LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS NOT TO BLAME FOR JUNKIES' LIFE CHOICES

To the editor:

Oh my, I just read Kamala Todd's Ode to World Peace and had to write
("Getting tough on crime won't cure what ails us," Letters, Dec. 19).

What Ms. Todd is saying is everything that has become boneheaded and
just plain wrong about Vancouver. That fidgety man in my living room
with his pockets bulging with heirloom jewelry and a digital camera,
threatening me with the broken knife I threw out last week, isn't a
pest or one of "those people," he's my fellow human, neighbour and
citizen?

Phew, I thought he was a strung-out junkie who, desperate for a fix,
saw my house as a convenient shopping mall for fenceable goods. What a
relief! And even better, it's my fault he has to steal. Who knew?

When I look out my window, walk down the street, or go to work, I
don't see quite the same bleak world that Ms. Todd does. I see a world
that has looked pretty much the same, with regular technological
upgrades, since we came out of the caves. It is competitive, and we
like our stuff, and we want to protect it and our families.

Rather than making ourselves feel guilty and ashamed of the way just
about every civilization has created itself, would it not be better to
deal directly with the problems, looking for solutions that do not
require a reversal of thousands of years of human development?

Those Ms. Todd calls pejoratively, "the Patty Milsoms of the world"
are really just people who do not believe that accepting the fear and
inconvenience of repeated criminal acts is any way for a city to behave.

Along with the support services and resources to prevent people from
falling through the cracks should come zero tolerance for behaviour
that victimizes people, compromises their safety and makes them afraid
to leave their homes.

I believe Vancouver is becoming, or has become, at least officially, a
city that accepts crime and lawlessness and indeed blames itself for
such transgressions. This is rot. I don't care what your life story
is, you do not have permission to rob me or my family, vandalize
public property, or invade my home. I may be my brother's keeper, but
I am not to blame for his negative life choices.

Ian Forsyth

Vancouver