There was a dramatic daytime robbery at a jewelry store in downtown Victoria today. Thanks to observant citizens and one quick thinker who got a video clip of the suspect escaping on his cell phone, the suspects were quickly apprehended. Interesting to note that the VPD has increased their presence in the downtown core where drug related crime is adversely affecting businesses in the area. It reinstills the fact that the drug trade drains business it does not feed business. Stopping the public sale of crack helps reduce crime and increase business revenue.
The VPD incentive included getting drug dealers and prolific offenders red zoned which means they would be banned from the downtown core by way of court order. If you have been convicted of selling drugs downtown or stealing from people or businesses, then getting them banned as a term of probation is wise and within reach. Committing crime is not a charter right.
Banning drug dealers from downtown won't make anything better.
ReplyDeleteInstead of buying drugs downtown people will now be doing it in less safe environments.
It will be the same result as what we have now with prostitution in downtown Victoria - pushed out to government street and industrial areas that lack "eyes on the street".
So the result will be drugs sold in North Victoria, and West Victoria, and James Bay, creating a balloon effect, dispersing the dealing, rather than solving the problem.
What needs to be done is to get rid of the fistfights that are killing people - like resident of Shawnigan Lake Tyler Noble - downtown.
Fights happen between 3 groups of people - crazies, drunks, and crack dealers. And sometimes in Victoria, you have drunk, crazy, crack-dealers hanging out in front of the McDonalds.
So it would seem that the question of this whole article is whether or not we should have "red-zoning" for people that committ one or more offenses within downtown victoria - therby banning them from the region.
I dont agree with such a proposal, it sounds too totalitarian.
I appreciate the input but I completely disagree with the logic. Letting people sell crack in public makes drug addiction spread like a forest fire. Forcing drug dealers to be discrete at least forces the fire to burn underground and not spread uncontrolled with high winds to feed it. Banning drug dealers certainly made New York a lot better. You seem to admit crack dealers hanging out in front of McDonalds are creating violence. That's the problem with creating red zones. We give people the misconception that kind of violence is acceptable in those areas when it's not.
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