‘I am getting so tired of losing women and children because nobody is listening’ – Jodi Marissen, whose letter moved St. Thomas city council to action


city_scope_logo-cmyk“I actually was recording it and you can audibly hear me at the end of it, after they voted unanimously I was definitely overwhelmed with emotion.”
That was the reaction of Jodi Marissen when at the April 15 meeting, members of St. Thomas city council unanimously endorsed a motion declaring intimate partner violence to be an epidemic in the city.
That motions was based on a letter sent to council by Marissen – and supported by similar correspondence from St. Thomas Police Chief Marc Roskamp – urging council to take that step on behalf “of all the vulnerable women and children of the City of St. Thomas . . . on behalf of the abused women and children of the City of St. Thomas . . . on behalf of the women and children of the City of St. Thomas who have died at the hands of their abusers.”

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‘Our smaller communities are not immune to these issues, but certainly, sometimes we are more aware than larger centres because we are so connected to our community’ – St. Thomas Police Insp. Steve Bogart on organized crime


city_scope_logo-cmykIf there ever was any doubt that organized crime is infiltrating small-town Ontario, it was evident Wednesday morning in London.
At a media conference at the headquarters of the London Police Service, the results of a joint force criminal investigation were on display.
An investigation that began last year in Aylmer resulted in the arrest of four members of Outlaw Motorcycle Groups and eight associates.
The joint force initiative involved police services in St. Thomas, Aylmer and Strathroy-Caradoc with the assistance of the OPP and London Police Services.
In total 52 charges were laid in the drug trafficking investigation.
Aylmer Deputy Police Chief Kyle Johnstone says the addition of a criminal investigator last year to the ranks of the service helped move the investigation along.

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