I'm not sure this isn't merely a restatement of what has already become standard procedure but Vancouver police patrolling the city's troubled Downtown Eastside will no longer be arresting and charging druggies for simple possession. The policy is intended to free up officers for street duties. From the Vancouver Sun:
"We'll come across people all day long who have maybe a few rocks of cocaine in their pocket, or maybe a bit of methamphetamine, [for] personal use," said Const. Jana McGuinness. "Technically, yes, you could arrest and you could tie up two officers for four hours writing a report like that.
"That's where the discretion will be employed. Where they can, say, seize the drugs, get the drugs off the street and then go about their business of being out there stopping other crimes."
Less paperwork will mean more officers on the street to tackle street disorder, McGuinness said. The police business plan identifies a number of behaviours the force is trying to curb, including aggressive panhandling, squeegeeing, open-air drug markets, unlicensed street vending and sleeping in city parks.
It's curious there's no mention of street prostitution. Obviously Vancouver is trying to clean up its streets before the tourists arrive for the 2010 Olympics
Curbing park sleeping? Sheesh, they'll start harassing people who have no where else to go, or who are just trying to take a nap in public. Why are we so anti-sleep, and anti-homeless?
ReplyDeletecaptch is "blaging".
It's time there were people hired through the police force to attend to people who don't have places to live. I know there are social workers who are employeed to take care of social problems within society....but the job is not being taken care of. Why is it governments Liberal or Conservative or whom ever, just don't pump money into these social ills. Aww yes, the answer is people with these problems are considered to be losers and why should they be given any kind of consideration. While millions of dollars are being spent on research such as why horses grow manes...tongue in cheek...we ought to be healing our Canadian society. Gees....we are only 33.3 million. A person would swear the Canadian populace is at a staggering 300,000,000 and why nothing can be done. All a person has to do is take a good look at the health care system in Canada. It takes so long to get anywhere within the system unless of course a person has 10 million in private health care...then see the doctors fly. A healthy country is one in which its people are employeed with job security, a top notch education system and immediate health care for all its citizens.....then and only then will we be a first class nation. There are other systems far more advanced than the Canadian one....for example Germany, France and Norway to name a few. People in Canada should be looked upon as the backbone of the country not the government. Most people who are in government haven't been able to be successful in the private sector. They sit on their arse and try to divise ways on how to slow the system down. Maybe corporate handouts are why they are there in the first place. Malroney come to mind. There is nothing wrong with some well placeed nationalism. People first that is how a country is healthy. One works for the good of all, and all work for the good of one. A. Morris
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