I've called the non-emergency number and have had cars come in five minutes.
One time I called them about a break-in in progress and they showed up an hour later.
As the Oak Bay Police were on garbage duty at the Uplands golf course...
Posted 23 April 2007 - 11:05 PM
I've called the non-emergency number and have had cars come in five minutes.
One time I called them about a break-in in progress and they showed up an hour later.
Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
Posted 03 May 2007 - 04:32 PM
Abusive panhandlers are very rare. I can't help but wonder if this was a two-way dialogue: ("Why don't you get a job?" "Oh yeah? F*** you!")
Posted 08 May 2007 - 04:39 PM
Battle of the backpacks
Police say they're not seizing them willy-nilly but social agencies cry discrimination
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, May 06, 2007
Police say they're not seizing them willy-nilly but social agencies cry discrimination
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, May 06, 2007
Victoria's social service agencies say they are wasting scarce charitable donations helping street people recover backpacks seized by police under the city's chattels bylaw.
"This bylaw is discriminatory and oppressive," said Rev. Al Tysick. "They're taking away all a person owns in life. I feel terrible using donated funds. And the city and police know where the money is coming from."
Police say they don't seize backpacks indiscriminately, and that the 10-year-old practice is the only effective way to deal with people who won't stop camping out on downtown sidewalks.
View Larger Image
Rev. Al Tysick, right, with Ian Heathcote: "This bylaw is discriminatory and oppressive. They're taking away all a person owns in life. I feel terrible using donated funds. And the city and police know where the money is coming from."
But at Our Place street drop-in centre recently, Ian Heathcote, a homeless man with a head injury, held a $100 bylaw ticket he said he had received from a police officer for leaning his backpack against the wall on Douglas Street. He also had a receipt from the City of Victoria for a $28 impoundment fee for his backpack.
Heathcote said he was on Douglas Street talking to a friend in mid-April when two constables rode up on bikes.
"One guy grabs my pack. I asked him what the problem was. I told him I
wasn't panhandling ... and he said, 'I'm confiscating your pack.' I'd only bought it two week ago at Capital Iron, so I
didn't have to be walking around with a green garbage bag looking like a completely homeless person. And then they made me look like a completely homeless person."
The officers allowed Heathcote to pull his sleeping bag from the pack, then called for the city truck and threw the pack in the back. "I must say he did give me one or two warnings when I was panhandling, but this time I was just standing up talking to a friend who was selling the street news," said Heathcote.
Art Farquharson, a part-time constituency assistant to NDP Leader Carole James and an activist with Together Against Poverty, paid the impoundment fee. "It is offensive to us that they indiscriminately seize people's belongings and force them to find resources which they don't have to get them back," said Farquharson.
The city began using its chattels bylaw as a street-clearing device in 1997 when city council tried unsuccessfully to roust panhandlers from the downtown.
Council had introduced an anti- panhandling bylaw to stop solicitation near bus stops, bank machines and liquor stores, as well as prohibiting "sitting, squatting, kneeling or lying down" on a public sidewalk or street. But police were soon encouraged to use the chattel laws to seize backpacks, sleeping bags and other personal effects from street campers.
The larger issue is clear and free passage on city sidewalks, explained Deputy Police Chief Bill Naughton. But in the case of the street population, the impact is unique. "You are seizing belongings from people which may be all they have in the world," he said.
Police are not seizing backpacks willy-nilly, insisted Naughton. Packs and shopping carts filled with possessions are seized when they've been deposited on the sidewalk and left.
"Our practice is always to warn people in advance that they can't abandon their possessions on the street and they can't put so much material or so many packs on the sidewalk that they're obstructing pedestrian traffic. We don't seize a huge volume of material."
Victoria's social service agencies say they are wasting scarce charitable donations helping street people recover backpacks seized by police under the city's chattels bylaw.
"This bylaw is discriminatory and oppressive," said Rev. Al Tysick. "They're taking away all a person owns in life. I feel terrible using donated funds. And the city and police know where the money is coming from."
Police say they don't seize backpacks indiscriminately, and that the 10-year-old practice is the only effective way to deal with people who won't stop camping out on downtown sidewalks.
View Larger Image
Ian Heathcote checks over his belongings outside Victoria police headquarters. Anti-poverty activist Art Farquharson lent a hand.
Debra Brash, Times Colonist
But at Our Place street drop-in centre recently, Ian Heathcote, a homeless man with a head injury, held a $100 bylaw ticket he said he had received from a police officer for leaning his backpack against the wall on Douglas Street. He also had a receipt from the City of Victoria for a $28 impoundment fee for his backpack.
