because his mom was using meth,” said
Furlong. “The resulting effect was — we broke the cycle of drug abuse in his
home.”
Tonight in Mills Park, the Carson City Sheriff’s Department will play host for
the seventh year in a row during National Night Out, introducing the residents
to all aspects of law enforcement, from local, regional and federal agencies.
This year’s theme is, "Building Positive Relationships — Prevent Crime,
Drugs and Gangs."
A community gathering is exactly what Carson City needs, said Furlong,
especially in the shadow of a gang shooting in East Carson where gang members,
angry that residents stopped them from tagging mailboxes, opened fire on an
apartment complex.
“This event and that shooting are directly connected,” Furlong said. “This
is our community. We cannot cower to those cowards.”
Representatives from the Nevada Highway Patrol, Parole and Probation, Nevada
Division of Investigations, Tri-Net Drug Taskforce, the Carson City Fire
Department, Homeland Security Office, Federal Drug Enforcement Agency,
Army National Guard, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as the Carson
City Sheriff’s Department’s Neighborhood Watch coordinator, K9 program,
Secret Witness and many other organizations will be on hand to display their
equipment and talk to the community.
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