Lets keep in mind that someone, somewhere is buying this merchandise. One would think that we should be able track it.

I thought we upgraded the laws on second hand stores so that they have to hold items for a period of time before they sell it.. Hows that working????

I have never seen as many crackheads in PG as I have seen recently. Dry up those addicts either through treatment or by arresting some dealers. B&E’s will drop.

I was reading one of those sentencing articles in the “other news outlet”. Sentences were day, two days, week, 30 days, for some pretty serious stuff. So, gotta wonder, why bother?

We really gotta think about some sort of less costly incarceration system that is unpleasant, still humane, but definitely a place you never want to go back to.” Because than our current corrections system hasn’t fixed much.

People are making it easy for the bad guys to rob and steal because as per usual when it gets hot out windows are left open, vehicle windows left rolled down, cars left unlocked, valuables and items in plain sight left in vehicles, toys, bikes, tools left on lawns and many people thinking their neighbourhoods are safe.

During the summer thieves always look for an easy target and people in this city often oblige them

Addessing poverty and addictions will result in a dramatic drop in crimes like break and enters. I believe poverty and addictions to be a “root cause” of these type of crimes… unless of course you are a Conservative; then the root cause of crimes are criminals. LOL

@ Sophic Sage – You are living in a dream world, you are part of the problem, not the solution. Another bleeding heart that wants to give out hugs, instead of making people responsible for their actions.

Sophic: Putting a political twist on the cause of “crime” depending on view point is not the issue. Criminal actions against private homes is a criminal action period regardless of the culprits reasoning (drugs, booze, poverty what ever lame ass excuse is offered to get a reduced sentence in court). Clearly your elderly folks didn’t have there home forcibly entered at 3:00 a.m. while they were sleeping, then beaten by some poor individual who was down on there luck, addicted, broke or whatever. Heaven forbid this should happen to your family, but I am quite sure your perspective would change dramatically. Choose your wording with a modicum of care, you don’t know who may be effected by these actions directly.

Canings work. No one goes for seconds.

“In one case, the residents were home sleeping at the time of the break-in.” Hmmm… that is all I read, yet Professional carries on with; “Clearly your elderly folks didn’t have there (sic) home forcibly entered at 3:00 a.m. while they were sleeping, then beaten by some poor individual who was down on there (sic) luck…”

How dare you caution me about; “choosing my words with a modicum of care..” when you fabricate and invent a fictional scenario about an elderly couple being beaten at the specific time of 3:00 am no less.

By the way, look up the difference between a “home invasion” and “break and enter” Professional, and please, stick to the facts of the story without embellishing it in a pathetic attempt to try and emphasize whatever point you are trying to make.

And yes, according to Conservative “Skippy” Poilievre’s pea sized brain; the root cause of crime would be criminals!

Sophie, you still here?

I thought that by now you would have applied for entry into some other country, one without the Conservatives and Harper, one without our BC Liberals and Christy Clark, you know, some utopian country somewhere, anywhere but here!

Be sure to let us know when you leave so that we can all politely wave adios to you as you sail off into the sunset! Can’t say that I’ll miss your know-it-all attitude! Some might, I won’t!

Cheers!

Professional, how dare you use common sense, and a scenario that has happened many times. Suggest you use a word other than modicum, some people don’t understand. LOL

Sophic – addictions – I agree – but my solution would be free drugs – because frankly drug and alcohol programs recidivism rate is high enough, they aren’t worth the cost – let the stoners stay stoned.

Poverty – wow, I was poor for about 5 years during the 80s, managed to make it through without stealing once.

But, when I was a middle class POS teenager, I did manage to steal, in spite of having every comfort a child needed. I even managed to “invade” I mean, break and enter someone’s home – I was drunk, confused, and entered the wrong house – I think it was at 3:07 a.m., a distinction lost on the poor homeowner. If only he hadn’t of left his windows unlocked – really – I guess it was his fault.

Fortunately for me there was police officer willing to escort me to a warm patrol car and he even gave me a room for the night. Then he was kind of enough to have my parents pick me up who took me home, apologized for having not raised me properly, and sent me to Disneyland – well, that last part isn’t true.

And if I’ve got any grammer errors please make sure you use sic so we know that it’s my mistake, and you’re just helping me out. Hint, there’s a biggy in the previous sentence.

