I witnessed a horrifying scene at the Halifax waterfront yesterday. Three men chased down a fourth, began to beat him and then broke a beer bottle, intending to stab him, and the glass went flying into a nearby infant’s stroller. a passing tourist attempted to intervene, and was sucker-punched. All three suspects fled the scene but were arrested within 5 minutes. I went to go check the news sites, figuring that this would be on the front page, or at least the metro section. no mention. so i check the police reports, and nothing. im sorry, did i imagine it?! i also witnessed another, albeit less serious violent act last month that wasnt accounted for at all in the news or arrest reports. all of the Halifax officials say that crime is actually down, but are they fudging the numbers??
if you go and read the arrest reports on the HRP website, no one can deny that something is seriously wrong here. i overheard some tourists on the waterfront talking after the incident and one was laughing bitterly and said “so WHY exactly did you want to come here?!”
there is a warning on Halifax’s wikipedia page that warns travelers about our violence and suggests extra caution and walking in numbers. Lovely.
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2008.
I don’t think they’re fudging. at least the media isn’t. a lot of time there just isn’t space, or something more important came along, or heck, someone in that newsroom just got busy and it slipped through the cracks. I always have to laugh when people see grand consiracy to surpress things when every little incident doesn’t make it into the paper. I bet if you flipped through, it might show up in the cop reports. or maybe in the court briefs eventually. or you know, not at all- sometimes it’s impossible to report on it at all, if no charges have been pressed, it’s an ‘alleged’ incident etc etc.
I don’t think its a big conspiracy but I do think that the news definately doesn’t tell all of the stories that it should. This story I wouldn’t say should make the paper but there are definately things I’ve heard and seen that should of. Also, you can look it up, Halifax crime has definately gone up, not down.
what a shame
If it’s not in the police reports, how is the media supposed to know about it? They can’t print/broadcast stuff they’re not aware of…
It is getting pretty damn close to the time where vigilantism is our only option in getting these losers off our streets. Even if they were convicted they would only get conditional sentences.OUR SAFETY is put at risk when it is deemed too expensive to incarcerate the guilty. This is in DIRECT CONFLICT with our governments mandate…US. Soon the only options left will be either the aforementioned vigilantism or to call a vote of NO CONFIDENCE and tear this broken and pathetic system down piece by ineffectual piece. Personally I think it is high time we file a vote of no confidence…and not just for the provincial government.
wow christopher, I was unaware these streets were officially yours and you could choose exactly what will go on on them, and anythign you deem offensive to your safety must be eradicated by some overarching body without troubling you or having to take any responsibility for the problem or the solution yourself. well done I say!vigilantism isn’t a solution, it’s the beginning of a far far bigger problem. and as far as the media not telling all the stories they should……media is only human. there’s a limitation to what they can cover, and how they can cover it, in the amount of time they have. it might be big news to you, but it might not be enough to nudge something else out of the very limited space available, especially since the days of the overarching cover-it-all newspapers and tv channels are ending, being replaced by specialized mediums, targeting specific markets and topics. point-in-case: the coast. people keep ragging on it on this board (oh the irony) for being addicted to indie etc etc. that’s their mandate. if you want a different sort of reporting, go somewhere else. if we want truely unbiased and universal coverage, as well as safe streets and communities, the key is taking responsibility ourselves as society. media is no longer public, and at the end of the day, newspapers, radio stations, tv shows etc are out to make a buck. not the reporters, but the people chooseing what the reporters cover, how it’s covered, and where in the paper it shows up, if at all. we need to take responsibility for our own community if we want change and quit simply blaming some mysterious ‘them’.
I don’t see where I say the “streets are mine alone”, maybe if you read what I wrote you might realize that our governments (provincial and Fed) have been operating well outside of their mandate for decades…as soon as they started putting corporate interests ahead of the common citizen it was downhill slide. When the judicial system (designed to facilitate a safer community) started weighing the cost of incarceration next to the seriousness of the crime…we pretty much were left to ourselves to defend our safety.Vigilantism is not a solution, you are correct in that but wrong with the rest of your statement on the subject. It is actually a SYMPTOM of a failing and ineffectual judicial system and the publics loss of faith in that system.You may be wrong about vigilantism but you are dead on about the media these days…there is no unbiased reporting going on anymore and that is also a SYMPTOM of decrepit democratic system in it’s final throes of life. Any time journalism is infiltrated by corporate interests, democracy is chipped away at until there is little left for those that need and deserve it.
Highest violent crime in canada is here. Highest violent crime in which the victim does not know the assailant is here. tell me again how nice it is here.I love some things about hali, but this shit certainly isnt one of them. The attititude of the judges and the police and politicians is hillarious.
ok, I’ll play with you on this one- vigilantism is a symptom of the problem. which is why is shouldn’t even be considered the solution. clearly, takign matters into individuals own violent hands is NOT going to help. and dude, people have always taken the cost of incarceration into account. it costs a lot to lock someone up. america has one of the most expensive systems, and it’s sort of funny but those states with the biggest jail systems are also the ones most eager to adopt the death penalty and alternative forms of incarceration, including farms and waht can only amount to work camps to offset the costs. this isn’t a step forward, taking the money out of the equation and thus providing a better form of ‘justice’. it’s a return to a medievel mentality that doesn’t take rehabilitation and the root causes of crime into accoutn at all. Personally, I’d like to see us, as a country, spending MORE and redirecting WHAT we spend, to focus not on lockign someone up and letting them rot, but figuring out WHY they comitted these crimes and ways we can a)rehabiliate the peopel within the system and b) prevent more people from ending up there. Criminals are not victims, but there are sets of life circumstances that raise the chances of criminal behavior, and those are things we as a society can change.and guess what? you can’t do that alone. you need a government and a social system.
Sick of Thugs, well if you haven’t noticed, tourism is down, and the so called officials are trying to bring it up, how? Hide our criminal record. I personally think crime goes up every year. The funny thing about it i read in the papers and head in the news more crime than last year and i watched and read less this year, yet they say crime is declining. I don’t think it is. I just think they don’t want to report it.