News-Miner Editorial
Unflattering image
‘Troopers’ offers realistic portrait of Alaska’s trouble with alcohol
Published Thursday, October 15, 2009
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Stumble It!The new TV show focusing on Alaska State Troopers has received mixed reviews as drama, but critics have agreed on one thing: Alaskans often seem to be drunk when they commit crimes or hurt themselves in accidents.
That observation confirms that the new National Geographic series deserves its billing as a “reality” show. Alaskans are, in fact, often too drunk to behave responsibly and legally. A few of them are now providing evidence to the world of this unfortunate blight within our state, and the national media has noticed.
The New York Times review of the series opened by describing troopers responding to a report of a Fairbanks woman who was “extremely 10-56” — police code for being drunk in public.
“On the evidence of ‘Alaska State Troopers,’ ... the 49th state as a whole is extremely 10-56,” the reviewer wrote.
The Washington Post’s reviewer said “somewhere an Alaska tourism official is cringing, as well he should be, since ‘Alaska State Troopers’ is one of the few things I’ve ever watched about the 49th state that made me not want to visit it.”
If a mirror reflects a self-portrait one would rather not see, one’s first impulse might be to knock down the mirror and anyone who suggested it be raised. So some people might take issue with the trooper division’s decision to participate in this public exposure of our state’s biggest social liability. That would deflect attention from the real issue — the dangerous drunkenness around us.
Most of us have friends and family members who have been perpetrators, victims or both in this sad story. Even those rare few whose personal lives have not yet intersected this scourge can get a sense of its scale from reading the near daily chronicle of drunken driving charges in this newspaper. We’ve published about two dozen in the past week. Most of the assault charges, which appeared in similar numbers, can be linked to alcohol as well.
Alaska has people diligently working on all angles of this trouble. Many of them will gather for three days in Fairbanks next week for meetings of the state’s Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and the Alaska Mental Health Board. The boards will take public comments Monday from 4:15-5:30 p.m. at the Alpine Lodge off Dale Road near the airport, where the daylong meetings also will be held. The boards also will gather informally at a potluck Tuesday from 7-9 p.m. at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center.
Much of the trouble with alcohol stems from underlying mental health problems among Alaskans. Those are difficult to fix, but we cannot ignore them.
No one should dismiss alcohol-fueled crimes and accidents as solely the products of mental health problems, though. Far too often, the incidents result from poor judgments made by rational, healthy Alaskans. These poor judgments occur because they do not acknowledge that getting so drunk that they can’t control their cars, their feet or their fists is not acceptable behavior. That’s a social norm we all must establish not only through our laws but also through our words and deeds.
Community Discussion
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The close relationship between alcohol and crime isn't unique to Alaska. Alcohol has always functioned as a trigger for the baser impulses. It is just unfortunate that the North is a popular stage for "reality" TV, just as it was a popular literary stage in the days of Jack London and Robert Service. Go back and look at how large a role alcohol played in much of Robert Service's poetry.
how many of the people on COPS are drunk or high??
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All I can say is it doesn't matter where you go. There are idiots everywhere. They are among us.
I watched the first episode and for some reason it kept going back and forth from winter scenes to fall scenes. But it was ok other than that. I think very few programs or movies on Alaska will be liked by us locals. And yes, Alaska has a subsance abuse problem. Isolation and weather playing a big factor.
canttype_girl - I couldn't understand your post.
Try using the same laws that Singapore used for drunk driving, not many second offenders there. We depend on the tax revenue from this legal drug, getting off the tax drug is as hard as getting off the other drugs. Its all about the MONEY...
Got to wonder how many people feed there families off people who are extremely 10-56.
Anyone who has ever been to Arctic Man or the Anderson blue grass or Nuchilawoya in Tanana or Talkeetna bluegrass or the graduation parties at Harding Lake or Olnes pond or even the beer side of an ice dogs game would have to conclude that most people don't "appear drunk" they are drunk. Baked. Blotto. Trashed. "The 49th state as a whole is extremely 10-56" Ha Ha Ha Ha
if the people do not like the show they do no have to watch and the same thing goes for tourists if the do not like the way we live go somewhere else and news minor no one appointed you guardians of public morals. why do you not try to be a better newspaper by getting the stories right and doing a better job of proofing your p ages before publishing instead of preaching.
