Yt & Vi eee Oifice, Editorial 985-2131 Display Advertising 980-0511 Test drive the Volvo 850 GLT Automotive: 41 Classifieds 986-6222 Distribution 996-1337 NEWS panoto Mike Wakefield A SINGLE-car accident occurred Tuesday afternoon at approximately 12:40 p.m. on an Up- per Levels Highway off-ramp heading west. A Nissan Pulsar jumped the cement railing and came to a stop in the landscaped portion that runs parattel to the highway. Too scared to report attacks, youth tell police at task force forum NORTH VANCOUVER teens are so scared of revenge at- tacks that they rareiy report crimes, teenagers told police representatives at a ground-breaking meeting in’ North Vancouver City on Wednesday night. The teens spoke at the first teens task force forum organized by the North Vancouver RCMP community policing programm. Const. Marty Blais, head of the program, told the teens he orga- nized the event to ‘fee! the pulse of the teenage population in North Vancouver.”” And the 40 young people who turned out for the event said the were afraid of some of their peers. One boy said, “Almost no one oe EVERY By Stephen Wisentha! Contributing Writer will call the police because they fear they will have a million other guys ‘curb them’ or throw them in a ditch.” He added that an attacker will arrange for retaliation by someone the victim: doesn’t know, if the victim reports the crime. pies DOOR ON T He also said teens fear going to court and testifying. The Young Offenders Act came under fire for not being enough of a deterrent: almost all of the teenagers at the Eagle's hall meeting raised their hands when asked if they thought the act was **too lenient."" “Everybody's aware that on first or second offence you get off with a warning. If IT was 17 and killed someone | might vet five years tops,’’ said one older teenage boy. Another said, “For an adult crime, you skauld pay an adult price.”" Sate The teens also cited weapons as another major problem. Some said they had seen other youths carrying guns, mainly pellet guns. Said one youth, “A lot of kids go to school with weapons,’’ Const. Blais repeatedly asked the teenagers what the police could do to serve them better as a ‘proactive’ force preventing crime. The teens said if there is an in- cident, such as a party that gets out of hand, the police don’t ar- rive soon enough, Che teenagers also said that some police offterrs ‘harass kids for no reason." And they complained that the North Shore’s youth drop-in cen- tres were boring and were ‘‘the big meeting place for gungs.’’ A girl suggested that young people needed a safe, but exciting place with lights and music. Some of the girls at the meeting said there were not enough woman RCMP officers for them to deal vith. “Most of the crimes against females are sexually related. We necd female school liaison of- ficers,’’ said one girl,