A message that will fall on deaf ears thanks to Comrade Miller and his band of social in-activists.......
John Turley-Ewart: Pandhandling is not a right. It should be a crime
BATB: Toronto, Clean Up Your Act
A tourist in Toronto is assaulted, stabbed, and dies at the hands of four disgruntled panhandlers, and they’re being charged with “aggravated assault” and “assault causing bodily harm”? Excuse me? A man is dead. What are Toronto officials thinking? (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=95f960d8-02ac-4ec5-bfc2-b59c18261590&k=65825)
Well, one Phil Brown, Toronto’s general manager of shelter, support, and housing services apparently thinks that “Toronto’s a compassionate city and it doesn’t believe in punishing people, frankly, for their situation.”
So, it's OK for homeless street people to assault and kill someone and not be “punished” for their crime, just because they have no fixed address, while the rest of Toronto's law-abiding, taxpaying citizens can continue to be punished on a daily basis by ineffectual city officials who refuse to deal with the city's increasingly ugly homeless/panhandler situation?
TO’s beginning to feel like New York City in the late '70s: derelict, desperate, and dangerous. City officials need to consult with NYC about how they cleaned up their downtown core when Rudy Guiliani was mayor and made it attractive and safe for Noo Yawk residents and tourists.
No more nonsense, Phil Brown and other bleeding hearts, about a “social service” response to the issue—meaning social services to aggressive panhandlers but not to the rest of us. There are 5000 homeless people in Toronto and a few more million other residents.
How about some “social services” to Torontonians who are paying the bills, in the form of cleaning up our mean streets?
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Aggressive beggars cause for concern in Canadian cities. I can't remember the last time I gave money to a panhandler. Even the cute one winking and smiling at me with his hand outstretched in Vancouver couldn't wheedle a loonie from me. On sunny days -- which I was lucky enough.. 
3 comments:
clearly 'been around the block' has never spent any significant time in "Noo Yawk".
From what I can understand things were pretty bad until Guiliani came in with his "fix the broken window" philosphy that scofflaw perps just create a climate for more violent acts. It is true Toronto is not New York by any stretch of the imagination and I don't think it is a goal we should be trying to achieve so "let's fix our broken windows."
the point that seems lost on many, is that banning isn't a solution, but people seem desperate for something that will make them feel better. Pitfield has proven herself a master at appeasing the masses with flowery words that have nothing to do with reality. There are already laws on the books, simply enforce them better and get on with things.
Simple.
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