The only reason they are not focusing on drunk arrest in Fairbanks, Wasilla and Anchorage is the State Troopers do not respond in these towns where the real alcohol related crimes are. If you read the AST public information which list their dispatches each day around the areas they service, it becomes clear being a trooper can be pretty boring at times. I doubt if serving warrants is what people want to see.
Anyone with any intelligence at all knows alcohol is trouble anywhere.
How can they make it so good,and sell it so cheap?
You can go anywhere, to any music festival, Oktoberfest, or city/village festival and find the same population.... We're just being a little sensitive to the idea that for once Alaska isn’t being painted in beauty and magic. Live it up folks; where else can you attend an Arctic Man, or a music festival under the midnight sun??? So we'll take the blow knowing that those who have never come to Alaska are missing out on a great thing, no matter how you choose to spend your pastime.
Why do people keep dragging AK into the spotlight, who's making money off these crappy TV shows?
A lot of people live here to get away from the non-stop media hype of the lower 48... leave us to live our lives!
"The 49th state as a whole is extremely 10-56.” How pathetic yet not without truth. I really don't know why our lifestyle/culture embraces booze the way it is...frankly disgusting to me. Other countries love their alcohol but few have the problems North Americans have with it. People don't know when to quit and they drink to get drunk. Sadly true, so don't get offended...that is Alaska - alcohol is a huge problem.
It just isn't about Alcohol.. Meth capitol of the NATION, and 30%-40% of the population is habitually addicted to weed.
Pure Trash...
Thank god I live well out of town and not continually subjected to it.
Now that outside media has discovered Alaska, someone with authority needs to rein in the showboat tactics of the troopers as they create new stereotypes of Alaskans- especially Alaska Natives- for lower 48 consumption.
First the Palins, then the Johnstons, and now this reality show. How long before America pays Russia to take us back?
Oh, come on. How many television programs and films depict New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago, as crime-ridden hellholes filled with psychopathic serial killers, drug addicts, wife beaters, and corrupt politicians? So the Alaska State Troopers are shown dealing with bums, drunks, and other criminals. It's their job to protect the rest of us from those people. When you film the cops, you see their clients. Sheesh.
By the way, remember the show "Murder She Wrote"? I was working at the Ketchikan Daily News about 20 years working on the police beat and I was telling my father about the sheer volume of criminal behavior in a little town of 14,000. My father looked at me and said, "That's nothing compared to what happens in Cabot Cove, Maine, every week."
I watched the show last night, thought it was pretty good but didn't care for the way the stories went back and forth from winter to fall. Most incidents are alcohol-fueled or drug-related and that is our reality, whether we like having it portrayed that way or not. We who call Alaska home come in contact every day with the seedy underside of our life in this beautiful wilderness. We can minimize it all we want to ourselves, the tourists, and the outsiders looking in.
I did notice several of the officers stated that there aren't enough troopers to cover the population and geographic areas to which they are assigned.
I dated an Alaskan bush pilot who was a serious alcoholic. Flies for a local air carrier, but covers it up extremely well - everybody likes him. Seems he ended up in Alaska as he found that heavy drinking is more acceptable here. Got rid of him as the future didn't look good for either a relationship or his putting his own life and others at risk. I didn't want to be around for the destruction. I just think that AK collects those kind of people to a greater extent than outside.
How much has the editorial board of the FNM contributed to the negative image that the US has about Alaska. Over the past year, they have done far more damage than any "reality" show.
TAC... how funny is that?
I'm surprised that people actually care what the down-n-out states think about Alaska. The problems here are no different than elsewhere in the States.
Other countries, now, that's another matter. We make alcohol a right of passage. You can die in service for your country before you can have a legal drink. I've been fighting that concept since I was too young to legally drink. This country simply does NOT get the fact that by making drinking such a right of passage for kids, that it makes it a bigger deal than it really is. Parents don't TEACH their children how to drink socially. Where do kids learn it? At the gravel pits, woods, etc. And you wonder why....
I know that if you make no big deal out of a child having a sip or tiny glass of wine while the family is having their own glass with dinner, that there comes a level of comfort - learning. NO you're not teaching your child TO drink, you're teaching them about RESPONSIBLE drinking. Yes, I'm talking thimble full, not enough to impair or harm the child.. get real.
I know that older teens should be able to choose a light drink to enjoy, at home, with family and their supervision, and not leave the house. Teaching responsibility young, prepares them for those times when their peers get excited about 'drinking.. wow'. The child raised with responsibility sees no big deal in what its peers are experimenting with, and you have a much greater chance of that child not growing up with drinking problems!!
