Whitehorse Daily Star

Police throw 43 in drunk tank

Discovery Days in Dawson City

By Whitehorse Star on August 21, 1974

RCMP laid 32 charges and put 43 people in the drunk tank Saturday and Sunday as part of the Discovery Days Celebration in Dawson City.

Dawson’s four regular RCMP members were backed up by 10 other RCMP including two from the Whitehorse detachment, one each from Faro, Mayo and the Whitehorse General Investigation Section, two highway patrol, two Whitehorse drug squad and a one man dog section from Yellowknife.

Police answered 101 complaints Saturday and Sunday and charged eleven people for simple possession of Marijuana, 14 for impaired driving, two for a disturbance, one with assault, one for breaking, entering and theft, and two others for theft under $200 and one with murder.

Constable Bill Code said all those charged for marijuana possession were caught with less than an ounce each, for personal use. No one was charged with trafficking.

The assault charge came from a fight between two juvenile girls, and the B & E and theft charge was laid after the Klondike Garage was broken into.

A charge of causing a disturbance by exposing himself was withdrawn against a juvenile after he was caught peeing in a public place.

Code said about 600 persons attended Discovery Days. There were more complaints, he said, but fewer people than last year’s celebration.

The dog was used in one drug search but no charges came of it because not one of five persons searched admitted ownership of the pot.

The complaints were mostly about drunks, Code said, but RCMP answered others asking for assistance, like “come and help me clean some hippies away from in front of Diamond Tooth Gerties.”

JUVENILE CHARGED IN DAWSON MURDER

Dawson RCMP Saturday charged a 15-year-old with murder in connection with the early morning stabbing death of Joe Blanchard, 19.

Constable Bill Code said yesterday Blanchard was stabbed twice, in the heart and side of the chest, in a fight at a party at his home there about 5:10 a.m. Saturday.

An Autopsy showed Blanchard died in Dawson hospital about 5:50 a.m. by loss of blood that resulted from the two jacknife stab wounds after a fight in a bedroom. Police said about 20 persons were at the party the time of the fight.

Coroner Frank Lidstone attended shortly after 6 a.m.. The juvenile was picked up about 6:25 a.m. Code said, and charged with murder.

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