Statistics Canada has come up with a claim that one out of four Canadians was a victim of crime last year. I'm sure it's just coincidence that this story emerges as Harper is desperate to find some justification for his prison fetish.
One out of four. That seems like a lot. Four. That's a husband, wife and two kids. Or two parents and just one set of grandparents. Or a bowling team? Two couples out for dinner. A golf foursome? As many Canadians as I could possibly fit into my car. Four.
I know quite a few fours. I know three or four fours on my street and a whole gaggle of twos. I know a bunch of fours in a batch of towns. I stay in touch with these people.
Of all the fours and part-fours I know, I don't know any one of them that's been a victim of crime in the past year. Or the year before that or the one prior to that either. Come to think of it, I don't know any fours that have been a victim of crime in the past four years.
Now I'm sure if one member of any of those fours had been a victim of crime I might not have heard about it. But I'm just as sure that if one in four people in all those fours had fallen victim to a crime I would have heard about it from a good many of them. But I haven't.
Sure I live in a peaceful, positively tranquil little island town but I have friends and family who live in all sorts of places including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Seattle, Detroit and Chicago. I keep expecting the friends in Detroit to at least lose a limb but, so far, they're remarkably intact.
One in four, eh? Well you wouldn't know it by me.
Seriously? You don't know *anyone* whose had their bike stolen, who left their ipod in a store and it wasn't there when they got back, who got ripped off in an ebay transaction, who had their bumper smashed in a parking long with no note left behind? In the past 4 years?
ReplyDeleteWe are all victims of the crimes of this administration. Every one of us. When the last election was called in violation of the law, I would consider that a crime, and I think we all suffer because of it.
ReplyDeleteJohn I must live a hell of a sheltered life. I recall a couple of instances where something was left behind and later couldn't be found but that wasn't obvious theft.
ReplyDeleteWe are talking about crime. Not sure that a ding in a parking lot constitutes a crime.
I do tend to go out of my way to avoid loss in the first place. But I have less fear of crime today than I might have had forty years ago.
"Harper is desperate to find some justification for his prison fetish."
ReplyDeleteThat kind of sums it up nicely.
I remember his speech about not being swayed by facts buy to trust your instincts...
All Hapercons are assclows.
re: "We are talking about crime": -- well, you might think so, in the context of hard-time fed. prisons, which is where the Cons bring it up, but the GSS survey doesn't confine itself to serious crimes, at all, which is why it's silly to make to much hay out of it.
ReplyDeleteDan Gardner's got a good piece on this:
www.ottawacitizen.com/Stephen+Harper+magical+departure+from+reality/3365546/story.html
These are the actual screening-in q's on criminal victimization from the Questionnaire:
"An attack can be anything from being hit, slapped, pushed or grabbed, to being
shot or beaten..."
...The next questions ask about things which may have happened to you during
the past 12 months. Please include acts committed by both family and nonfamily
members... did anyone deliberately damage or destroy any property belonging to you or anyone in your household, such as a window or a fence?"
I wonder what their metrics were.
ReplyDeleteI was a victim of a crime in that my bank card was compromised and money was withdrawn from my account.
I know so many people this has happened to that we don't even consider it a crime, it's like jaywalking or graffiti. But technically I was robbed.
It is my understanding, even though the bank refunded me the money, they have to report it to the police.
My point is akin to yours, the 1 in 4 number is meaningless, especially of certain people use it as justification for building more prisons.