Our society and current laws have created an atmosphere where our children are doomed to fail because it is illegal to teach them! All of these problems stem from what is learned at home. It takes a lot of time to be aware of what your children are doing and to really include them in your lives. These are tomorrow's adults and too many are ill prepared for the journey.
Sequestering, forbidding and sheltering have failed miserably.
There was a time when children were raised knowing how to shoot a weapon, the damage it did, and exactly what it was for. Today weapons are locked up, children are forbidden, and that forbidden fruit kills many children each year. Alcohol is no different.
Haven't watched the show.
Don't intend to.
I enjoyed watching Ice Road Truckers because it celebrated the work of a group of people I enjoyed working with. However, I realized that the producers were hyping the conditions for dramatic effect so I took it with 'a grain of salt.'
For those who plan to watch the troopers show, I suggest that you sit in a very tall chair so you don't strain your neck while looking down your nose at others.
You know, they should do a reality show about the Palins. It would be a bit like the Osbournes, except even creepier.
I'll drink to that!!
Haven't watched the show yet, but plan too. My inital reaction was what a great recruiting tool for the state troopers. We do need more of them.
its just so sad. we live in a world that excepts drinking. and allways has. and that will never change. yes alot about the $$$$$$ the courts ect ect. just look at another headline today. dry village... not dry no more.. $$$$$. try to legalize pot!!! i sure would not drink as much. nor would many other alaskans...
Truth hurts!!!
Yes, just like 'COPS', those who are drunk or high are the people who end up in run-ins with the law! So that's the segment of society you're going to see on that type of show. Duh.
Curmudgeon - Sell us back to Russia? I vote instead we all join the Alaska Independence Party, and end up starting our own country...
Let 'em watch the show, they might be more willing to let us cecede, then they can hug their bunnies, and we can hunt ours, in peace.
This story is just depressing. I need a drink.
What? Alaskans often seem to be drunk when they commit crimes? And this is especially embarrassing? Um...as if the crime ITSELF is not embarrassing, but merely the drunkenness?
Yes, it would be far less embarrassing were they burners, basers, junkies, glass-heads, or just garden variety junior high drop-outs we see on the lower-48 law enforcement shows...
Not being a cable subscriber, I likely won't see this show. But, if you have ever called the troopers about a common theft, then it shouldn't surprise you that they (apparently) don't spend a lot of time on it. Better to say "I think the thief that took off with my car, boat, motorcycle, snowmachine, guns, pump and run gasoline, etc, might have been drunk", if you actually expect a response.
I think we're overlooking something very important here: We *do* have a problem with alcohol in our State...and it is contributing to an alcohol problem among our youth. Our youth don't have a problem; they are just modeling the behavior they see among adults:
The cost of underage drinking to the citizens of Alaska was $317
million in 2005, inclusive of medical care, work loss, and pain and
* Defined as 2 drinks per day for men and 1 drink for women.
* Defined as 5 or more drinks on one occasion.
* Thirty-nine percent higher for women and 14 percent higher for men.
suffering.viii This is equivalent to $3,944 per year for each youth in
the State.
Based on these figures, per capita, Alaska is second among
the fifty states for the cost of underage drinking.
The largest costs to the State of Alaska can be attributed to youth violence and traffic crashes by underage youth under the influence of alcohol. Furthermore, a multitude of other problems contribute significantly to the overall cost.
For example, among teen mothers, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
costs Alaska $4.6 million. Young people who begin drinking before
age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence and
are two and a half times more likely to become abusers of alcohol
than those who begin drinking at age 21.ix In 2003, 366 youth 12-20
years old were admitted for alcohol treatment in Alaska, accounting
for 11 percent of all treatment admissions for alcohol abuse in the
State.
The Alaska Departments of Education and Early Development and
Health and Social Services conduct a biannual statewide student survey
on health behavior.
According to self-reports by Alaskan students in grades 9-12:
74% had at least one drink of alcohol on one or more days
during their life.
• 20% had their first drink of alcohol, other than a few sips,
before age 13.
• 40% had at least one drink of alcohol on one or more occasion
in the past 30 days.
• 26% had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row (i.e. binge
drinking) in the past 30 days.
The state-wide YRBS demonstrates that underage drinking is widespread
in Alaska, but it does not include all age appropriate youth.
