Williams Lake Mayor Expresses Frustration Over Continued Violence
Williams Lake, B.C. – “We don’t have a gang, they’re thugs.”
The words of Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb today in regards to the continued acts of violence that continue to plague the small Cariboo community of roughly 11,000 residents.
The latest incident came this morning when local schools were locked down due to a series of gunshots aimed at a home on Western Avenue just after 4:00 this morning.
“Well what can I say, I’m a little disappointed once again of things that are happening in our community but yeah, I guess the good news is that no one was hurt,” he says.
However Cobb notes that won’t deter the 12-20 prolific offenders that continue to terrorize everyone.
“They have someone in custody and it’s one of those things that we continue to deal with when we let those prolific offenders in and out of court, nothing happens to them. It’s like a revolving door and our community is really getting fed up with it.”
Ironically he just met Friday with B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety Minister Mike Morris to discuss the issue.
“Well I was not that impressed with the meeting on Friday for sure. Basically all we were told was what you need is more policemen,” says Cobb.
“Well to me, the policemen are not the answer, our RCMP are great, they’re doing their best but they’ve got to be as frustrated as anybody else. More police isn’t going to help, it will just put them (prolific offenders) though the system more often.”
What he’d like to see is one of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Units sent his way.
(This after the Province announced it would be adding another $23 million dollars over three years to its guns and gangs strategy 10 days ago).
“I’m hoping that one of them (units) will come to our town. I don’t know that we need 10 of them (officers), but certainly I would like to see a team like that come to our town and get it cleaned up.”
Cobb told 250News last month that these gang units have proved effective elsewhere, including in Prince George about five or six years ago.
“Where they come in and they are here for two or three years, at least 18 months, that deals specifically with prolific offenders.”
City councillor Scott Nelson says the City also plans to sit down and discuss strategy with local judges and with Crown prosecutors.
“And we’re going to be asking them very clearly to ensure that any prolific offenders and gang members that are high risk to this community be placed with an ankle bracelet on them so that we can monitor their movements 24/7, 365 days a year.”
Today’s incident didn’t go unnoticed by Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty who said he was “shocked and appalled to hear of today’s emergency situation.”
He’s also expecting the federal government to step in and help.
“Last month I met with the Minister of Public Safety to find a solution to combat gang violence associated with drug-trafficking and I expect the Liberal Government to take action on this file immediately.”
Comments
Todd sure expects the Liberals to do what the party that he is part of didn’t do. Dick Harris did nothing now he is appalled. When was he even aware of the problem because Mayor has been asking for help for a while
I agree with never, its been only been six months since we had a Conservative Government where 1,200 murder and missing women were “not on their radar”. Imagine that… most the extreme form of violence a person can perpetrate against another human being, and its not important.
Now we get someone from that same party six months later, being “shocked and appalled at today’s emergency situation”. I find the Conservative’s 180 degree turn-around in values and principles (if they ever had any) creepy… its as if they will say anything to get elected.
It wasn’t that long ago that Williams Lake was stating that they had taken control of the situation in Williams Lake by dealing with prolific offenders. Seems that’s not so.
The Provincial Government is the one responsible for crime in BC. To suggest that Williams Lake or any other town/city in BC can solve this problem by hiring more police is just another way to pass the buck.
I think that if someone was to take a serious look into how criminals are processed we would see that there is a concerted effort to keep them out of our prisons. Is this because of the cost attached to incarceration.?? I suspect it is.
The BC Government is out of control when it comes to spending money, and they seem to try and save some money in certain area’s like policing, incarceration, court costs, etc; etc;
Charging, convicting, and incarcerating criminals is the backbone of our Justice System. If this system is failing, it is a direct result of the Provincial Government.
Municipalities, pay the bulk of the cost of policing in their communities, with the balance being paid for by the Federal Government, The responsibility of the Province is to provide process. In my opinion they are doing a very poor job.
If we cannot solve these problems, then for all intents and purposes we have turned our Cities over to the criminal element.
Someone has to take the lead on this situation and solve these problems.
Time for less talk and more action.
