WE'RE PAYING FOR FUTILE EXERCISE

Nothing irks me more than hearing about the police crackdown in the
Downtown Eastside.

What I see is thousands of dollars being spent on a crackdown that has
no long-term benefits. It's nothing more than a temporary solution.

The so-called four pillars solution requires that all pillars be in
place.

The crackdown only proves that if you put a police officer on every
corner, the dealers and users will move out of the area. This is an
expensive exercise to prove the obvious.

Does the Vancouver Police Department believe that drug use will
decrease when dealers are moved? Addicts are addicts and without some
sort of treatment these people will not change.

What bothers me most is that as taxpayers we are paying for
this.

When the day comes when we can no longer afford the downtown
crackdown, what then? The street corners and alleys will go back to
the dealers and users. The Downtown Eastside crackdown is nothing more
than a waste of everyone's money.

Graham Dingsdale, Vancouver