Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Mark Tonner Note: Sgt. Tonner is a Vancouver police officer whose column appears biweekly in The Province. His opinions aren't necessarily those of the city's police department or board. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Downtown+Eastside CRITICS MISSED BENEFITS OF BYLAW CRACKDOWN Police issues spend very little time off the front burner. This week we're back on the boil, over tickets handed out in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. When it comes to being up the creek, the DTES is as far as a paddle will take you. It's as chaotic and lawless as any portion of Canada has ever been. Skid-row addicts do little but scan for things to steal; people on the street become violent in patterns difficult to predict. Each new approach to safety is matched by cries of foul from anti-authoritarians. Some complaints are clever, others simply repetitive. The latest in annoyance is a complaint that Vancouver police are using city bylaw tickets to clear streets for the Olympics. A recent VPD campaign did use bylaw tickets to address disorder in the Eastside. Levels of violence and drug dealing are in a constant state of negotiation, and the area needed some focused attention. Patrols were bumped up with officers borrowed from other areas. They did more than write tickets, but the bylaw work proved worthwhile. During the project term in December, robberies were reduced by 40 per cent. Break-ins to homes and businesses dropped by the same amount. The charges themselves are worthy of words. J-walking tickets cost money, but they're not a cash grab. Pedestrians in the DTES have always been at risk. At present, they're moved beyond a sense of street ownership, to the point that they'll run into traffic without even looking. They get hit and hurt with sickening frequency. Our anti-smoking bylaw is more efficient than a criminal charge, in dealing with crack users. Typically, they're smoking within six metres of a premise entrance and can be ticketed. Whether crack is more or less cancerous than tobacco is moot; the bylaw speaks to any substance smoked. Less time writing reports means more time on patrol, greater safety for tourists and locals alike. Raising the bar on pedestrian behaviour is a good thing for everyone. While street people do tend to default on fines, warrants issued for nonpayment can result in good-behaviour release conditions -- another tool to improve quality and length of life. There has been such a squawk over this campaign I doubt there will be another like it soon. It's as though police should conduct a poverty assessment before enforcing the law, as though we should check with left-witted lawyers before each campaign is launched. A picture is painted, in which advocates fight for freedom while police troll for helpless victims. It simply ain't so. In my view, if the police department was ordered to force locals onto buses and out of town, we'd refuse. Our leaders would refuse for us. I can't resist providing contrast, with a glance back to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Anyone fitting the Nazi description of undesirable was swept from city streets far in advance. They were taken to special detention camps. Please tell me that local anti-police types don't envision this from us. My guess is that they don't, and that they're crying controversy for self-advancement. My next guess is that the Eastside will look the same during the Olympics as it does now. Feel free to step up and prove me wrong. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake