Chief Chu, Don't Cancel Tickets Issued to Sidewalk Bicyclists

Just when the VPD finally did something to deter bicycling on the sidewalk, Downtown Eastside activists are lobbying the VPD to cancel tickets for that and other "nuisance" offences such as jaywalking and illegal street vending.

Activists claim the VPD unfairly targeted the Downtown Eastside last winter for ticketing. They're probably right. I had never seen a bicylist on the sidewalk ticketed until I saw it on March 17, 2009 at Abbott & Carroll. I was so surprised that I stopped to snap the above photo of it. I heard a male cop tell the male bicyclist that he was getting a ticket of $109 for riding on the sidewalk and $29 for riding without a helmet.

VPD Chief Jim Chu denies police specifically targeted the Downtown Eastside for ticketing last winter, but he's promising a decision on the request for cancellations will be made by the next police board meeting July 15th.

Chief Chu, don't cancel tickets issued to sidewalk bicyclists.

Instead, step up ticketing of bicyclists on sidewalks in other neighbourhoods, especially up Main St. where the bicyclists ride fast, sometimes directly into crowds of people waiting for the bus at rush hour. Bicylists on the sidewalk are a real menace. What always amazes me as I walk up Main St. by the sky train station is how they gear up with helmets -- helmets are less common on the Downtown Eastside -- and other equipment so that they are safe as they weave around the spines of pedestrians.

One reason activists say the tickets should be cancelled is that it takes people 11 months to maneouver through the court system. No mention of the pedestrian who manoeuvers through a lifetime with a spinal injury.

I'm tired of sidewalk cylists hiding behind a veil of green. They're dangerous.

Sharon Get your Gun

There is something so Canadian about the reactions of women runners to the murder of Wendy Ladner-Beaudry in Pacific Spirit Park at UBC. Over and over again, women have been telling the media that they will get a whistle.  One woman said she will be giving out whistles.  American women would be holding taser parties or applying to get real guns.  But Canadians seem to be long past thinking along those lines.

Except for Sharon Gregson.  

Gregson, a Vancouver School Board trustee, caused a furor when she posed on the cover of a gun magazine and stated that she believes that women should be allowed to carry guns for personal protection.  

Actually, if there is anyone who should be feared it's Sharon Gregson.  Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry have a paper trail of evidence establishing that Gregson is one of the trustees who has been covering up the use of criminal tactics and political psychiatry by the School Board to deter bullying complaints.  These tactics are behind the current international boycott of Vancouver School Board diplomas.  Gregson is not roaming the woods ready to pounce and murder but the tactics she has tolerated at the VSB, particularly smear tactics involving the manufacture of psyhiatric and police records to destroy the reputation of a complainant, could conceivably result in the death of a targeted citizen.   But when it comes to Gregson's gun stance, I'd like to hear more from her.  

Over the past month, the American radio show Coast to Coast radio has twice had a guest -- I'm trying to remember his name -- who did his Ph.d research on gun violence.  He claims that gun men on shooting sprees in the U.S. consistently choose places where guns are prohibited; unarmed people make easier victims. In Vancouver yesterday, the would be jewelry store robbers on Robson St. ran out of the store immediately after the owner fired one shot.  I was surprised the owner even had a gun. 

Dr. Laura has a gun.  She's a karate expert but she's not relying solely on that to protect her if she is a victim of crime.  She has a problem with California's gun law though, that requires that you keep your bullets separate from your gun.  Dr. Laura makes fun of the fact that when being attacked you have to stop and load the bullets into your gun.  That's about as effective as jogging in Pacific Spirit Park with a whistle.   A whistle is better than nothing, but I think women jogging should at least carry a knife; afterall, they have to have something on them to carve up the apple they take with them for a snack.