From the Archives (1980): EDITORIAL – Perhaps Amusing, But Not Funny

Originally published July 16, 1980 – EDITORIAL OPINION PIECE – An event which occurred in Viking on Wednesday evening, July 2nd, provided a great deal of coffee talk on the following Thursday morning. Residents in Viking were aroused about 11 p.m. by the sound of a police siren which sounded continuously for about ten minutes.

This break in the quiet routine of a normal evening in Viking caused a large number of people to venture out of their houses to determine what was happening. What they came on was a large front-end loader parked side-ways on the 49th Street with a police car with full lights and siren on in close proximity.

Reports are that a young man removed the loader from a garage parking lot in Viking, then proceeded to drive in a rather hazardous manner on some of the streets in the east part of Viking. An officer of the local detachment gave chase, and had to take care not to be driven over by the loader. Attempts by the officer to stop the loader were eventually successful, resulting in a local man being charged with four indictable offences.

Much of the talk centred around observations by some people that the police officer was nearly run over by the loader, and that he was driving hard to keep out of the way. Some people found this to be rather amusing, and yes, after the event is over, and no one was injured, it probably does have a tinge of humour.

Other people found the event to be “funny.” And yet “funny” it was not. The size of the loader involved was sufficient to cause a tremendous amount of damage to automobiles, houses, and people. It was not a prank, for too much was at stake if the machine had gone out of control, or if the police officer had not been able to get out of the way. It is an action which should be dealt with in the severest manner.

All of us on the sidelines can sit back and joke or laugh as the police try to deal with people who perpetrate such acts. And yet, all of us don’t have to do anything to stop them. We can sit back and wait for the police to handle the situation. They are the ones who have to try to stop an individual in such a massive machine before he does anyone or anything any harm.

We can walk away – they can’t. If they did nothing, as many of us possibly would do, we would be screaming for their dismissal. And yet, when they must risk their lives to protect our person and property, it seems totally absurd that we could find such an event funny.”