by Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 16/98) - There's been nary a word about youth-related assaults since a rash of street crime that cropped up in July last year.

That's because the RCMP and Mother Nature have teamed up to provide a knock-out punch.

"We had everybody arrested and everybody went to jail, so there is no street violence right now," RCMP Staff Sgt. Dave Grundy said, acknowledging that the bitterly cold weather has also played a role.

Within a two-week period last July, the police received 50 calls relating to young assailants in back alleys. But the entire issue was blown out of proportion by the media, according to Grundy.

"The media made more of this than what it really was," he said, adding that there was no substantial follow-up on the matter.

Grundy was at a loss to explain the reason for the brief wave of violence.

"When you look at how many youth we have in this town -- and we have so few problems with them -- it's not fair to paint the youth with the same brush," he said.

"It did flair up, we dealt with it and hopefully it won't happen again."