Post by John Zeger on Jun 27, 2005 10:56:14 GMT -5
The Four Pillars approach to drug-related crime can be a model for an approach to all crime in Kelowna with a balanced emphasis on enforcement, prevention, treatment, and harm reduction with all four pillars playing an important role.
On the issue of enforcement there is a letter in today's (June 27,2005) Daily Courier where the author states "We should help those who want to be helped, and through the co-ordinated efforts of [various enforcement agencies] we need to continue applying pressure on those who only want to cause trouble, so they don't feel welcome here -- there is a road into Kelowna and a road out. We need to send a strong message to troublemakers around the province that Kelowna, like Port Moody, is tough on troublemakers and crime." I couldn't agree more. I think more could and should be done to drive criminal transients out of town with measures such as toughened vagrancy bylaws. The RCMP in their recent sweep of the downtown have shown that they are able to target that group and separate them from the local homeless population in dealing with the problem. So no one needs to fear that genuinely homeless people will be criminalized. But as for criminal transients and other transient bums that descend on Kelowna in the summer because they find our city a nice place to hang out, we have to send these people packing.
On the issue of enforcement there is a letter in today's (June 27,2005) Daily Courier where the author states "We should help those who want to be helped, and through the co-ordinated efforts of [various enforcement agencies] we need to continue applying pressure on those who only want to cause trouble, so they don't feel welcome here -- there is a road into Kelowna and a road out. We need to send a strong message to troublemakers around the province that Kelowna, like Port Moody, is tough on troublemakers and crime." I couldn't agree more. I think more could and should be done to drive criminal transients out of town with measures such as toughened vagrancy bylaws. The RCMP in their recent sweep of the downtown have shown that they are able to target that group and separate them from the local homeless population in dealing with the problem. So no one needs to fear that genuinely homeless people will be criminalized. But as for criminal transients and other transient bums that descend on Kelowna in the summer because they find our city a nice place to hang out, we have to send these people packing.