Palopu, the following points have been presented to you many times before, by others on this discussion board over the years, and you still don’t get it. If you “jail them all” harder, faster and longer it gets us where the USA is now; a country with the largest prison population in the world, larger than China a country that has almost four times more people. Yet despite having the largest prison population in the world the USA is STILL steeped in high crime rates and gun violence. Visit the following site and just scroll down to see the numbers.
www .prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All
You have also been told that targeting youth at risk with intervention and redirection programs are highly effective at reducing crime and violence before they become adults. It is that old adage; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I will just cut and paste this comment as a response, the next time you post similar comments on this subject, because punish and jail harder, longer, and faster is a Conservative ideology you refuse to let go of, despite all the evidence that says it simply does not work.
ht tp://globalnews.ca/video/2222252/calgary-police-service-launches-redirect-for-youth-at-risk-of-radicalization
So JGalt we’ll just continue with catch and release, okay then.
The Supreme Court did not uphold the Conservative Governments Tough of Crime legislation, ruling that they infringed on an individuals Charter Rights.
Be that as it may, we still have many was of putting criminals away for long periods of time if they continue to commit crimes.
Its up to the Justice System, Judges, Prosecutors, and the Government to solve these problems. That’s what we pay them the big dollars for, and in my opinion its time they earned their salaries.
Well, well…as expected there are some who are making excuses for the failure of the Conservative government to get tougher on crime!
“We still have many ways of putting criminals away for long periods of time…”
Seems to me that these “many ways” did not come apparent in the last six months so why did Harper not make use of those?
Too busy with the Duffy thing? Ten years is a long time to not get things done!
A few things that those who are opposed to incarcerating people for serious crimes should consider.
1. If you do not put them in jail, what’s to stop them from committing more crime while they are serving their time at home or out on bail.??
2. Some people seem to think that there is an unlimited number of people who participate in criminal activity, and that if we were to incarcerate the offenders it would have no impact. Fact of the matter is, there is a finite number of criminals, and if we subject them to the justice system the way that we should, then we should start to see an immediate reduction in crimes committed.
3. Who should be protected in a society, the general population as a whole, or do we spend all our time and money fawning over criminals that have little or no concern about the public at large.
4. No one can seriously believe that we can continue to allow people to gun down others at will, without society taking immediate action to stop this carnage.
5. Using the USA statistics is an old game that the lefties use to try and make their case. Then they throw in China, and a few other Countries to make it sound more believable .
6. Note that JGalt forgot to mention that China executed approx. 5000 people per year for the years 2008, 2009, 2010,. This number dropped to 2400 in 2013 however it is still huge. Chinese execution figures are a state secret, and therefore these number could be considerably higher.
7. Are we really going to compare ourselves to the USA or China. What a pile of rot. We have our own Country, our own problems, and we need to come up with out own solutions. There is no excuse for allowing people to shot others in our streets without some pretty hefty penalties.
9. Last but not least. Talk is cheap…..Actions speak louder than words. Do you support the criminals, or do you support the police who need support in stopping this type of activity.??
Have a nice day.
Personally, I think there should be a limit. Three strikes and you get put to sleep.
Prison population will not explode as there is only a small finite group of low life’s committing the majority of the crimes. For some idiotic reason the liberal left judicial system believe in revolving doors.
No govt, (past or present) seems to show any interest in getting tough on crime. The government in general does not show any motivation on giving the public any sense of protection. The overall concensus is that the criminals have rights to freedom, rights for protection, and rights for “rehabilitation”….over and over again.
There does not seem to be any rights for the homest, hard working population to be protected from these “drains on society”. Which leads me to believe that vigilante justice may provide the only real justice! I will expect to see this kind of thinking from residents in Williams Lake after this string of b.s. I feel their frustration.
Cops do their jobs, only to see these prolific offenders back on the street doing the same thing again in very short order. Thr judicial system needs a severe overhaul, NOW, NOT LATER.
Name on person in the Provincial Government who will make a serious attempt to solve this problem, and to stick with it for a few years to ensure that it is solved.
I wait with bated breath.
Until the law abiding citizens of this country force politicians to update our criminal laws, we will have what we have today. A revolving door justice system that lines the pockets of those employed in the system with taxpayers money.
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