Hope he gets counselling and doesn't need any hospital services one day. Maybe the nurses can do a service to the community with a pillow on his face procedure. Worked in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Here is hoping.

Nice town this.Is it me or is it getting worse?(oops,maybe we are not supposed to notice that?)
I was under the impression you went to the hospital to get better.How silly of me.
A nice quiet stay at home under house arrest or probation and this loser will be right as rain.He probably came from a poor upbringing or background.Maybe his mummy drank? I mean, he is only 39 and hasn't had much time to learn right from wrong yet,so it really isn't his fault?
Ya right!The old pillow trick is too good for him!!
LOCK HIM UP!!!!and keep him there!

Perhaps we should consider changing our name from "B.C.'s Northern Capital" to "B.C.'s Robbery Capital"

The epidemic of robberies occurring in Prince George is giving us a very bad reputation and is not going to help us attract people and businesses to town.

I think all of our local politicians (municipal, provincial, and federal) should at least have a meeting to discuss this situation.

You folks are elected to solve problems. Please start doing your jobs.

In the last 24/48 hours we have had.
(1) A stabbing at Masse overpass
(2) A robbery at Wal Mart
(3) A robbery at Pine Centre
(4) A robbery at the PG Hospital.

These are the ones that I am aware of, no doubt there were more.

I agree with Charles that our elected politicians should be taking an active interest in the Crime in this City. That means doing something besides talking about it. We have just increased the number of Police we have on the force, however the problem is much deeper than policing.

A number of years ago when MADD started to watch court cases on impaired driving, it became apparent that people were not being sentenced to jail for the mandatory 14 days on the second conviction. It seems that the prosecutor never brought up the first charge, and so the judge sentenced the individual assuming that the second charge was his first charge. The only reason that you would do this would be so that (a) You could collect a fine $$$$, or (b) that you didnt want to send the individual to jail because of the cost to the Province.

After the complaints by MADD etc; they started sending people to jail on their second offences, and lo and behold the jails filled up and people began serving their time at home with an ankle bracelet, or went to jail on the week-ends.

Do we have the same problem with robberies, assault and battery, breaking and entering, and shoplifting. Are we not sending these individuals to jail because of the horrendus cost to the Province. Is it cheaper to let the Business's and individuals be robbed, and have some of the stolen goods be covered by insurance, than it is to have these people prosecuted and sentenced to time in jail.

We have the Mayor, Council, RCMP, 3 Provincial MLA,S and two Federal MLA'S and numerous other Agencies etc; all highly paid who could, and should be looking a this problem with a view for a long term solution.

It appears that our time is better spent on building bridges, sportsplex's, performing arts centres, and other various and sundry endeavours, while the criminal element slowly but surely takes over the City.

Instead of the City having IPG hold meetings to see where, when, and if a PAC should be built downtown, maybe they should set up a committee to hold some meeting to see what can be done about crime in this City. Citys usually do nothing until the situation is totally out of hand, and then they start on the long road back. Can we do it any different???

The Mayor of this City is (as far as I know) also the Chief Magistrate, in any event the RCMP report to the Mayor and Council. There is absolutely nothing stopping the Mayor and Council from putting pressure on the RCMP, the Courts, and the justice system to start to enforce our laws and incarcerate those who continually break them.

At this point in time, it appears that the RCMP reports to Council once or twice a year, gives them a reem of statistics about crimes committed, number of arrests and convicitions, and cost, and thats about it until next year.

We recently had a number of crack houses raided, and a number of people arrested, it will be interesting to see what comes out of it.

Perhaps this site should start to list the number of crimes committed, and the number of people arrested, convicted and the sentences that they receive, on a monthly basis. This would give us all a better idea of what exactly is going on.

I know the Community Policing Centre is currently working on setting up a Court Watch program. It will be run by volunteers that sit in on court cases and then report back to various people including the media.

This is similar to what MADD use to do with the drunk driving cases. I think it could have a potential postive effect and it would keep citizens more informed of what happens in our courts.

Hopefully it gets off the ground and going.

