Consider some of these cases from the recent past. In June 2003, troopers arrested an intoxicated man after he shot at a wedding party in Nikolaevsk. In July, a man who drank two beers pointed a handgun at his brother during a party in Ninilchik. Later, in November 2003, troopers staked out an East End Road cabin for eight hours when a man got drunk at a party and pistol-whipped another man and threatened to shoot him.
Last June, troopers subdued a drunk driver with pepper spray after a high-speed chase on the Sterling Highway. Later in the summer, troopers arrested a man for domestic violence assault after he got drunk at an Anchor Point bar and went home and threatened a woman and children with a handgun.
All those cases turned out OK, and by luck and good law enforcement, situations that could have turned ugly didn't. Police don't always get lucky, though.
In September of 2003, a woman later found to have a blood-alcohol level of .315 died when she lost control of her Chevrolet Blazer on the Sterling Highway near Bluff Road. In July, a drunk man walking down the middle of the Sterling Highway near Anchor Point was struck and killed by a car.
Then, in August, Leonard Wallace, 48, and Moshe Wilkinson, 29, met up in town. Both had been drinking. By the end of the day, Wilkinson lay dying of a gunshot wound to the head in the parking lot of the Carl Wynn Nature Center on East Skyline Drive. Troopers found the alleged murder weapon, a five-shot .22-caliber derringer, on the dashboard of Wallace's truck. Troopers allege Wallace had a breath-alcohol level of .209. He was indicted for first-degree murder.
Wallace was also charged with driving under the influence, and fourth-degree weapons misconduct the charge for being drunk and having a gun. Wilkinson himself was convicted earlier in the summer for weapons misconduct, after he shot off a handgun near his Skyline Drive home while he was intoxicated.
While Wilkinson's death is the worst alcohol-related killing to happen in Homer in recent years, it's by no means the only alcohol-related arrest. According to the 2003 Homer Police Department Annual Report, of 5,461 incidents reported to police last year, 8 percent of them were alcohol related. "Incidents" means any call to the police, or a response by police while on patrol, and includes everything from reports of barking dogs to domestic assault.
Of the 714 arrests resulting, however, 51 percent were alcohol related, where police identified alcohol as being involved. Homer Police Chief Mark Robl said that number is typical. Since 1994, anywhere from 36 percent to 57 percent of arrests in Homer have been alcohol related. Robl said he thinks even more crimes are alcohol related, but don't get reported as such because police don't have knowledge at the time of an arrest of alcohol being involved.
"We believe a lot of the perpetrators of crimes are intoxicated when doing them," he said.
National statistics support Robl's opinion. According to a U.S. Bureau of Justice report tracking the relationship between alcohol and crime for incidents in 1996, 80 percent of offenders in municipal jails reported they were drinking at the time of their offenses.
Juvenile crime shows a similar relationship with alcohol. The 2003 United Youth Courts of Alaska annual report shows alcohol involvement in at least a fourth of the cases, from 24 percent in Sitka to 69 percent on the Kenai Peninsula to 84 percent in Kodiak. For the Kenai Peninsula Youth Court, including Homer, in the first quarter of the 2004-2005 fiscal year, 72 percent of the cases seen were alcohol related, mostly minor consuming alcohol or minor in possession.
Other than the rare deadly assault, Robl puts two alcohol-related crimes at the top of his list in terms of crimes police take seriously: domestic violence and driving under the influence. Drunk driving has led to a focused kind of traffic enforcement (see story, this page), while the impact of domestic violence has led to a wider community response.
"Clearly, number one is domestic violence," Robl said. "Alcohol is quite often a component. It's a very disruptive influence."
Sometimes, alcohol causes a partner to move from being emotionally abusive and controlling to becoming violent, said Peg Coleman, executive director of South Peninsula Women's Services. In the male batterers' group she helps run, men sometimes say, "When I drink, I get mad, and she should stay away from me" or "I hit her because I was drinking." Some men might be controlling but not usually physically violent, Coleman said. A lot of research has been done showing the connection between alcohol abuse and incidental violence.
"Those are people who drink and become raving maniacs. Add a few drinks, and that's a mix of volatility," she said. "You have someone who's simmering and then you've blown the top off the volcano."
Coleman mentioned several studies looking at the relationship between alcohol abuse and domestic violence. In one study, men enrolled in a batterers' program who reported being drunk every night were 16 times more likely to assault their partners as men in the program who seldom or never drank. Other studies showed at least half of the men entering batterers' programs abused alcohol and at least half of the men entering alcohol treatment programs abused their partners.
There's a similar relationship with victims, Coleman said. Although abusing alcohol should not be seen as an excuse for people to be victims of domestic violence, she said victims of domestic violence often abuse alcohol. Coleman has worked in both substance abuse and domestic violence programs, and seen alcohol abuse from both sides. She said in her experience, about 98 percent of women with substance and alcohol abuse problems have been traumatized by sexual assault or domestic violence.
Children who have alcoholic parents and children in domestic violence situations share similar issues. In both cases, the children have been traumatized by their experience, Coleman said.
"It's the same impact," she said. "They're stepping on eggshells from the time they remember they're traumatized."
Treating batterers for alcoholism can reduce domestic violence, Coleman said. She cited a study by the Harvard Medical School which tracked 300 men in 12-week outpatient treatment programs. The men were evaluated for partner violence, but it was not a focus of the alcoholism treatment.
After treatment, not only did men reduce their alcohol dependency, they also quit being as violent. Before treatment, 56 percent of the men reported being violent toward partners. In the year after treatment, 25 percent of the men reported being violent.
What does it say about a community when, on the one hand, half the crime is caused by alcohol and on the other hand, alcohol as a socially accepted recreational beverage?
"Does society have a problem with alcohol at large?" Robl asked. "The laws we enforce are a result of societal values. Just the fact we have such a problem with DUIs to try to mitigate it is in of itself a significant statement."
As a police chief, Robl said he is hesitant to offer a judgment on society about alcohol use.
"It's a question to ask society at large," he said. "How much do we tolerate? It's a problem that warrants our full, undivided attention. The irresponsible use of alcohol can ruin the lives of others. That's the number one thing for us to prevent right there."
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.
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