Public Disorder & the Decline of Vancouver's Livability

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Burquitlaman

As I reported last week, I visit Vancouver once a week to meet my minimum mandatory work from office requirement. Last week I wrote about the guy Bruce Lee-ing some shop's window. Yesterday did not disappoint either. On my way trying to navigate Gastown area traffic at 8:45 am I saw a young woman and an older dude engaged in a tug-of-war over a backpack. She looked stressed.

I didn't act because there were a ton of people around and tbh being in a car and driving by, this could have been the usual Downtown Vancouver shit show between two addicts.

Can't wait for next week's episode.

And yet we'll have the usual suspects chime in with something inane like "reported crime is down" when everyone know a lot of this stuff people don't even bother to report anymore.

[jollyburger]

Homeless people should be banned from owning pitbulls. If they want a canine companion they can torment a poodle.

[Vin]

Money down the drain to house criminals in our neighbourhoods.

Vancouver emergency services strained by SRO and supportive housing calls: statistics

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-emergency-services-sro-supportive-housing-statistics

One weapons call every 1.68 days

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by whatnext

This kind of stuff will keep happening until it damages Vancouver's tourism brand unless we stop coddling the nutcases who do it.

How long will our "justice" system take to deal with that asshole who hacked off someone's and and killed someone else?

apparently he was on parole for a similar incident, the police were well aware of him.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

apparently he was on parole for a similar incident, the police were well aware of him.

His most recent Instagram post sounds like some kind of death threat against his parents or relative.

[jollyburger]

Bizzare Daytime Theft At Beloved Richmond Froyo Shop Shocks Locals



https://nomsmagazine.com/theft-richmond-froyo-shop-timothys/

[Vin]

^^

The ice cream-thieving yahoo has been charged and then released with conditions to stay away from the Frozen Yoghurt shop.

Suspect charged after bare-handed theft from Richmond ice cream shop
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/10/18/suspect-charged-richmond-ice-cream-scooper/

Until he tries hand-scooping in another F&B location, people of the Lower Mainland can heave a sigh of relief.

[GenWhy?]

Don't you just typically get a small fine for mischief?

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Don't you just typically get a small fine for mischief?

... the Timothy’s employee came over to her on Wednesday afternoon, saying a man who had caused previous issues at the store was now sitting outside...

https://globalnews.ca/news/10815902/video-richmond-gelato-theft/

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by whatnext

... the Timothy’s employee came over to her on Wednesday afternoon, saying a man who had caused previous issues at the store was now sitting outside...

https://globalnews.ca/news/10815902/video-richmond-gelato-theft/

What are those previous charges, I don't know.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Don't you just typically get a small fine for mischief?

It feels more than simply mischief to me: this is bordering psychosis.

[jollyburger]

37 year old last year with the same name. They didn't release the age of the person arrested in Richmond.

https://www.richmond-news.com/food-and-d...-in-steveston-ice-cream-incident-9678538

Man gets 120 days in jail for assaulting child in Chilliwack
Ahmed Mohamed Hassan lifted a young girl off her bike at a busy intersection without permission

A prolific offender has received a 120-day sentence for assaulting a child in Chilliwack. Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, 37, was sentenced Tuesday at the Chilliwack Law Courts, with Judge Kristen Mundstock delivering the verdict.

Hassan is not from Chilliwack and appeared by video from North Fraser Pretrial Centre.

On the day of the offence he arrived in Chilliwack by bus. An eight-year-old girl was riding her bike in the downtown area on Aug. 31, 2022, accompanied by two adults. Her name is being withheld due to a publication ban. The girl was crossing the intersection at Yale Road and Hodgins Avenue when Hassan came up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her bike, but when people began yelling at him he put her down and ran away. He had been drinking at the time and was found with a bottle of alcohol on him.

Hassan didn’t know the girl, who was shaken by the incident. Crown prosecutor Randy Robinson told the court she had trouble going out in public after it happened.

The matter had been scheduled to go to a three-day trial next week, and the girl was one of the witnesses due to testify, but Hassan surprised his lawyer by directing him to enter a guilty plea.

As Mundstock delivered her verdict, she described Hassan’s criminal record as “unenviable.” He is currently serving time for other crimes, including robbery. His record also includes an assault conviction from Aug. 5, 2022 in which he grabbed and held the wrist of a person in Vancouver, and Crown said it’s concerning for Hassan to have committed two recent assaults against total strangers.

Delivering her reasons for the 120-day sentence, Mundstock said the offence might seem trivial on the surface, but it’s not.

“While it could be said that simply picking someone up and putting them down is a minor matter, in my view, when it is an eight-year-old child in public being lifted off a bike by a stranger, and being placed back down only after he’s been yelled at, that’s traumatizing.”

Hassan’s lawyer didn’t offer much of a defence as he asked for a 60-day sentence. He suggested his client has mental health issues that haven’t been addressed, those issues are worsened when he drinks, and Hassan hasn’t made much effort to deal with his alcohol issues.

The 120 days are to be served after his other sentences are done and his prior crimes have left Hassan with no time-served credit to apply.

https://www.abbynews.com/news/man-gets-120-days-in-jail-for-assaulting-child-in-chilliwack-1835913

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Vin

It feels more than simply mischief to me: this is bordering psychosis.

Can they change charges after they've been laid from mischief to "psychosis"?

[jollyburger]

Vancouver police could soon have access to the city’s 221 traffic cameras

Council has directed staff to study the possibility of providing the Vancouver Police Department with real-time access to video captured by the City of Vancouver’s traffic camera network.

