21591 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

No, he'd be lucky if he was pushing 30. But Yates and Langley is a really busy pedestrian/retail and traffic corridor so you'd think a fight in a location like that would be considered high profile.

[Savannah]

What the #$%*?

DOG THIEVES LOOSE IN VICTORIA

Mar 17, 2007

IF YOU OWN A DOG IN VICTORIA, YOU MAY WANT TO KEEP YOUR EYE ON MAN'S BEST FRIEND.

VICTORIA POLICE SAY THREE DOGS HAVE BEEN STOLEN IN THE CITY IN JUST OVER ONE WEEK. THE DOGS, A GERMAN SHEPHERD, GOLDEN RETREIVER AND CHIHUAHUA, WERE TAKEN FROM A VEHICLE, A FRONT YARD AND EVEN SOMEONE'S HOME.

POLICE SAY IN ONE CASE, THE THIEVES CALLED THE OWNER AND DEMAND MONEY TO GET THE DOG BACK.

VICTORIA POLICE HAVE TWO SUSPECTS, A SKINNY WOMAN WITH MISSING TEETH, AND A SOUTH ASIAN MAN, ABOUT 6'2'' WITH SPIKEY HAIR AND A LEATHER JACKET.

THE DOGS WERE SNATCHED FROM COOK STREET, QUADRA STREET AND KINGS ROAD. - C-FAX website http://www.cfax1070....php?newsId=2031

Grips collar of adorable, six-pound Clover tighter...

[D.L.]

See, this is why people move to the suburbs.

[Holden West]

Amazing in-depth article on a bogus Victoria informant.

[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070322.winformant0323/BNStory/National/home:7aa34]The secret agent who conned the Mounties: Richard Young's 'cruel charade'[/url:7aa34]

"The story is about a man who became an RCMP informant and was eventually enrolled in the Witness Protection program in spite of ample warning that he was an unreliable liar.
This individual went on to commit a heinous crime. We can neither describe the details of the murder nor the current identity of the killer."

Richard Young wasn't recruited by the Mounties for his information. He approached them in the summer of 2000 in Victoria, B.C. — a "walk in" as one officer referred to him.

The RCMP have never explained why they thought this 22-year-old guy would be useful. They didn't know a lot about him, and what they did know wasn't flattering. He was being investigated by a local police department on allegations that he defrauded his landlord of $48,000. They also knew he owed his foster dad $78,500 on a line of credit he had taken out for him.

But they signed him up as police informant all the same.

They gave him a handler, an RCMP officer who was assigned to build trust with Mr. Young and extract tips about Victoria's criminal underworld. The officer was in unfamiliar territory, too. He had just started with the RCMP's Vancouver Island District Drug Section and Mr. Young was his second informant in his 12 years of policing. He had no formal training on handling informants; he once had the chance to take a course on dealing with sources, but was too busy.

[aastra]

Mr. Young and his siblings lived in a rented duplex in the municipality of Saanich, on the outskirts of downtown Victoria.

[Galvanized]

That story would make a good movie.

[Holden West]

The informant, or...?

[movie trailer voice]"In a world...where an invisible line can mean the difference between life....and death. A battle is waged between communities. The media search in vain for it...some place it near the Quadra Street churches...for others...the quest takes them to the outskirts of Saanich. But will the object of their desires...become the source of their worst nightmare? Will they ever find...THE BORDER"


MAY CONTAIN SCENES OF WHINING,
POLITICAL INTRIGUE AND BONUS DENSITY

[aastra]

[VicHockeyFan]

This sounds like a trap.

[can't be bothered] [/to find the photo of the alien fish-man thing]

[Holden West]

^That's [url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=mNLuq0lW50k:ba81b]Admiral Akbar[/url:ba81b]. He's good at sniffing out a trap.

[aastra]

How that clown ever made admiral is beyond me.

I'm just kidding. I actually thought he was alright. Sure beats the hell out of the bozos in the prequels.

