Friday, June 20, 2008

NOthing Petty about Crime


In response to Jim Chu's call for more jail time for chronic offenders, Mildew and his editors both keep referring to minor crimes.

There is nothing minor about a crime when you are the victim. Being robbed, broken into, mugged and so on are traumatic and frightening experiences.

It is very nice for people to sit back in the comfort of their easy chairs and survey the vast scene before them and make pronouncements about small crimes.

Try living through one and then see how charitable you will feel about "petty" criminals.

There is an enormous psychological divide between citizens and thieves.

"There but for the grace of God" just barley begins to embrace the dilemma.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It always bothers me when I read Ian Mulgrew ranting about being unfair to "petty" criminals.
There is nothing petty about someone stealing over a million dollars worth of merchandise to feed a drug habit.
The police are fed up, the public is fed up and it's only the poverty industry that seems to want people to remain enslaved to addiction.
Not all addicts will get clean but if we don't start somewhere this city is going to fall on its face.
The mentally ill need help, addicts need treatment and some individuals need to be locked up for society's sake.

David in North Burnaby BC said...

I remember Swipe Robinson during his last run at it kept referring to "petty" crimes like burglary. It blows my mind to think some people consider having one's home ransacked "petty".
Although in Robinson's case I suppose we have to consider the source.
And Mildew smokes too much dope apparently, its fried his little grey cells. Pity, he was a promising writer.