Crime Prevention Part I
August 31, 2014
I received a message from a woman a few days ago that I simply cannot put out of my mind.
The message sent to me was prompted by postings on the net a few days prior to that, which, essentially, said “all is well in Thunder Bay. The average citizen of Thunder Bay need not be afraid to walk our streets, our murders are committed by and against people who knew each other and hang out together.”
This sentiment was posted to down play and trivialize postings made by a number of people, who expressed fear of walking the streets of our City – particularly at night. People were supposed to read this “don’t worry everything is fine in Thunder Bay” line and go about their lives disregarding our disgraceful, record breaking, rates of murder and violent crime.
This notion of general safety does have a substantial amount of truth to it – in some neighborhoods. I think it is accurate to say that an evening stroll confined to the streets of River Terrace and Parkdale is a safe practice.
While the view that “all is well in Thunder Bay” regardless of which neighborhood one is speaking of, does seem to discount the lives of the people who knew or were familiar with their murderers – as if that somehow made their deaths more acceptable or understandable – and I doubt the families of our murder victims take much solace from this apparent reality, but that is not why I quarrel here today with the clearly elitist philosophy that murder can’t happen to us, you and I, average working people in the City.
No, my problem – and it is a very big, heart-wrenching, problem – is what if you don’t live in River Terrace or any other up-scale neighborhood? Then what? This brings me to the message I received that is truly causing me a great deal of anxiety and grief.
The message was from a single mother of four who by working two jobs, literally worked her way off social assistance. Money is not tight in her household, it’s non –existent, but she is doing it on her own, she is no longer taking from the other tax payers and she is damn proud of it.
Needless to say, she is not living in Mountdale, in fact she has an older house – in her case a home – smack dab in the middle of one of the most crime ridden areas of our City. Her neighbours, many of which are decidedly less industrious than she ( to put it mildly ) seem quite content to collect assistance cheques and party, not only at night, but all day on occasion. Some do not even shut their doors. Their doors are actually left open for hours on end. “Visitors” come and go endlessly all hours of the day and night.
In this environment she – a single mother working two jobs remember- is trying to raise four children. She lives among the sleaze, her kids come and go and try to play among the sleaze. She can’t be home much, or it will all fall apart. She has to have both pay cheques to survive.
Can you imagine how many times she calls home to ask “ is everything ok did you remember to lock the door?” She didn’t say it, but I’m sure every damn minute she is away working, she is worrying about her kids. Try to imagine – can most of us actually imagine – how hard it must be to live like this.
How many times does she ask herself “ have all the murderers been caught.” Or “ when do the murderers get out of jail?” And I’m sure she thinks constantly of the rapists and the molesters. I bet she even worries about the thieves and has thought “what if they take the tv? How will I get another one?”
This is how she lives. And she goes off to work, to both jobs, everyday. Tomorrow will not be different. Can you imagine the relief – every last night- when she finally gets home, unlocks the door, and rushes to see if the kids – each one of her babies – are sleeping peacefully?
And yet if something were to happen to her there are those among us who would discount her fate by saying she knew her attacker, she was familiar with her assailant. That’s right she knew them and she was indeed familiar with them. They live two doors down and she was constantly afraid of them. She didn’t like them, had nothing in common with them, but you are right, she knew them.
YOU SELFISH ELITIST BASTARDS! Shame on you. You should be made to walk a mile in this woman’s shoes. All is not well for EVERYONE in Thunder Bay.
When I received this message from this woman I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I still can’t. What a way to live. My initial reaction was I won’t buy campaign signs, I won’t accept political donations, instead I’ll do something to help her. My “problems” paled dramatically when compared with the problems she faces on a daily basis.
Then I realized she can’t be alone. There must be more people in exactly this situation, or similar situations. I thought more and realized there must be old people, people who worked hard and bought a home years ago in what was at the time a neat, clean, vibrant, neighborhood, but that home today is an island of decency in a sea of sleaze. And I thought of handicapped people.
Something has to be done for people who are forced by economic necessity to live like this, to endure an existence in a drunken, brawling, dope-riddled, battle zone.
Voters if I am elected I promise you – I absolutely guarantee you – that I will work tirelessly to establish some form of system or program where people who live in these areas can register their addresses with the police who will then have uniformed officers in patrol cars actually stop and do a brief inspection of every last house so registered several times a night, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We can call it “Homesafe” or “Homecheck” I don’t care, but let’s do it.
And don’t any of you dare call this a baby- sitting service. It’s not. Not when you are trying to survive and raise your children in Murder City.
Sure this isn’t a perfect solution, but I am convinced by coordinating this with Zone Watch, and Neighborhood Watch ( remember Neighborhood Watch only works if your neighbors are sober, capable of watching, and are not friends with those committing the crimes) it will help. I am convinced this is necessary and long over- due.
Sure it will cost some money, but I will find the money if it is the last thing I will do, starting with whatever amount we waste on Hobbs’ and Hannam’s Aborginal Liaison Strategy Office.
Something has to be done about situations like this. Something MUST be done. I absolutely guarantee you I will do it. Who is going to stop me?
