It’s a bad time to be poor in Vancouver. The Vancouver Police Department have vowed to increase tickets directed at ”crimes” of poverty by 20% in their 2008 business plan. The plan appoints a new VPD “Champion” who will address issues of street disorder through a crackdown on what they call “urban decay” caused by the homeless.
Symptoms of “urban decay” the VPD seek to eliminate are activities that you may expect the homeless to participate in on a fairly regular basis: sleeping/camping in public places and in parks and engaging in the “scavenger economy.”
Newly appointed Champion Superintendent Warren Lemcke is expecting to wipe out this type of behaviour by increasing Safe Streets Act ticket distribution by 20%. He also wants to increase distribution of Trespass Act tickets by 20% as well to get rid of people who have the nerve to sleep outside, just because they don’t have a home.
Although the VPD would swear up and down that this new initiative to ticket the homeless into submission has nothing to do with the upcoming Olympics, City of Vancouver employee Judy Graves had a different version of events last night as she received an award from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
In response to a question from the floor, Graves told the assembled audience that police are having closed door meetings where no minutes are kept with city officials on how to deal with the homeless and the Downtown Eastside come 2010. Typically, meetings are held without minutes to avoid having to disclose embarassing topics discussed if those minutes are requested under a Freedom of Information request.
Graves said she was “very afraid” that a crackdown on the homeless was on the way. It’s a very bad time to be poor in the number one place to live on the planet.
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That is just soooo ass-backwards! Sure! Let’s ticket them! But how do they expect to collect any fines (assuming there is some sort of charge, otherwise, what’s the point?) on those tickets if there’s no address to use to go after them?
“urban decay caused by the homeless”?? Well, let’s see. Let’s think about how the homeless got to where they are. Why not help get them out of that situation? Then maybe there wouldn’t be this “urban decay”? Oh but no! That would be a bit proactive and cost them some money wouldn’t it? But if they helped the homeless, then maybe they will become productive tax-paying members of society? Or am I just being a bit too simplistic about this?
I don’t think the City of Vancouver will be receiving any humanitarian awards with these kinds of actions.
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Great idea… ticket the hell out of the homeless. And when they can’t pay those tickets (because asking for spare change will only get them another ticket), we can throw them in jail and waste a whole lot more money. Or maybe they’ll start committing REAL crimes to get the money to pay off these stupid tickets, and we can throw them in jail for even longer! Fantastic! I’m glad the people at the top are so fucking smart and socially responsible.
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speaking from experience The Homeless are constantly harassed by the police. during the middle of the day it was not uncommon for an officer to stop and bug you because you were sitting on a Public Bench .
Of course States in the U.S. and probably each province in Canada . receive Federal incentives for keeping people locked up and in jail Not to mention the politicians who can point to the increased number of people in jail as proof that they are tough on crime ..
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It’s like bouncing a check at the bank for $20, and they charge you $30 NSF. WTF? If I had that much money, I wouldn’t have bounced the check!
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When the hell are we gonna stop punishing people for being poor? I’m tired of the way we regulate the poor instead of actually helping them..crazy thought isn’t it? Being poor should not be a crime. When are we going to learn?
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The most overlooked thing is this:
WE , as a human race, created this. We made it shameful to seek help, we made it shameful to be inflicted with a mental disorder, we made it shameful to be human. And frankly thats a damned shame.
So why not ticket the homeless? Why not make them feel any less discriminated against.. why the hell not?
Why not, cause it disgusting. In the animal kingdom they posses far greater compassion for each other then we do and we are supposed to be the *civilized bunch*.
See its so much harder to be a proactive person.. to provide help, to give them the means to be PRODUCTIVE, to give them a shoulder to cry on if they need it.. God Forbid we treat them as the human beings they are.. cause after all, in a blink of a eye, it could be us in their shoes.. God Forbid one their children is put the position to be homeless, then they will feel the might hand of Karma.. aka Karma-aint-it-a-bitch?!
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i don’t understand or see the logic of this; it’s absolutely absurd!
i can’t believe the definition of crime is extending to poverty.
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A very high percentage of homeless individuals have severe psychiatric illnesses, eg. schizophrenia and manic depression. Many aren’t even aware that they are sick. A TICKET to provide better access for mental health care would be the humane thing to do. You got to tend to the root of the problem first for a landscape to flourish.
Take a look at this movie that someone made I recently been acquainted with made. Very moving and powerful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuIUm5TgHPw
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Tickets for the poorest people in our nation, WTF man !!!!! Can we start ticketing people for being heartless, or better yet, ticket them for being in-fucking-credibly stupid?
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Ah, my old friend fury has come for a visit.
What happens when homeless people get tickets is that the charges build up in a computer somewhere…and when that person finally fights their way to the brink of starting a new life, they are slammed with collection notices. It is very difficult to start from scratch when you are already in debt.
This is one of the stupidest fucking phenomenons I have ever witnessed. Maybe I’m just bitter that having to put a few thousand dollars of my ex-husband’s fines on my credit card started me off to a life of debt as well. Boo.
