The skills required to be a great police officer and fight crime are not the same as the skills required to deal with mental illness and things like that. Different jobs also attract different personality types and what makes someone good at being a police officer is maybe not the same kind of empathy required to be good at de-escalating someone’s breakdown.
What you described (re-allocating of funds to deal with socioeconomic issues and poverty) is what defund advocates are fighting for! Spend more on affordable housing, a living wage, community supports. That’s how you fix society. It’s not done by burdening already overworked police officers with additional responsibilities.
The militarization of police does not help to support an image of someone that is here to help, but instead someone who is here to enforce. These are extremely different requirements.
I believe many people misunderstand “Defund the police.” This is exactly what it means: spend the money in the right places. Stop sending police on wellness checks where they end up killing the people they are supposed to be checking on. Besides, it’s already been done: it’s how the ambulance service was born.
Here’s another success story: " Residents of Camden, located near Philadelphia, say it’s been successful. Murders are down by two-thirds since the year before the police reform, and overall violent crime is down by nearly half."
And another success story: “The opioid crisis soon stabilised, and the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates.”
Right now, especially in the USA, police are the go-to for pretty much EVERY problem. And when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I’d love for police to have a more positive presence in the community, and to not be so overworked. I’d love for those with mental health issues to get the help they need rather than a death sentence: “At least 4 people have died during police wellness checks in Canada since April. (August 22)”
Police have a role to play, and I’ll thank @smithers for playing their role. But we depend on the police for far too much, and it’s not helping us move forward as a society. Let’s emulate the policies of other cities and countries where this has been done with much success, to the betterment of the entire community, police officers included.
There was more, new graffiti on the trail today. I didn’t get very far in because I had my kids and honestly if they were moving any slower today we’d have gone back in time. This was along the power lines again - so if you’re there and you see more, please keep keeping track.
The pattern of life of this incident shows the person or persons responsible would be easy to catch with a drone, and someone with a-lot of time and patience.
The frequency that this graffiti keeps coming back is alarming. Someone who obviously frequents the area, or lives there. Even if trail cams were setup though, I can’t see much coming from this beyond posting their picture online (if thats legal?) and spreading the word.
From my understanding, capturing data on trail cams is not illegal. What you do with it could become an issue.
I ran into an issue where I was monitoring someone who I suspected breaking into my car/garage over covid and was told by an HRP officer it was acceptable.
My plan was to bring the data to them, but it never got to that point.
Yeah I think you’re right. You could have the trail cam for the purpose of capturing wildlife and accidentally capture this activity. Businesses frequently have security cameras and turn footage over when necessary. Posting someone’s image online would open more issues up than it would take care of.
Yeah I was speaking specifically about posting their image online. Could be looking at defamation/libel there. But if anyone has trail cams and can capture them in the act, that would be a step forward. I would put money on a local kid going it as they probably spend a lot of time back there.
Due to an arm injury, I’ve resorted to hiking. Walked flipside and the powerline yesterday and there was a fair bit spray painted and written with marker on rocks. Mostly on the powerline section but a bit on the trail head at the far end of flipside. Not sure what the messaging was before, but this was all the same message repeated over and over
Thanks for keeping an eye open (and sorry you’re on the injury list!). I’ve not been back to check since Wednesday of last week - there were 10 different locations at that point spanning the exact areas you’ve mentioned.
A few notes are particularly disconcerting. Two have been direct messages to myself/anyone cleaning it up back there. And a general announcement that they intend to keep going as there are endless supply of rocks.
Are police willing to get involved yet? This person sounds like they are obsessively hating, which sounds like it could easily transition to violence against either Jewish folks, or those of us working to block their messages of hate.
Didn’t sound like they were initially, however after a quick search of the Criminal Code I found the following
"Public incitement of hatred
319 (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of
(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or
(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
Marginal note:Wilful promotion of hatred(2) Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of
(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or
(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
Marginal note:Defences(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (2)
(a) if he establishes that the statements communicated were true;
(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text;
(d) if, in good faith, he intended to point out, for the purpose of removal, matters producing or tending to produce feelings of hatred toward an identifiable group in Canada."
