Homicide stats in Canadian Cities

[drew]

The murder spike is certainly not great news in Winnipeg - but we have to keep in mind that these seem to generally be assaults/stabbings and general spur of the moment violence - where the difference between murder and assault is more bad luck than some premeditated act.

It could be that in years previous, some victims of similar crimes were kept off the murder stat sheet due to luck, quicker access to treatment, etc.

Other than the home invasion murder earlier this year, and the increase of Meth-head related crime - most of the time violence in Winnipeg does not generally concern me - as the general rule seems to apply (both in Winnipeg and most everywhere else) - if you don't hang around with murderers, you probably won't get murdered.

[esquire]

^ I'm not worried about getting murdered as such, but I am worried about the overall social disorder we seem to be hearing about more. Muggings, assaults, drug use, even the spike in theft... a chief example being the explosion of theft at Liquor Marts once word got out that they had a non-intervention policy with thieves. That kind of thing would have been hard to imagine 30-odd years ago.

Things aren't in some dire state yet but the overall trend is a bit worrisome. It feels like many of the gains made in the last 15-20 years are being erased.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Indeed that's true, but the use of an exclamation mark comes across as a bit odd. Unless you want to explain further as to why it's there.

rrskylar ends just about every one of his/her posts with an "!".

Not sure why - but a certain someone else big in social media does the same thing...

[esquire]

Originally Posted by drew

Not sure why - but a certain someone else big in social media does the same thing...

[drew]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I'm not worried about getting murdered as such, but I am worried about the overall social disorder we seem to be hearing about more. Muggings, assaults, drug use, even the spike in theft... a chief example being the explosion of theft at Liquor Marts once word got out that they had a non-intervention policy with thieves. That kind of thing would have been hard to imagine 30-odd years ago.

Things aren't in some dire state yet but the overall trend is a bit worrisome. It feels like many of the gains made in the last 15-20 years are being erased.

That whole LC theft thing is ridiculous. Publicize a spike a thefts, and also the fact that not only your staff, but also that the rent-a-security guy on site are not permitted to actively intervene in a theft.

Guess what happens? Maybe they figured the baddies can't read.

The staff at Superstore actively attempt to stop thieves. And they were successful when I witnessed it myself a few weeks ago.

[vid]

The liabilities involved when a their harms an employee typically outweigh the cost of the stolen product. At the grocery stores here, they've installed gates at the entrance so that you can only exit if you pass through a till to go to the out door. At Thunder Bay's Superstore, an alarm actually goes off if you approach the entry gate from the wrong direction.

Regardless, we're about to put alcohol in every store here in Ontario. Fortunately for the industry, all the mom and pop stores have long since closed and Mac's (PBUH — peace be upon l'hibou) now Circle K is the only convenience store available.

Originally Posted by Acajack

Indeed that's true, but the use of an exclamation mark comes across as a bit odd. Unless you want to explain further as to why it's there.

If you can't get clear answers on anything out of me, what makes you think rrskylar would comply? He's the alt-right version of me!

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Indeed that's true, but the use of an exclamation mark comes across as a bit odd. Unless you want to explain further as to why it's there.

Look back at most of my posts and you will see an exclamation point in every one!

[Dengler Avenue]

https://apple.news/AruFIQ3XdQByJ-RLWpZmzNA

“Canada aimed to ‘destroy indigenous people’.”

Looking back, is this anything new?? (It doesn’t make it any less horrendous though, just to clarify.)

[niwell]

Originally Posted by drew

That whole LC theft thing is ridiculous. Publicize a spike a thefts, and also the fact that not only your staff, but also that the rent-a-security guy on site are not permitted to actively intervene in a theft.

Guess what happens? Maybe they figured the baddies can't read.

.

Interesting - I feel like the same thing happened in Toronto with the LCBO when the ease of theft hit the news. Guess what happened? Many stores use off-duty cops now which while probably a better deterrent is also much, much more expensive than a security guard.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by vid

If you can't get clear answers on anything out of me, what makes you think rrskylar would comply? He's the alt-right version of me!

