CRITICS MISSED BENEFITS OF BYLAW CRACKDOWN

Police issues spend very little time off the front burner. This week
we're back on the boil, over tickets handed out in Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside.

When it comes to being up the creek, the DTES is as far as a paddle
will take you. It's as chaotic and lawless as any portion of Canada
has ever been. Skid-row addicts do little but scan for things to
steal; people on the street become violent in patterns difficult to
predict.

Each new approach to safety is matched by cries of foul from
anti-authoritarians. Some complaints are clever, others simply repetitive.

The latest in annoyance is a complaint that Vancouver police are using
city bylaw tickets to clear streets for the Olympics.

A recent VPD campaign did use bylaw tickets to address disorder in the
Eastside. Levels of violence and drug dealing are in a constant state
of negotiation, and the area needed some focused attention.

Patrols were bumped up with officers borrowed from other areas. They
did more than write tickets, but the bylaw work proved worthwhile.

During the project term in December, robberies were reduced by 40 per
cent. Break-ins to homes and businesses dropped by the same amount.

The charges themselves are worthy of words. J-walking tickets cost
money, but they're not a cash grab. Pedestrians in the DTES have
always been at risk. At present, they're moved beyond a sense of
street ownership, to the point that they'll run into traffic without
even looking.

They get hit and hurt with sickening frequency.

Our anti-smoking bylaw is more efficient than a criminal charge, in
dealing with crack users. Typically, they're smoking within six metres
of a premise entrance and can be ticketed. Whether crack is more or
less cancerous than tobacco is moot; the bylaw speaks to any substance
smoked.

Less time writing reports means more time on patrol, greater safety
for tourists and locals alike.

Raising the bar on pedestrian behaviour is a good thing for
everyone.

While street people do tend to default on fines, warrants issued for
nonpayment can result in good-behaviour release conditions -- another
tool to improve quality and length of life.

There has been such a squawk over this campaign I doubt there will be
another like it soon. It's as though police should conduct a poverty
assessment before enforcing the law, as though we should check with
left-witted lawyers before each campaign is launched.

A picture is painted, in which advocates fight for freedom while
police troll for helpless victims. It simply ain't so.

In my view, if the police department was ordered to force locals onto
buses and out of town, we'd refuse. Our leaders would refuse for us.

I can't resist providing contrast, with a glance back to the 1936
Berlin Olympics. Anyone fitting the Nazi description of undesirable
was swept from city streets far in advance. They were taken to special
detention camps.

Please tell me that local anti-police types don't envision this from
us. My guess is that they don't, and that they're crying controversy
for self-advancement.

My next guess is that the Eastside will look the same during the
Olympics as it does now. Feel free to step up and prove me wrong.