At present, the city’s 221 traffic cameras are not immediately accessible to police. Also, the live feed from traffic cameras is not recorded and stored for after-the-fact investigative purposes, according to Coun. Brian Montague.

“A live feed would assist in dealing with weapons calls, crimes in progress, missing persons, major events, natural disasters,” said Montague, in introducing his motion to council Wednesday.

“The recorded footage would help with investigations such as homicides, assaults, robberies and motor vehicle collisions.”

Currently, all feeds from the cameras, which are located at intersections across Vancouver, can be viewed on the city’s website. But they are still images and delayed by approximately 15 minutes.

The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act would be the only current avenue for police to seek city camera footage, but it isn’t done because the footage is not recorded.

Montague, a retired Vancouver police officer, said many Canadian cities already provide varying degrees of access to city cameras to assist police agencies.

He said traffic camera footage from Surrey was instrumental in the arrests of three individuals now charged in connection with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in June 2023.

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-pol...1-traffic-cameras-brian-montague-9712487

[whatnext]

I meant to post this earlier. Not just to show how commonplace such incidents are but given that most SSPers are men its easy to forget that women can find disorder situations more threatening.

Vancouverites deserve a city that’s safe from random attacks
Marsha Lederman
Published October 18, 2024
For Subscribers

On Thanksgiving Sunday, a woman walking near Vancouver’s cruise-ship terminal at beautiful Canada Place was punched and kicked repeatedly in the face by a stranger. It was just before 9 a.m. – broad daylight, as they say. There had been no previous interaction between the attacker and the victim, a 35-year-old tourist, the Vancouver Police Department said.

Sometimes, as in this case, random attacks make headlines. Last month, there was a lot of media attention around the gruesome knifings that killed one man and severed another’s hand a few blocks away.

But these are just the incidents that make the news. Earlier this month, someone I know was walking near her home when she was slapped in the face, completely unprovoked, by a woman on the street. Also in broad daylight. When she reported this to the VPD and showed officers a video, she learned the woman was known to police.

When I mentioned this upsetting incident to another friend, she told me what had happened to her: She was heading to a celebration of life on a sunny Saturday, carrying a couple of bottles of wine and a box of food, when she was shoved to the ground by a visibly troubled man – smashing a bottle of Chilean merlot all over her.

“How could you not have told me this?” I asked her; we are pretty tight. “Oh, well, these things are becoming almost normalized, aren’t they,” she replied. She added that another friend of hers had been pushed on the sidewalk near her office twice in a single week – same sort of M.O....

....It has emerged that the suspect in last Sunday’s beating had been charged with assault in November, 2023, and appeared in court 15 times since, according to the Vancouver Sun. The person charged in the earlier double-knife attack had more than 60 previous interactions with police across the region....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/...e-a-city-thats-safe-from-random-attacks/

[urbanight93]

We need harsher sentencing. The fear of consequence should be a deterrent but the revolving door of justice has become a joke and has emboldened criminals. Increase prison capacity and force rehabilitation as a requirement to be completed as part of the duration of the sentence.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Can they change charges after they've been laid from mischief to "psychosis"?

If it is self-induced psychosis through substance abuse: the original charges should be maintained or become even harsher depending on the crime committed. That's just common sense. If I inject something into myself knowing it will change my behaviour, then I should be responsible and face the consequences for the crime I commit.

[logan5]

Just as much as the addicts themselves, its negligence by our government or our society in general that has failed to properly institutionalize these people that are committing these assaults. We don’t want higher taxes, so we let dangerous addicts roam the streets.

Vancouver should be getting a boat load of money from the feds so we can look after these people in proper facilities.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by logan5

Just as much as the addicts themselves, its negligence by our government or our society in general that has failed to properly institutionalize these people that are committing these assaults. We don’t want higher taxes, so we let dangerous addicts roam the streets.

Vancouver should be getting a boat load of money from the feds so we can look after these people in proper facilities.

We are also gaslit by advocates who tell us letting these people do whatever they want in public spaces is better for them.

[whatnext]

From CBC yesterday, more tales from the front lines:

‘Do something’: Vancouver’s Gourmet Warehouse warns of ‘epidemic’ of retail crime
By Simon Little & Kristen Robinson Global News
Posted November 6, 2024

The operator of a Vancouver cookware business says her store is facing “catastrophic” crime levels, and is blasting the government and justice system which she says have failed to stop it.

The Gourmet Warehouse has been located at East Hastings Street and Clark Drive for more than two decades.

CEO Caren McSherry said the location wasn’t a great area when the business moved in, but that past issues were “nothing to the epidemic proportions we are facing right now.”

She shared one recent security video clip that showed a man walk in, pick up an armful of goods and attempt to casually walk out, the type of incident she says happens multiple times a day.

“On a daily basis we will get five or six random thieves in here,” she said.

“We are talking thousands and thousands of dollars a week walking out my door. I am not alone. It is just insane.”

McSherry said some of the thieves come armed with weapons or sticks, and that the company has been forced to hire full-time security guards to ensure employees and customers feel safe.

The company has also installed metal shutters to cover all of its exterior windows.

“Small and medium businesses in this province are the backbone of the province, we employ, we pay our taxes, we’re here, we’re loyal, we are good citizens, and the good citizens are at the mercy of the bad ones, and these people rob us every day, the government doesn’t do anything,” she said....

https://globalnews.ca/news/10856703/gour.../?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=other