I have always wondered why we don't get better coverage in newspapers on sentencing.Seems we only get a token amount of the big cases.There is a hell of a lot of cases we read about when the crime is committed and the criminals caught, but that's the last we ever hear of them.
Is this deliberate? And if it is,what is the reason behind it? To keep the bad publicity down to a dull roar? Maybe council would rather people didn't know the truth?
It happens everywhere,not just in PG.
And why not a list of impaired convictions? I was under the impression that was a criminal offence too!Maybe a bit of bad PR would make somebody get off their ass and actually do something?

Kelowna reports all fender benders,Vehicle breakins,armed robberies,assaults,etc.But you wont read about all that in the Citizen. I phoned the Citizen once and they told me they dont have enough staff.

I bet there was no three hour wait for treatment here....
Sppedy recovery doc...remember when I am waiting for you....

It is time to bring back Mr. Ellis, crime is out of control in Prince George

No surprise crime is going up... just look at your culture. Everywhere you look - movies and music - crime is made to look like it is cool. Name a major movie star, for instance, that has not played at some point a really cool criminal? These are our culture's idols, the lowest life forms are made to look like they are having fun while the rest of us suckers work real jobs. George Clooney is so handsome AND he always gets away with the money he just stole... as well as the babe. Then we wonder why young people are attracked to the criminal life style?

Do your culture a big favor and stop giving your money to the anti-social messages and messengers.

Do not forget that this crime increase was exactly predicted long ago when our government's cut our social safety net. It has long been understood that at least part of the welfare system was to provide a system to assist in social control. Removing our social safety net is similar to not fixing your dog and then expecting him not to impregnate every dog in the neighbourhood. Poverty and its resultant social alienation is a huge part in this problem. The public was told to expect this six years ago. Now we reap what we sow and complain about how things are going. All those who voted for politicians who put money ahead of people share in the responsibility of this creation. We are all sheep.

Realist. Are you assuming that these criminals are a result of the Social Safety Net, and implying that a certain segment of society is responsible for these crimes. If so I disagree.

These crimes are being committed by Criminals and a lot of them have been arrested and released time and time again. Some with records that go back a lot further than 5 years. I suspect that most are drug related.

Your so called welfare system has been screwed up by politicians who give the money to the needy with their right hand and then take it away with their left. It wasnt that long ago that gambling was considered to be a criminal offence in this country and now it is being promoted by the Government, the Casino Operators, and the Charitable Organizations who are supposed to be their to help the needy.

Once the money is gleaned from some of these people through, gambling, smoking, and drinking, they then go to some charitable organizations to get food and clothing.

This whole system **sucks** and any Government worker, Casino Operators, or Charitable Organisation who doesnt think that they are part of the problem is only kidding themselves.

Legitimate people who are on welfare and trying their best to get by are not the people doing these robberies, etc; This is the work of criminals pure and simple and should be treated accordingly.

I agree with you but the situation at this point is that the welfare assistance is simply not accessable. Working with individuals who are desperately trying to change their lives has shown that help is being systematically denied to them. I work with this every single day. It remains almost impossible to even get comfort allowances from MEIA (or MIA as it is now know in the social sciences field)so that an individual can leave an abusive relationship or go into treatment for addictions. Not only are people being denied the assitance they need, they are being made to feel even less empowered by the current system that refuses to acknowledge the need of asssitance. The crime wave we are seeing can not be attributed solely to the welfare cuts to be sure, but we have vast amounts of research and knowledge that shows the current welfare system is not helping those in need and in fact contributing to more and more individuals who are so disenfranchised from accepted society that they turn to crime and addictions to cope with their situations. Again the chase for money has caused a considerable errosion of the family unit as both parents need to work just to financially survive (This is where the current minimum wage is contributing to the destruction of families) and the creation of a mass segment of the "new generation" who simply do not understand the need of community and attatchment to others. We are doing it to ourselves and to expect these people to get with the program or even be housed in jails simply adds to the problem. Our addiction to greed and money is what is driving this crime and the time for band-aid solutions has passed.