Sophic: How dare you caution me about; “choosing my words with a modicum of care..” when you fabricate and invent a fictional scenario about an elderly couple being beaten at the specific time of 3:00 am no less.

By the way, look up the difference between a “home invasion” and “break and enter” Professional, and please, stick to the facts of the story without embellishing it in a pathetic attempt to try and emphasize whatever point you are trying to make. “end quote”

Break and enter and home invasion, doesn’t matter they are criminal offenses, one with a loss of property and one with bodily injury or worse.

I will caution you to not be so flippant with stories that are open for comment, you have no concept of who you may hurt with your lack of judgement and typographical ramblings. Clearly you didn’t comprehend what I was trying to clearly relay to you, with, as you say my “scenario”. Pity Funny everyone else seemed to “get it”….

Once upon a time crimes were crimes, now they are the fault of society and or poverty! Perhaps we should lock up society and let the criminals run the show!

Apparently sophic sage lives in a world of his own making where conservatives are evil people are blameless and giving the homeless their own homes will stop addictions and crimes. Sorry to bust your bubble but we elected the conservatives in don’t like it vote them out next election

People don’t want to believe that they can be targeted for crime but it happens every day in all sorts of neighbourhoods rich and poor targeted alike

yes I agree many of the homeless want to be warm and have a roof over their head every night but reality is it rarely happens and a good amount of the homeless here in the city actually prefer living the way they do …how do I know you ask be actually talked to them

Yes a lot of addicts are low income and will steal to support their habit but many of the well off people with decent jobs do the exact same thing by stealing to support their habit what is your answer to that

Actually professional – I thought you were relaying a true story – like, this really happened to your parents – and I felt bad for you and them, and I thought Sophic had a lot ba**s questioning it’s truthfulness. I didn’t think it was a scenario at all.

Apparently sophic sage lives in a world of his own making where conservatives are evil people are blameless and giving the homeless their own homes will stop addictions and crimes. Sorry to bust your bubble but we elected the conservatives in don’t like it vote them out next election
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I see all our PC are all wrapped up in themselves. They just think that bigger jails are the solution to prevent crime. isn’t it strange that our police forces are getting bigger and so are our crime stats. They cant seem to see that its a social problem and cops will never solve it.

Wake up and smell the coffee.
Cheers

For those of you who think there is little, to no, connection between poverty and crime, perhaps you could explain something?

If poverty is not associated with crime, why do our prisons disproportionately house more of our poor and vulnerable citizens than any other demographic? Why can’t rich people be represented in better numbers in our prison population?

Professional; for every crime there are victims, if you want to personalize your family’s experience with a crime, fine go ahead and do so. Just because you personalized it does not mean the rest of us need to avoid the topic or tiptoe around it, to avoid hurting your feelings.

I see, and read, insensitive comments on the Highway of Tears stories on here all the time, do you think there are any f*cks given about the effects those rude, or insensitive comments would have on those women’s family members, who would be reading those comments on here?

Two faces and two standards are all I see here… so boo hoo to you!!!

Here’s a deterrent. When the cops catch the individuals doing the crimes, cut off one of their hands. At least the Islamic states gets that part right if nothing else.

Our home was broken into, our stuff stolen, everything in the house tossed on the floor, our pet terrorized. We called the police, got an alarm system, upped our insurance – never recovered a single stolen item. Don’t know who broke into our place, don’t really care if they were poor or middle-class; suspect they weren’t wealthy. Through a very convoluted turn of events, some of the culprits were eventually caught, but have no idea of what sort of justice they faced. Was I angry? You bet. Would I have tuned these guys up if given half a chance? Yeah, quite likely, though I’ve mellowed over the past 17 years since this happened.
Despite all of this, I am so familiar with the research on crime and social deviance that I am pretty damned sure that our house was not robbed by those who needed money for bread, but for drugs. Given the neighbourhood where most of these break-ins were happening at the time (in and around Crack-Intyre), it’s a good bet these were impoverished kids looking for an easy score (not summer but dead of winter following a fresh snow) so they could buy drugs (we didn’t have an alarm system at the time).
Does drug use and poverty excuse crime? NO! Don’t be so freakin’ stupid! No one, especially not Sophic Sage and me, are saying that drugs and poverty excuse crime! Get it through your thick skulls that what we are saying is that chronic drug use/addiction and poverty are important factors in crime statistics.
All you Hang ’em high advocates can now remove your crania from your recta and get on with life.
I thank you for your time.

