Until Higuchi's sergeant showed up, he was by himself because his partner for the evening, Constable Mike Rossa, was back at Surrey Central helping write a report on a young man who had been robbed of his cellphone at knifepoint near the busy SkyTrain station and bus loop."The kid was pretty shook up," said Rossa, who explained the phone couldn't be 'pinged' because the thief had probably removed its SIM card and turned it off.
Higuchi and Rossa were taking a reporter and photographer on what's called a 'ride-along' -- but which turned out to be mostly walking around the rapidly-changing neighbourhood and a little riding the SkyTrain, all in hopes of illustrating what transit police have to deal with on a daily basis
h/t Terry
Obviously There's Mental Issues" also going on in the comments section of another article at the link about a grizzly bear killing a deer hunter.
I was going to repost my letter at the Province,but I guess it's being held by the censors to see if it offends anyone.
The comments are,as usual, of the ''blame the current government'' type,either ignoring the history of how the streets of Vancouver and all BC cities became the home of the mentally ill,or trying to make political points against the Liberal government in spite of the facts.
BC started the program of closing mental health facilities in the early 1980's, under the Social Credit government of Bill Bennett,the Minister responsible for initiating the program was Grace McCarthy.
The Socred leadership was taken over by Bill Vanderzalm,who continued the program.VZ retired and Rita Johnson took over a Premier for a few months before going down to defeat at the hands of the man who represented ''the little guy'', the NDP's Mike Harcourt. Harcourt continued the closures. Harcourt was succeeded by Glenn Clark and Ujjal Dosanjh as Premier,both NDP 'ers, neither did anything about the bedlam in the Downtown east Side,particularly in Gastown,where the streets fairly teemed with hundreds of mentally ill people.
I worked construction there in the 80's,90's, and early 2000's.
Governments all across Canada did the same.I have a close relative who was on the Provincial MH Board in another Province where the Provincial government, the political opposite of our government at the time,and they were pursuing the very same program. It seems Provincial governments across Canada simultaneously decided to dump a big chunk of their health care costs,and the most convenient people to dump ON, were the patients of the mental health facilities. They don't vote,they have few,if any advocates,and they make no noise.
So, our noble politicians swept them under the carpet,where they remain out of sight,except when some nosy Reporter decides to do a story like this one.
Now,there will be some political hand-wringing, some calls for ''AN INQUIRY'',and maybe if there is enough noise, some politically well connected superannuated Judge will get to run a circus for a year or so, and the Press and the politicians can be suitably outraged,for a little while.
But in the meantime, more mentally ill will drift downward on to the streets,and our transit systems, and we can blame the government of today and claim OUR Party would do a better job. Yep, we can claim the moral high ground, until we win power,then we can hope everyone's forgotten this issue,and they certainly will have, as there are far more sexy and exciting stories out there.
Did you hear about George Clooney's wedding!!!?
Now,don't call me cynical.
I am a correctional officer in Ontario. And I tell you, I wouldn't want to work as a transit cop. **** that!
Not a surprise. Police have become part of the revolving door for mentally ill people and not by choice. London, Ontario is a good example of that. You've got the psych centre in St.Thomas(about 15mins away), and get people who have "day visits" simply walking away after they get on meds, stop taking them, end back up in the hospital, remanded, sent back to the psych centre, and repeat.
don
I largely agree with your rant, BUT, there were a lot of lefties squawking about 50 years ago here in Morontario who wanted the inmates to basically be able to run the asylum, and they won the squawking contest. Now the same idiots are sqwaking that there are no facilities available to house the mental cases. It seams that governments found it prudent to shut empty facilities down, and I can't blame them, as I would also have shut them down. You can't have your cake and eat it too!
I'd rather pay taxes to lock up criminals and dangerous creeps with brain damage or mental problems than see our streets overrun with these types.
Bleeding hearts and progressive policy makers caused this situation an it is well past time to rectify those mistakes.
Nothing is going to change until this human jetsam and flotsam drifts up to the doorsteps where the tower trash live. Time for the cops in the downtown core to transport these poor folks to nice, safe places like the Bridle Path, Point Grey, Rockliffe Park, and Westmount.
"I'd rather pay taxes to lock up criminals and dangerous creeps with brain damage or mental problems than see our streets overrun with these types."
And I'd rather not trust the state with deciding who is dangerous and who needs to be incarcerated just in case.
There is only one solution: restore the right to self defense, make carry of firearms a right. Letting the state protect us from those the state suspect may be up to no good sounds way to Stalinesque for my taste.
The reason you see such people cluttering up mass transit systems is that there are mass transit systems. Before that was invented, there were still the same cases in cities. Cities attract dysfunctional people (and produce them.)