Quote:
Originally Posted by Conrad Yablonski
I understand why senior citizens like me who have worked all our lives to build this city are now too frightened to leave their homes after dark.
I also understand It's Not My Fault if I'm frightened-see the video as shown above for details.
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I'm a senior citizen too - and I live on the edge of the DTES and often walk through it after dark. There are far more people, including strung-out individuals, during the day. I always try to to pay attention, and in many years of walking through the area, and shopping there pretty much every day, I've seen very few violent incidents - although they undoubtedly occur in the area. I've seen arguments, and what look like half-hearted fights, although if a weapon had been produced that could change in an instant. Weirdly, I've found a body - but they had died peacefully of natural causes, sitting on a bench at the side of the street.
I could be wrong, but I hope incidents like the one in the video are relatively rare and I think they can happen literally anywhere where there are people. Those sorts of events seem to me to be random and unpredictable, although if I see someone hitting inanimate objects, or shouting at an invisible person, I generally cross the street or take a different route. On the couple of occasions (in ten+ years) I've come across somebody who is having a psychotic episode and looked like they might harm themselves, or potentially a passer by, I've called 911 and described what's happening, including saying it appears to be a mental health issue. Fortunately I've never seen the police forced to shoot anybody. Perhaps because it was in otherwise quiet residential streets, they were able to diffuse the situation with what seemed to me to be commendable restraint. They treated it as a medical, not a criminal matter.
I've read enough old newspapers, and written enough historical stories to know that there have always been violent incidents in the city, usually related either to illicit substances or mental health problems. Because of the recent increase in random attacks (if there is an increase, as there are only very recent statistics) I've been researching what might be causing that - and the changed nature of street drugs (and their long term impact on brain chemistry) seems to me to be a plausible explanation. That's why I agree with many politicians, the Vancouver chief of police, and most health officials that we need a lot more treatment options, decriminalization of drugs for personal use, a clean drug supply and enough decent housing to ensure we house everyone and provide the necessary supports.
When I lived in an apartment on West Broadway it seemed far more dangerous. The nightclub across the street attracted some unpleasant characters who were far more aggressive at times (possibly helped by steroids or meth, I guess), and the local joke was that the club changed its name after every three random shootings, or if one was fatal. It went through four names in the few years I lived there.
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