Heathcote said he was on Douglas Street talking to a friend in mid-April when two constables rode up on bikes.
"One guy grabs my pack. I asked him what the problem was. I told him I
wasn't panhandling ... and he said, 'I'm confiscating your pack.' I'd only bought it two week ago at Capital Iron, so I
didn't have to be walking around with a green garbage bag looking like a completely homeless person. And then they made me look like a completely homeless person."
The officers allowed Heathcote to pull his sleeping bag from the pack, then called for the city truck and threw the pack in the back. "I must say he did give me one or two warnings when I was panhandling, but this time I was just standing up talking to a friend who was selling the street news," said Heathcote.
Art Farquharson, a part-time constituency assistant to NDP Leader Carole James and an activist with Together Against Poverty, paid the impoundment fee. "It is offensive to us that they indiscriminately seize people's belongings and force them to find resources which they don't have to get them back," said Farquharson.
The city began using its chattels bylaw as a street-clearing device in 1997 when city council tried unsuccessfully to roust panhandlers from the downtown.
Council had introduced an anti-
panhandling bylaw to stop solicitation near bus stops, bank machines and liquor stores, as well as prohibiting "sitting, squatting, kneeling or lying down" on a public sidewalk or street. But police were soon encouraged to use the chattel laws to seize backpacks, sleeping bags and other personal effects from street campers.
The larger issue is clear and free passage on city sidewalks, explained Deputy Police Chief Bill Naughton. But in the case of the street population, the impact is unique. "You are seizing belongings from people which may be all they have in the world," he said.
Police are not seizing backpacks willy-nilly, insisted Naughton. Packs and shopping carts filled with possessions are seized when they've been deposited on the sidewalk and left.
"Our practice is always to warn people in advance that they can't abandon their possessions on the street and they can't put so much material or so many packs on the sidewalk that they're obstructing pedestrian traffic. We don't seize a huge volume of material."
But seizing backpacks is one way of influencing a population that doesn't have any constraints on its behaviour, said Naughton. "It's an absurdity for us to write a ticket to a person who doesn't have an address."
Tysick said he helps about three people a month get their packs back. And he knows other agencies are doing the same. "It's one of the meanest bylaws and we need someone to fight the law," said the street pastor. "We need one of the councillors to be brave enough to stand up and say 'Let's do something about this. The service providers will write the cheques because we're not going to let their backpacks just be lost, because that's all they own.' "
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
Posted 08 May 2007 - 05:32 PM
Backpack seizures protest planned
Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, May 08, 2007
People concerned about Victoria's chattels bylaw, which allows police to seize the backpacks of street people and return them only after they pay an impound fee, will protest against the "new poor tax" Friday at noon.
Writer Linda Rogers has asked friends and fellow citizens to bring their suitcases and backpacks to the intersection of Yates and Douglas streets to show solidarity with Victoria's disadvantaged.
"Bring a load you don't mind losing and meet us on the corner," Rogers said yesterday. "We will all have packs and lean them against the wall. We know the police probably won't do a thing, but we're making a statement."
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Font: ****Victoria's social agencies say they are wasting scarce charitable donations helping people recover confiscated backpacks. Rev. Al Tysick, who has paid to recover dozens of packs over the years, calls the bylaw discriminatory, oppressive and mean.
Police, however, say they don't seize backpacks indiscriminately, and that the bylaw is an effective way to deal with people who leave their possessions on city sidewalks.
Money used to pay the impound fees could be used to buy food and clothing, said Rogers.
"It's a disgusting situation when the only possessions they have are taken from them. And it discriminates because they wouldn't do that to you or me."
Tom Hassett, former vice-principal of St. Andrew's High School, was working as a volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul's last month when three men came in and told him they'd been sleeping outside and police had taken all their belongings including their sleeping bags, tarps, packs and identification.
"I was surprised to learn the police are acting under a bylaw. And I think that's appalling," said Hassett. "If that's the law, then as Dickens would say, 'the law is a ass.'"
Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe supports the chattels bylaw because she believes there should be consequences for people's actions.
The city tries to seek a balance between the needs of street people and the business community, said Thornton-Joe. It's very difficult to conduct business with panhandlers blocking doorways,
Thornton-Joe was approached for money five times yesterday as she sat outside having lunch at a Government Street restaurant. "We also watched the panhandlers reach over and take gratuities off the table," she said.