There are more youth at risk than are represented. Alaska state law
requires that students have active consent from parents to participate
in school surveys, which excludes students who do not return a
signed permission slip. In addition, alternative high school students
were excluded from the state-wide YRBS report and students who
have dropped out of school were not represented. Studies have
shown that alternative high school students are at significantly higher
risk for engaging in risky behaviors and substance use is correlated
with school dropout. As such, the risk behaviors of youth are likely
underrepresented with the Alaska state-wide YRBS.
In 2007, 9.2 percent of all retailers investigated sold tobacco to
underage buyers ... 22 percent of all retailers investigated sold
alcohol to underage buyers.
As Alaskans, we really need to sit back, let this sink in, then ask ourselves what is our future, here? Then we need to get involved. Alaska's Alcohol Safety Action Program has a draft plan to work with communities statewide to address youth substance abuse. It's worth taking a look at its website: http://www.hss.state.ak.us/dbh/preventio...
You can't legislate or committee the problem away. Parents have to be truly interested in their children, teach them and be involved in their lives. Start at the root of the problem. Then, quit making such a huge deal out of what a right of passage turning 21 is. Stop lying to children about drugs too.
I am SO proud of the Alaska State Troopers! It's a good show!
WOW they showed white people drunk! I thought it was only natives that were drunks in Alaska.
I watched out of curiosity last night... boring.
Nobody who lives here should be upset that the show features a lot of drunk encounters... alcohol is involved in most "stupid" crimes. This show is not put on by the Chamber of Commerce or Tourism Board... they are showing things the way they are, not the way the business and/or tourism industry would like it to be.
Unlike the New York Times and the Washington Post reviews, I found the show interesting, truthful and an awesome way for our Troopers to be recognized for the hard work they do in varying capacities. Troopers in states across the country will watch with amazement. Where Troopers are usually traffic cops for interstates, ours fly helicopters over vast tundra and make sure hunting regs are followed, etc. Sure, it aired some of our dirty laundry. But is that so bad? I would have been more disgusted with a glamorized account of issues facing our state. I realize the point of the show is not to make AK look bad, but to relate how we struggle as a state (a huge, rural state) and how our Troopers are facing extremes in the Last Frontier (extreme weather, extreme isolation, extreme situations...it's a great show!) BTW- born and raised AKn here.
all of you have alot of interesting insights. but in the end. none of the bad stuff is going to end. in this world. our planet will surly take us out first. most humans are just a cancer to our planet muchless oureselves.. so. why worrie? try to live the best life you can. with no regrets. try to be happy. and love oneanother.. peace..
Whiskey has been a major part of Alaska ever since white guys got here. Miners, Fishermen, Loggers all are hard working, hard partying and that is just our culture. Again, why would someone want to come live in a place that they KNOW is deeply rooted in the alcohol industry then complain. The way I see it, the majority has spoken. I have spent over 20 years living half my year in the bush and I have seen the problems associated with the abuse of alcohol. Prohibition does not work, not in Chicago, not in Bethel.
yukon john is right.
I have to say that I enjoyed the show. I think a few of the troopers hit on it a few times, but there are just not enough of them to go around this massive state. With that said they still pressed forward and did their job as best they could, all the while being the professionals they are known to be. I started the selection process to become a trooper shortly after the AF sent me up here. Unfortunately, I wasn't offered a spot in the next academy class unless I had a seperation date from the AF which at that point was three years away, so I had to withdraw from the selection process. I definitely look forward to seeing the remaining episodes!
kdub summed it up- just another dang cop show.
Again Yukonjohn is correct.
I was headed to work at 7:00 am the other morning and a guy was walking slow and blowing chunks all over the side of the road. I think that booze may have had something to do with it from the night before, however I must say that I used a bit of profiling to come to this conclusion.
So if I commit a crime without being drunk, do you think I could get on the show?
I heard that Rush is thinking of buying the NY times since the football purchase fell through.
How about a reality show about our crooked politicians.......ohh,wait,the reviewer is from Washington,so that wouldn't be so shocking for him then.
Seriously. Just watch any of the COPS shows and you'll see that 99% of their arrest are drunk people.
So what is the message here, filter yourself. Understand that a show about one state or even one city does not portray the whole.
If that was the case, then we'd know that everyone in Los Angeles tried to outrun the police. Everyone in Oklahoma and Texas runs some sort of drug lab in the backwoods. And everyone in Chicago or New York has a handgun.
Alaska has a relatively small sample base to choose from so the TV shows editors are going to have a heck of a time finding 4-5 crimes each week that don't involve alcohol.
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