Frank Fencepost Meets the Hell's Angels

Some of you may know of W.P. Kinsella's Fencepost Chronicles, a series of charming, comedic stories that take place on the Indian reserve in Hobbema, Alberta.

Meet the real Hobbema:

Police first noted the Hobbema gang problem in 2001. Today, 13 street gangs, including Indian Posse, Redd Alert and Alberta Warriors, deal drugs and wage turf wars. Most observers, including Hobbema's RCMP officers, largely blame the prison system for seeding the reserve's gang troubles. ... Drive by shootings quickly became a nightly threat to Hobbema's 12,000 residents. In 2001, RCMP officers arrested 3,500 people, a thousand more than last year. Hobbema has Canada's highest ratio of gang members per 1,000 residents: 18.75 compared to Toronto's 1.15, says Toronto-based gang expert, Michael Chettleburgh.

If Kinsella were writing these stories now (as far as I know, he no longer writes, having sustained cognitive damage from a car accident in 1997), they'd no doubt look much different.