[G-Man]

ALERT ALERT

WOOT WOOT

THREAD VEERING DEEP INTO GEEK TERRITORY

ADJUST COURSE

[VicHockeyFan]

^That's [url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=mNLuq0lW50k:3e3bb]Admiral Akbar[/url:3e3bb]. He's good at sniffing out a trap.

Man, that was worth it. 3 minutes well wasted.

[Baro]

That video defines the internet

[Holden West]

ACTUAL CRIME NEWS!:

Crabby thieves

Mar 23 2007

Thieves pried open the door of Basic Rock Products and made off with one item sometime over the weekend. There were also attempts to take office equipment and some damage to the building.
---
Thieves made little damage during break-ins into a pair of Sidney businesses over the weekend. The Book Cellar and Itzyu Designs were both broken into and had small amounts of property stolen.
---
Live crabs have been lifted from the Resthaven dock. Sometime around midnight, March 16, 150 pounds of live crab was stolen from the end dock. Similar thefts have occured a couple of times over the past two months. RCMP ask that anyone with information on this theft call the Sidney/North Saanich detachment at 656-3931.

© Copyright 2007 Peninsula News Review

The kidnap victims were tortured to death by being boiled alive. They were later seen associating with hot butter and their condition was described by witnesses as "delicious".

Tragic...

[Holden West]

[url=http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=daa3bb8a-3bdf-4257-a42c-543410679b3c&k=49258:f1b36]Story on the after midnight craziness[/url:f1b36] on Vancouver's Granville St. in today's Sun.

[obscurantist]

There's been a series of such stories in the Sun and Province. They seem to be part of a public-relations campaign intended to support a renewed police proposal for surveillance cameras (they also asked the city to hire 65 new officers, but council only approved funding for 17 new positions) while doing nothing to address the actual causes of the preponderance of drunken brawls in the area:

[url=http://www.vancourier.com/issues06/113106/opinion/113106op2.html:60aa5]...the nightly punchups and puking on Granville are largely the fault of late night bar hours, for which you can thank the provincial government. The mass of hormonally charged young people concentrated in a few blocks is also the creature of city council, which decided to create an "entertainment district." The "fun city" idea has been less than entertaining and fun for police and ordinary Vancouverites alike.[/url:60aa5]

To which I would add the lack of city enforcement of its liquor-licensing bylaws (e.g., re bars serving too much alcohol to individual patrons).

I'm occasionally on the Granville strip on Friday and Saturday evenings -- usually not around closing time. The club scene certainly isn't my thing, and I don't seem to have a lot in common with the people who hang out there regularly, but I haven't really noticed the place becoming noticeably worse over the last several years.

The other source of much spinning over the last several months is the mayor's "Project Civil City," a grab-bag of ideas about how "public disorder" is a serious problem in Vancouver that needs to be addressed. It seems to be a mixture of the usual empire-building by politicians and a blueprint for gentrification. The police have expressed some concern about Civil City, but if they can make use of it for their own purposes, they will.

(See also [url=http://vibrantvictoria.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=360:60aa5]this[/url:60aa5] thread re after-hours drunkenness.)

[gumgum]

I remember even 5 years ago, going out of my way to avoid Granville St, even during the day. It seemed to be littered with pawn shops and sex shops - not to mention a lot of the businesses along that strip must have been a front for something devious.
Today it's turned around completely. Most of those businesses have gone, and at least 99% of the people you pass along the strip would be classified as normal, law-abiding citizens, as opposed to maybe 50% several years ago.
Or maybe I'm just imagining things, I don't know.
Of course the so-called greater need for control along the strip is down to being a victim of its own success, being that the area now best known for its nightlife.

[VicHockeyFan]

Last Saturday I was in that district, at the Roxy, right up to 3am. Good times (from what I recall).

[ressen]

Just look out for crazed Central American men with 8 foot lengths of re-bar.