Krusty; Bang On!!!

And the response from the hang ’em high club?

http: //media.zuza.com/7/f/7fd82961-a45b-49ea-8af1-822cea2a18e9/DelMastro___Gallery.jpg

delete the space between the http: and the /

SHIP out all the derelicts to VANCOUVER, they just voted to legalize pot, so they should be a lot happier down there. DO the crime pay the time. BC needs TEXAS justice.

Poor me syndrome, funny how the ones just arriving to this country say lucky me.

time to check out who has been released from jail over the last three months….good place to start….

ski51: How about a big hammer to the fingers? Its still humane, it doesn’t kill them. Maybe take their pants and shoes too, so they know that they will be noticed once they have to walk home. Also any cell phone they might have. Turn that in to the police and tell them you just found it, so they can’t call a friend to come and pick them up.

It may be harsh, but being a victim of a crime is harsh as well. For many years I have held the notion that “To illiminate a crime you illiminate the criminal”. Problem solved.

If poverty is not associated with crime, why do our prisons disproportionately house more of our poor and vulnerable citizens than any other demographic? Why can’t rich people be represented in better numbers in our prison population?

I dont post on here very often , but seriously ?

Sophic you do understand that the rich or even the moderately wealthy have money, something the poor dont have .
and I’m sure you understand lawyers cost money , lots of money .

Still want to know why there are more poor than rich in prison .

you can respond if you wish , it wont mean diddly to me.

In Alabama, over 1,000 people are incarcerated each year because they cannot afford to pay their pobation fines. Imagine that; actually going to jail for being poor?

www. theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/02/poor-for-profit-probation-prison-georgia

I see your comment saywhat, but like you, it means diddly to me.

Let’s see . We’ve always had poverty , addiction and desperation resulting in criminal behaver . Is it really that hard to see which one of the three components has to be addressed to solve the other two symptoms .

The laws of the land and the police forces established to enforce them were created by the wealthy to protect the wealthy and their property from infractions by the poor. This is an historical fact. Therefore it is self-evident that poverty is the key element in the occurrence of crime; the two are inextricable.
Smashing people’s fingers with a hammer? Yup, real humane, so let’s try it on you first, you know, just to see if it works.

Krusty: I don’t steal. I work and only buy what I can afford.

Build all new jails north of the arctic circle, in the tundra.

Winters are extremely uncomfortable, and the summers may be worse due to the black flys and mosquito. Plus they would not need very high security because they could watch an escapee run away for 3 days. It might be amusing to watch the escapee deal with polar bears.

After spending time there, a convicted person would do everything in their power to never return.

Add in the economic benefits to the region and we have a valid argument.

The Siberian prison model has merit.

Sage

Do tell us how you would address poverty?

cougs79, it’s an easy solution. You transfer wealth from those who have, to those who don’t have. We currently do it through the income tax system, where those who make more, pay more in taxes, but I suspect Sophic would like to see them pay even more in taxes, to transfer even more to those who don’t have. And then, he’d like to see corporate taxes dramatically increase, because like most, he doesn’t understand that corporations paying dividends to pension plans and RRSPs is how the pension system works, and increased corporate taxation, means decreased pension income.

Or, we can increase minimum wage to $15.00, and hopefully those who have, will be willing to pay more for fast food, latte’s, and menial labour – and that might work. We’ll see how Alberta does. But, economics is a harsh mistress, and the office worker who pays $5.50 for a latte now, might balk at $6.50 and just drink the K-cup coffee at the office, and then former $11.00 an hour employee, is now on welfare – requiring more taxation to transfer wealth.

The problem has been around forever, I disagree poverty is the root cause. I believe addiction leads to poverty, and addiction is the root cause. And addiction is exasperated by the war on drugs that has been going on before I was born – and no end in sight. Why not try legalizing drugs for 5 years, if it doesn’t work, we can always make it illegal again.

addiction does not cause poverty. poverty can and does lead to addiction, but we cannot say that poverty is causal. Correlation is not causation.

Addiction is the result of ingested a substance that creates a bodies need for the substance.