Petty Crimes
By dfred on January 25, 2005 - 12:22pm
Is homelessness a crime? That's what groups working with Vancouver's homeless are fearing now that new rules promises a police crackdown on petty crime and other "incivilities."
Last year, when the Provincial government voted its Safe Streets Act, it stressed it had listened to citizens' concerns. New rules give Vancouver City Police new calling codes to classify the petty crimes that citizens and police officers call in to police stations. Included on the list? Bothersome presence of homeless people, the bothersome presence of beggars, the presence of squeegees and the gathering of youth in public areas.
A cop told me that the codes don't reflect new crimes but are simply new categories to keep better statistics on petty crimes.
Vancouver Police is criminalizing homelessness. Homelessness is treated as an incivility when it's really a life situation.
Perhaps more disturbing for the homeless and their advocates is the way in which the codes send a message to the general public that homeless people are somehow dangerous or harmful, or that there's something not quite right about them. It discourages co-existence.
Never mind that homeless people receive tickets no one else ever gets, for instance for crossing a street on a red light or for butting out a cigarette. They can't pay the tickets and often end up in jail during peak tourism season for unpaid tickets.
Vancouver Police and the Provincial Government basically given themselves the tools to move anyone out of the downtown core if they want to make the place pretty for the Olympics. You can have rules but where are the solutions? I don't think sitting on a sidewalk begging is unruly, it's needy. There's a big difference.
Fred
you really think these junkies downtown and beyond are pickpocketing, breaking into cars (at 300 dollars a pop for your pleasure for your ICBC deductible) just to get CDs and a few coins to support their family? that's only true if their family is the local drug dealer and their fix, because that's all that matters to them. they'll kill you if it means another day of getting high, so stop making excuses for them. you give liberals a bad name with that sort of posturing.