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Well, I suppose that when they start jailing people for not paying their tickets, it will get them off the streets.
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Since most of the fines obviously won’t be paid, I’m assuming the purpose of these tickets is to give the police an excuse to harass the homeless, in the hopes they will be intimidated into leaving the city. If you ask me, there should be an investigation, and whoever is behind that idea should be put in jail.
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I sat in bed tonight completely unable to sleep, thoughts of this post kept racing through my mind and it startled me in ways that I didn’t think I would have been able to be startled.
So here are some thoughts as this mind races to find some inner peace tonight.
There id so much tragedy in all of this.
We live in countries, such as the US and Canada, that have the ability to feed, cloth, educate, home and employee all people of all backgrounds and refuse to do this. We have the medical know how to make our people healthy and happy ( to a degree ) and don’t do this. We have the ability and let it pass through our fingertips each day. We let pieces of our humanity slide right on by as we let the ” man” dictate to us what we should feel, eat, drink, smoke, drive, wear, watch, read etc.. And the one time we have a voice that can be raised in a furious roar, we sit with out hands over our eyes, ears and mouths and let the world pass us by.. If we didn’t see it, it didn’t happen, if we didn’t hear it, it didn’t happen, if we didn’t speak it, it didn’t happen. This is tragedy.
Tragedy is knowing that right now there are homeless men, woman and children on our streets day in and day out without anything to give them that shelter from the rain of life. Tragedy is knowing that right now a woman is selling her body, the only thing that ties her to who she is, so she can feed her child. Tragedy is knowing that there is some man out there driving a needle in his arm, cause heroin makes the voices still for just a little while, and the meds that could aren’t available to him or its cheaper. Tragedy is knowing that some child is sitting under some overpass somewhere wondering where God is in all of this bullshit.
Tragedy is knowing that as I type these words on the screen there is some cop that is beating the shit out of some homeless man ,cause he can. Or maybe he is getting a kick out of harassing the ladies who sell themselves.. ” give me this and I will keep you out of jail.” Knowing that she might be doing this to feed her kid.
Tragedy is knowing that the more we allow our dignities to be taken from us, the more we slip into a world where we all become less then zero. When we as a nation get enraged at the lack of government control when a hurricane hits.. And will give all we can afford to help out a charity that we “deem” appropriate, but give nothing to the man that we see on the street.. Where is that rage when that hurricane hits everyday.. every single day..And it does.. its hits the street every hour of every minute. A hurricane of unparalleled reality. When do we as a human race start looking at the world we live in and wonder how we can make it better.. Not for us..but for each other,for our children? When do we just say stop?
We can be silent .. or we can be a pissed off people who say enough is enough and make things happen.
When did we stop believing that we can only be a better people when we start remembering that being HUMAN is part of the word HUMANITY? When did it pay to stop caring? It started the day that some idiot who would never know whats its like to not be able to feed your child, decided its a “offense” to be homeless and issue a ticket. To kick them in the teeth that one last time. To show them “I have this so I am better then you.”
I pray they will never have to know what its like to hear the voice in your head giving you NO options.
I pray they will never have to know what its like to hear your child cry for milk, when you have none to give.
I pray they will never have to deal with the inner devils that mental illness can bring.
I pray they will never have to sell their body for anything.
I can pray or I can get more pissed.. I decided to get more pissed.
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It’s a shame that the world won’t know what kind of injustice was delivered on the streets they’ll be roaming come 2010…
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Not unless someone organized something..
just a thought.
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holy shit, hopeforchange. Moving post. I don’t think I can say anything that will top that. I just don’t get how so-called democratic governments continue to try to sweep “embarassing problems” under the proverbial carpet.
It is mind bogglling to say the least.
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This sounds like the Vagrancy laws in the US back in the day of the great depression .. People literally were locked up for being …. well poor …. hell, most of them probably wanted to .. atleast they got a meal and a safe place to sleep at night….Vancouver needs to open their eyes .. Ticketing poor people with fines isn’t going to help the situation .. you want to help the situation? Give rich people fines for parking in handicapped zones, then re-invest that money into work programs for the homeless … Now you have 2 problems solved …. rather then just making homeless people more angry..
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Well, obviously they cannot expect them to pay the fines. So, they probably just want to lock them up, which i think someone may have already pointed out.
Call me a cruel hearted bastard, but i don’t see any reason for people to be on the streets. I mean, come on get a job, man. Do something worthwhile with your life. Use your cart pushing skills at the grocery store if you have to.
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….. i guess what i should have put is: How much of it isn’t by choice, and how much of it is because of -and for lack of a better word- laziness
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Back in July, after having spent some time in NY learning how police there tackle problems of crime and homelessness, Mr. Lemcke had stated that “the homeless should have a right to shelter”. Seems he has a short memory (or was it just lip service?).
“New York has a department of homeless services, and the New York Police Department has a homeless outreach unit. Any reports of unsafe shelters are forwarded to the 300-strong unit of the department of homeless services”, he said.
“Clean streets are also a big factor in reducing crime”, said Lemcke, who noted all businesses must have a recycling centre at the back of the property.