I am an equal opportunity critic.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by speedog

And yet another one in Calgary, son strangled his Mom and then jumps to his death off of a bridge on Stoney Trail in the NW. The two previous were found dad in a car on the side of the road on Stoney Trail. The two before that sound like another murder suicide (didn't post that one up). Anyhow, that's 8 homicides in the past two and a half weeks, not something we're used to seeing in Calgary.

These are the same events and one was a suicide so this is a single homicide. Calgary now at 12 for 2019.

[Calgarian]

12 seems to be about par for the course at just under half way through the year.

[balletomane]

A house fire in Winnipeg has now turned into a homicide investigation, the 21st of this year.
I hope these past few months is just a "blip" and doesn't become a trend. A few years ago it seemed like all the crime stats were headed in the write direction and now the past two years or so things have been getting worse.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by balletomane

A house fire in Winnipeg has now turned into a homicide investigation, the 21st of this year.
I hope these past few months is just a "blip" and doesn't become a trend. A few years ago it seemed like all the crime stats were headed in the write direction and now the past two years or so things have been getting worse.

Meth

[biguc]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Meth

Pallister

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by biguc

Pallister

Meth and Pallister. Bad combination.

I have a few friends who are cops in the city and they have been telling me that they have been swamped for about the last 2 years. Cutbacks, the spike in Methamphetamine use and increased gang activity has made for a rough couple of years apparently. Throw in a dysfunctional relationship between the City and Province and two, utterly useless leaders and that will explain why crime is spiking in Winnipeg again.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Meth

Meth is becoming a huge problem here too, had some meth head on the street screaming at me the other day, was yelling about where the bugs went in or something. Didn't make eye contact and kept going... Our safe consumption site reports meth is much more common then fentanyl these days.

[240glt]

^ Yup here in Edmonton too. Meth is a huge issue not only because it's so cheap and readily available but it also makes people do crazy things. The tweakers in Downtown Edmonton are becoming almost epidemic, and it's creating a really unsafe situation.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Jammon

Meth and Pallister. Bad combination.

I have a few friends who are cops in the city and they have been telling me that they have been swamped for about the last 2 years. Cutbacks, the spike in Methamphetamine use and increased gang activity has made for a rough couple of years apparently. Throw in a dysfunctional relationship between the City and Province and two, utterly useless leaders and that will explain why crime is spiking in Winnipeg again.

Your buddies' union has done a very good job of making sure there are lots of $150,000 street cops running around but the trouble with that is that there isn't much money left for more hires.

But I will say that the spike in drug use has brought back a certain edge to the city that we haven't seen in some time. It feels like the progress that was realized in terms of inner city liveability over the past decade are so are being lost in a hurry. Apart from the big headline-generating crimes, it feels like there are more small signs of disorder like vandalism, break ins, petty thefts, etc.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

Your buddies' union has done a very good job of making sure there are lots of $150,000 street cops running around but the trouble with that is that there isn't much money left for more hires.

But I will say that the spike in drug use has brought back a certain edge to the city that we haven't seen in some time. It feels like the progress that was realized in terms of inner city liveability over the past decade are so are being lost in a hurry. Apart from the big headline-generating crimes, it feels like there are more small signs of disorder like vandalism, break ins, petty thefts, etc.

As I alluded to in my post in the politics thread, I think there are a few Canadian cities that are seeing this to varying degrees. At this point I don't really see it jeopardizing the gentrification of certain inner city areas but I do think that the inner cities are going to become increasingly polarized (fairly starkly) between "good" and "bad" areas. (The notion that pretty much any neighbourhood that's well located can gentrified without too much difficulty, something which had a lot of currency not that long ago, is going the way of the dodo.)

I also think that another effect of this is that "reports of the death of suburbia/suburbanization have been greatly exaggerated".