JUNKIES' CRIMES ARE NOT 'PETTY'

Re: "For a cocaine addict, safe sites mean safer streets," April 28

When writer Jack Knox talks about addicts supporting themselves
through "petty crime," I truly hope he is not referring to the kind of
armed robbery that our business suffered at the hands of a pair of
local heroin junkies.

I hope he isn't being casual about break and entering crimes like the
one our store suffered that caused several thousand dollars worth of
damage, again by heroin addicts who were known to police. I hope that
Alan Lowe and the rest of city council do not think that any of the
other crimes that occur on an almost daily basis against the
businesspeople of this community are "petty."

I hope he doesn't expect someone who comes home to find their home
violated by a burglary to think that it's just a petty little thing.

They are crimes, nothing petty about them.

Thomas G. McVeigh,

Victoria.