Monday, May 19, 2014

The making of a Predator



This is something I really want to drive home because it is clearly the root of the problem in Surrey and the DTES. The other day I had a talk with an old friend who still does volunteer work in East Vancovuer. Years ago we both noticed that every year there seemed to be more and more homeless and drug addicts on the streets.

East Van has always been referred to as skid road. A place where the down and out go. Back then it was alcoholics some drinking aftershave to get high. Then heroin came in and that addiction consumed the vulnerable. When crack came in the problem continued to expand exponentially.

After all these years of working in east Van my friend has noticed two things. The number of homeless and drug addicted is off the charts as is the complete feeling of hopelessness there. Back in the day people would always say Oh I'm going to get out. I'm going to get treatment. Not any more. Treatment isn't even on the table. The only thing there now is compete hopelessness. This is what the not very safe injection site has done to the DTES. It has created a forest fire of addiction and the total eclipse of any hope anyone once pretended to have.

He talked about the predatory drug dealers that exploit the homeless. He said they're easy to pick out. He talked about being in an alley meeting a 50 year old woman lying on the ground surrounded by syringes. She hadn't moved or had anything to drink for days. The drug dealer at the end of the alley was dressed like a pimp and kept getting reloaded with supplies by an SUV that drove by periodically. He kept taking this woman's money until she had none then moved on to the next mark. He is a predator.

My friend said he often tries to visualize how anyone could be so far gone and so evil to degenerate to be low enough to profit from that kind of misery. He said he couldn't imagine living life without a conscience like that. All these insane extremists that pervert harm reduction into meaning harm promotion do not have the best interest of the homeless at heart. That much is clear to anyone who walks through that hopeless exploitation.

The officer who wrote the blog of the Diary of an East Van Beat Cop admits the first question people ask is when are you going to arrest all the drug dealers? He then explains why it isn't that simple. But it is. It really is. You arrest the drug dealers and reduce the plague of poison on the street. That is the New York model. I saw it.

All our talk about reducing crime is meaningless as long as we allow drug dealers to sell crack in public. Chasing grow ops while we let crack be sold on the street is ludicrous. The problem is staring us in the face and we are all diminished when we turn a blind eye to it.

Insite is a huge part of the problem. When the not very safe injection site opened the police established a tolerance zone where they wouldn't arrest drug dealers around it. That strategy has been one colossal failure. That's like letting a forest fire burn wild. Crack dealers moved in knowing the police won't arrest them and large groups of people smoke crack everywhere in plain view on the street. People are still shooting up in the allies. Insite has not stopped that. We are using tax dollars to commit murder and claim that is somehow promoting heath when it is doing the exact opposite. This is what we need to address.

The Federal government is frustrated fighting the Supreme Court over Insite. Understandably so. The Supreme Court does not have the authority to break the law but that is exactly what they have done. Notwithstanding the fight over Insite the practice of creating a tolerance zone around Insite is a separate issue. The Supreme Court can not stop the police from arresting crack dealers outside Insite. It really is that simple. Until we do that we all become accessories to murder and the predatory drug dealers that exploit the homeless without consciousness.

9 comments:

  1. What I appreciate about this blog is the fact that you take the time to explain the true ramifications of what selling and dealing and importing and producing drugs really does. This story explains it perfectly well.

    The problem is systemic and until that truly is addressed I cannot see things getting any better. However, how much worse can it get?

    With real estate prices being what they are and wages being what they are, no wonder people look to more nefarious ways of making money. In a society that only promotes wealth and greed how can we truly expect anything else but attitudes and permissiveness that allow this behaviour.

    "Legalise it" people chant as if mesmerized by this mantra not truly comprehending that it is not whether or not something is "legal" or not that makes a thing truly evil - it's inherent nature does.

    A friend of mine once told me, "There is only black and white. If anyone ever tells you otherwise ask what he is selling."

    While admittedly that took me aback for a minute, I contemplated it and mediated on it (meditation does not have to mean some strange new age religious practice whose roots are buried in the east - http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm - 2705).

    The proof of the truth of his statement is the simple fact the more one knows about something, the less ambiguous (grey) something remains and the more clearly it appears.

    If one were to take the time to truly understand something, it would only be black and white. Period.

    Until society as a whole understands its permissiveness has led and perpetuates this it will not only continue, but continue to exponentially get worse.

    Things do not occur in an isolated vacuum. They cannot be addressed individually either. Unless and until the entire systemic issue is dealt with, I am afraid it is only going to get worse.

    However, those involved will not be able to claim they did not know what their permissive and licentious actions have done and contributed to. There will be no excuses upon their part. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJfO6-B0nNY)

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    1. I realize the high cost of housing and the low wages do significantly contribute to the increased number of homeless on the street. I'm just concerned about their further exploitation with hard drugs. People need homes not drugs. As time moves on I definitely think the grey areas are diminishing and then struggle between good versus evil becomes more clear.

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    2. The thing is, this is not just a Vancouver issue. It is a systemic problem literally the world over.

      In the past it was the Church who formed educational opportunities for those most impoverished and abused and preyed upon. Currently, with declining Church attendance (due to heresies of Modernism) there are a LOT fewer people who actually accomplish true charitable work. Therefore the exploited have almost no earthly means to help save them.

      Those abused need to be removed from their toxic environments and given the opportunities to change. They need to be educated as to WHY. They need to be educated how to help themselves. They need to be evangelized and then catechized. They have eternal souls just the same as anyone else and are probably more aware of evil than those living content lives with their 9 to 5 jobs, mortgages, automobiles, etc.

      Any addict will acknowledge the reality of Satan - whereas publicly educated (and dare I say it mainstream (Novus Ordo) Catholic educated) will scoff at that concept as being medieval and a product of social control mechanisms. If God defines Himself as 'I am Who Am', Satan defines himself as "I am who am not". Hence the struggle against principalities and powers (who are angelic choirs and those who have been cast out - demons - hell's angels - the Club can try and claim all it wants that it's just a name, like the New Jersey Devils, but their actions truly prove it is more than just a name).

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  2. Deliver us from activist Judges who legislate from the bench.........

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  3. I have the same problems with the fake-o VANDU. They kept my cash in their safe for my dealer to pick up later on. I did pill deals right inside there, no need to hide it...

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    1. Yeah VANDU is a complete conflict of interest.

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  4. what a picture... pure addict.

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  5. Drug Trafficking Newton Surrey, Wave Pool, Rink, Seniors Centre/Library Parking lot continues UNCHECKED or POLICED! Staff at Library refuse to report this activity that goes on daily! REGULAR patrols by Community Watch, Commissionaires, RCMP walkers and squad cars, etc. etc. DO NOT INTERVENE!

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