"I would like to ask you and the public, what's the better solution. Ultimately, I think the better solution is to provide housing for people. It's one piece of a very complex puzzle we deal with," said Thornton-Joe.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
Posted 08 May 2007 - 08:07 PM
The officers allowed Heathcote to pull his sleeping bag from the pack, then called for the city truck and threw the pack in the back. "I must say he did give me one or two warnings when I was panhandling, but this time I was just standing up talking to a friend who was selling the street news," said Heathcote.
(...)
Police are not seizing backpacks willy-nilly, insisted Naughton. Packs and shopping carts filled with possessions are seized when they've been deposited on the sidewalk and left.
"Our practice is always to warn people in advance that they can't abandon their possessions on the street and they can't put so much material or so many packs on the sidewalk that they're obstructing pedestrian traffic. We don't seize a huge volume of material."
Police: Seizing backpacks a last resort
Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Re: "Battle of the backpacks," May 6.
Recently at a Victoria Downtown Service Providers meeting I discussed with those in attendance, including Rev. Al Tysick, that in the face of increasing public complaints about shopping carts and personal property being strewn over downtown streets, police officers would soon have a duty to enforce our laws and take action.
The social service providers agreed that there was no other alternative for the police, especially in regard to those persons who have ignored our pleas, cajoling and repeated warnings for the past three years to keep their personal property and garbage out of the path of other users of the downtown.
They also recognized that police are caught in the middle of a community that wants both more enforcement action and no enforcement action against street persons.
I asked for and felt I received support from the group in dealing with the inevitable media criticism that would be forthcoming. I don't understand Tysick's flip-flop on the chattel issue.
Public sidewalks and spaces in a downtown core are for everyone. What city wouldn't have an ordinance regulating the manner in which goods can be kept in public areas?
Every month in downtown Victoria police officers make thousands of contacts with persons -- some good, some bad. The percentage of chattel seizures coming out of those contacts would be so small that it could probably not actually be measured.
We have worked tirelessly with service providers to address and support their issues in the hope that this type of approach reduces some of the negative stigmatization for street persons in dealing with police officers.
Seizure of people's property by downtown police officers occurs judiciously and only after repeated warnings about the potential consequences.
Insp. John Ducker,
officer in charge,
focused enforcement team,
Victoria Police Department.
Tough action needed to help homeless
Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Re: "Battle of the backpacks," May 6.
The intentions of the bylaws, police and non-profit organizations are all good. I find it offensive that some people try to put blame on the police or city's bylaw. There is an obligation for each individual person in this world to be responsible for his or her own behaviour.
If individuals cannot abide by the local bylaws, they should go elsewhere.
Crime and drug use in Victoria are on the rise. A large portion of this due to the reputation that Victoria has in assisting those less fortunate and homeless.
However, the good intentions in assisting the street population are backfiring because we continue to provide for them, but not to deal with the underlying concerns related to their homelessness. I believe it will only get worse because our weather is mild most of the year.
I believe that a system must be set in place mandating that the police round up the street population each week and take them to a registration centre, where individuals are assessed: Where they are from, mental-illness history, their goal in being here, addictions, interest in improving their lives, how would they like to be helped.
Then the non-profit organizations and churches would help with support while jobs are being obtained or rehabilitation centres funded.
It's a no-tolerance policy, but with compassion.
Bonita McCulloch,
Central Saanich.
Posted 08 May 2007 - 09:32 PM
Posted 08 May 2007 - 09:50 PM
Posted 09 May 2007 - 08:33 AM
Posted 09 May 2007 - 03:20 PM
Posted 09 May 2007 - 06:25 PM
Posted 10 May 2007 - 12:01 PM
Posted 10 May 2007 - 06:24 PM
Quote:
Shopkeepers don't like stepping over bodies when they open their shops in the morning or close them at night.
I mean, come on. Would Mr. Hunter like stepping over bodies to get in and out of his home?
Posted 11 May 2007 - 07:04 AM
Posted 11 May 2007 - 07:46 AM
The right to life means that a man has a right to support his life by his own work. It does not mean that others must provide him with the necessities of life.
Posted 11 May 2007 - 08:46 AM
Posted 11 May 2007 - 08:57 AM
Posted 11 May 2007 - 09:09 AM
Posted 11 May 2007 - 09:10 AM
7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.
Posted 11 May 2007 - 09:34 AM
Posted 11 May 2007 - 09:35 AM
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