Letter: Crime spree for others. victimhood for you and me

 

Violent crime is on the upswing these days.

 

Price of just about anything is rising, inflation or not, as businesses and governments compete for our excess dollars, but do we have that extra dollar to spend? Our financial difficulty is related to the crime uptick throughout the world, let alone in Canada. It is very difficult for some to make ends meet. 

 

Chilliwack, BC has a 16% increase in violent crime, a 10% increase in priority calls such as a risk of violence to a person. While property crimes are slightly down, our neighbors are taking their frustration out on others, their family members, neighbors or total strangers.

 

To add coal onto this fire, is a increase in hate crimes, threats and acts of vandalism. RCMP detachments have recorded a considerable increase in drug centered crimes, serious assaults, robberies and burglary events. Much of this is centered upon money, or the lack of money. Governments have stopped their COVID payouts, direct assistance to individuals and businesses, and getting onto a government social program is more difficult than ever before. 

 

Gang membership is on the rise, as youths search for ways to make the funds they and their families require. The turnstile justice presented to Canadians presents a process of arrest followed by near immediate release of offenders. Stores are experiencing gang assaults, raids where a group of people enter a store and then ransack it. The crime of theft. once a severely punishable crime, has developed into a cottage industry particularly within the urban centers of Canada.

 

Have you witnessed individuals going through your back yard, looking around, acting as Hydro-Gas Agents when in fact they are scouting out your home for probable burglary. Fraud challenges out elderly on a daily basis, where criminals victimize seniors in person or on the internet. Fraud towards the elderly in Canada has risen some 168%, and our police departments are out numbered, and often out hacked by the criminal element. 

 

Sometimes the police can arrest the criminals, and retrieve the stolen vehicles, but often once stolen, bye bye. Insurance rates are rising because this continual theft of vehicles, and damage to private property is forever growing seemingly in an unstoppable fashion.

 

We need our vehicles in Canada, no matter what the environmentalists tell us to do, like use public transit etc. We invest in a home, a vehicle and our lives too, yet we are challenged by criminality at every turn. 

 

People who have the privilege of owning a cottage or vacation spot may have experienced criminal activities such as theft, break and enter, people moving into unoccupied cottages, and vandalism. Respect for the possessions of others seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird. Rage and violence are witnessed in Grocery Stores, Retail Outlets, and Public Places with more frequency, and police calls have escalated since the pandemic.

 

Less serious crimes are often reported and not acted upon by the police who are outnumbered, overworked, and stressed themselves. I know of an incident in Bradford a while back where the Simcoe Police released a fugitive wanted in another region, and that person stole a car at a gas station while being videoed. More concerned about the ramifications of the wrongful release than helping the victim of the crime, the police have a lot to answer for, but no one is championing the victim, as usual. 

 

We are victims to be, walking around with targets on our foreheads.

 

There is no way we can tell who is a criminal or friend. Friend or foe, that is the challenge each of us must live with. And we continue to pay our taxes without question like to Canadian Sheep that we are. Americans at least complain, but Canadians, not so much.

 

Does victimhood feel good? Have we become accustomed to crime and victimhood's many influences? Gloria Stein once said "that feminism is not women as victims, but women refusing to be victimized".

 

Let's apply that to victimization by criminals. Stand your ground and fight the good fight.

 

Shawn Davis once said" that injustice, like pain, is a birthright we all receive once we become members of society". The challenge we face is how we accept the challenge, and what will we do to lessen our pain, our struggles, our thirst for peace and safety.