August 31, 2014
I received a message from a woman a few days ago that I simply cannot put out of my mind.
The message sent to me was prompted by postings on the net a few days prior to that, which, essentially, said “all is well in Thunder Bay. The average citizen of Thunder Bay need not be afraid to walk our streets, our murders are committed by and against people who knew each other and hang out together.”
This sentiment was posted to down play and trivialize postings made by a number of people, who expressed fear of walking the streets of our City – particularly at night. People were supposed to read this “don’t worry everything is fine in Thunder Bay” line and go about their lives disregarding our disgraceful, record breaking, rates of murder and violent crime.
This notion of general safety does have a substantial amount of truth to it – in some neighborhoods. I think it is accurate to say that an evening stroll confined to the streets of River Terrace and Parkdale is a safe practice.
While the view that “all is well in Thunder Bay” regardless of which neighborhood one is speaking of, does seem to discount the lives of the people who knew or were familiar with their murderers – as if that somehow made their deaths more acceptable or understandable – and I doubt the families of our murder victims take much solace from this apparent reality, but that is not why I quarrel here today with the clearly elitist philosophy that murder can’t happen to us, you and I, average working people in the City.
No, my problem – and it is a very big, heart-wrenching, problem – is what if you don’t live in River Terrace or any other up-scale neighborhood? Then what? This brings me to the message I received that is truly causing me a great deal of anxiety and grief.
The message was from a single mother of four who by working two jobs, literally worked her way off social assistance. Money is not tight in her household, it’s non –existent, but she is doing it on her own, she is no longer taking from the other tax payers and she is damn proud of it.
Needless to say, she is not living in Mountdale, in fact she has an older house – in her case a home – smack dab in the middle of one of the most crime ridden areas of our City. Her neighbours, many of which are decidedly less industrious than she ( to put it mildly ) seem quite content to collect assistance cheques and party, not only at night, but all day on occasion. Some do not even shut their doors. Their doors are actually left open for hours on end. “Visitors” come and go endlessly all hours of the day and night.
In this environment she – a single mother working two jobs remember- is trying to raise four children. She lives among the sleaze, her kids come and go and try to play among the sleaze. She can’t be home much, or it will all fall apart. She has to have both pay cheques to survive.
Can you imagine how many times she calls home to ask “ is everything ok did you remember to lock the door?” She didn’t say it, but I’m sure every damn minute she is away working, she is worrying about her kids. Try to imagine – can most of us actually imagine – how hard it must be to live like this.
How many times does she ask herself “ have all the murderers been caught.” Or “ when do the murderers get out of jail?” And I’m sure she thinks constantly of the rapists and the molesters. I bet she even worries about the thieves and has thought “what if they take the tv? How will I get another one?”
This is how she lives. And she goes off to work, to both jobs, everyday. Tomorrow will not be different. Can you imagine the relief – every last night- when she finally gets home, unlocks the door, and rushes to see if the kids – each one of her babies – are sleeping peacefully?
And yet if something were to happen to her there are those among us who would discount her fate by saying she knew her attacker, she was familiar with her assailant. That’s right she knew them and she was indeed familiar with them. They live two doors down and she was constantly afraid of them. She didn’t like them, had nothing in common with them, but you are right, she knew them.
YOU SELFISH ELITIST BASTARDS! Shame on you. You should be made to walk a mile in this woman’s shoes. All is not well for EVERYONE in Thunder Bay.
When I received this message from this woman I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I still can’t. What a way to live. My initial reaction was I won’t buy campaign signs, I won’t accept political donations, instead I’ll do something to help her. My “problems” paled dramatically when compared with the problems she faces on a daily basis.
Then I realized she can’t be alone. There must be more people in exactly this situation, or similar situations. I thought more and realized there must be old people, people who worked hard and bought a home years ago in what was at the time a neat, clean, vibrant, neighborhood, but that home today is an island of decency in a sea of sleaze. And I thought of handicapped people.
Something has to be done for people who are forced by economic necessity to live like this, to endure an existence in a drunken, brawling, dope-riddled, battle zone.
Voters if I am elected I promise you – I absolutely guarantee you – that I will work tirelessly to establish some form of system or program where people who live in these areas can register their addresses with the police who will then have uniformed officers in patrol cars actually stop and do a brief inspection of every last house so registered several times a night, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We can call it “Homesafe” or “Homecheck” I don’t care, but let’s do it.
And don’t any of you dare call this a baby- sitting service. It’s not. Not when you are trying to survive and raise your children in Murder City.
Sure this isn’t a perfect solution, but I am convinced by coordinating this with Zone Watch, and Neighborhood Watch ( remember Neighborhood Watch only works if your neighbors are sober, capable of watching, and are not friends with those committing the crimes) it will help. I am convinced this is necessary and long over- due.
Sure it will cost some money, but I will find the money if it is the last thing I will do, starting with whatever amount we waste on Hobbs’ and Hannam’s Aborginal Liaison Strategy Office.
Something has to be done about situations like this. Something MUST be done. I absolutely guarantee you I will do it. Who is going to stop me?