“Businesses are responsible for cleaning up, twice a day, the sidewalk in front of their business and 15 inches out from the curb on the road. Think about that? What if we had that in the Downtown Eastside?”
So Mr. Lemcke’s obviously put his own spin on this and, rather than ticketing business owners who don’t clean up in front of their property (he should - it’s disgusting), he’s decided that it’s a good idea to sweep homeless people up off the streets when they can’t afford to pay their tickets (what a ridiculous concept!).
You know, being homeless isn’t pretty…it doesn’t look pretty and I’m sure it doesn’t feel pretty. The crime related news stories coming out of Vancouver that I hear of on a daily basis have nothing to do with homeless people (unless they’re the victims). It’s not the homeless guys out shooting off guns in full restaurants or beating elderly people in their homes. If they think that harassing homeless people is going to do anything other than waste time and manpower, they’re wrong…this will NOT do anything to “fix” Vancouver. But why am I not surprised?…this city thinks the Olympics are the best thing to ever happen to us.
Many of Vancouver’s problems stem from money (and greed), not the lack of it.
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Quoting MitchMacCallum:
For once, for ONCE.. I would like someone to sit there and have some damned compassion. Do you honestly think that people choose to be homeless? To have a medical condition that PREVENTS them from getting the proper medical attention, sit on the streets each day knowing that if they had meds they could have a real job, real shelter etc..Not one person I have ever met who is homeless, would choose this for themselves. Not one person on the street is any less a human being then the jackass who throws a smartass remark their way and walks by. Circumstances places in different places in life. In a New York minute it could all change. Easily.
Most people are homeless cause they do not have the access to the medicine they need to function properly. But I am sure you are aware of this. Well the usual response to that is: Well there are government programs out there that help them.. Answer to that: Umm.. No there isnt. If you do not have a permenant place of residence, that means a roof over your head, then you are not able to get access to government assistance. So day by day you get worse. And then you panhandle and hope that the change you get can either, get you someplace warm to sleep or gets you some drugs/alcohol. Cause anything to still the voices that terrorize you day in and day out is a blessing.. good or bad.
You know, what saddens me the most about todays world, we are so quick to judge.. yet we offer no solution.. The select few of us out there who really give a shit are called pacifists.. Call me what you will. but in the end I am called a human being.. and I dont think that I am better then the man who lives just across the way from me who has no arms and no legs.. nor do I think I am better then the woman who pushes a needle into her arm to make the voices stop, to make the hunger go, to warm her cold body.. Those are the real victims, not the select few who get to drive by in the souped up Mercedes and turn their noses down.. Cause most of them are just a coke line away from being in those shoes themselves.
I can appreciate your sentiment, I am sure there are some who have opportunity to get jobs who dont. But with that said:
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Here’s the problem Mitch….you can’t “apply” for a job without filling out documents, most of which require an address, which homeless people don’t have.
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Because
Quoting MitchMacCallum:
Do you honestly think these people choose to sleep outside in the freezing cold? That they enjoy being harassed and beaten and spit on? Are you of the opinion that severely depressed people can just “snap out of it”? I hope you never lose your house and you’re job because you’re too sick to keep either.
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Mitch ,
I have only met one Person who made the choice to be Homeless. and well when you are homeless you meet most of the other homeless folks … the largest percentage of Homeless happen to be Males . one of the reasons we see less compassion by society is because of sexism itself . we are always told to be “real men” or that we are bums or lazy . many factors lead to homelessness . i have met men on the street because they Either could meet their child support payments or pay rent .. i have met many people on the streets because of mental illness . Many vets of Vietnam and the First Iraq war . or because of Tanked economy . it is really easy to be self righteous when you are not in the position … but you find that once you have been placed there you certainly see it differently. and No i cant recall any of us who wanted to be in jail (which is another stroke making it harder to get employment in the future) . Thankfully i live in a community that with the donations of private citizens and corporations . has started a program to help end Chronic homelessness . and for those with Mental illness .. the program requires we meet with our housing specialist once a month.to make sure we are doing ok and keeping up on our meds etc .. and helps us work towards employment or disability (they even have people trained in filling out the paper work… My program is helping me go to college. and with housing while i wait on disability . for lung problems
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Quoting MitchMacCallum:
you probably represent the thinking of most people who view homelessness as a lazy man’s problem. There’s so much more to it and I urge you to do more research.
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Mitch….
Start here to learn more about how most homeless people are just like you and I, yet have fallen on some hard times or have some form of mental illness. They’re NOT lazy people by an means….
http://thehomelessguy.wordpress.com/
http://jamiesbigvoice.blogspot.com/
http://wanderingscribe.blogspot.com/index.html
http://homelessmanspeaks.wordpress.com/
All seemingly good, decent people who are anything but lazy….they find ways to survive in conditions that would cause a lazy man to just curl up and die.
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Quoting Ashleigh-Dawn:
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-the above was taken from some of my scribblings and is entitled Christmas Thoughts from a Bus.
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I came across this article over the weekend. I thought it was interesting.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/the_sting_of_poverty/