17:06 What a stupid question in the article's title!

It's time to stop pussyfooting around the issue and treat these people like the scum they are.

I'm sorry, but there is every resource imaginable for the drug addicted and mentally ill. We have publicly funded therapists and medication to help with mental illness. We have counseling and drug alternatives to help with heroin, amphetamines and crack cocaine.

I KNOW people who have been in that place, and when they decided to turn around their life it was.so easy for them to get help, food, job placement and subsidized housing.

They don't want help, they want to live a care free life where they get to do whatever they want and sponge off the tax payer.

A person should be eligible for a maximum of 3 months of benefits, if you can't turn your life around in 3 months you are worthless.

I said what i said.

I think the mayor of Vancouver is getting bribes from drug smugglers.

We have same issue in Seattle….

I guarantee that 100% of the people complaining voted for the socialist Liberal or NDP party every chance they got. Hahaha Enjoy!

I’m living in downtown and I was driving couple days ago in East Hastings St, I saw young girl just 17 or 18y and i got emotional . Very sad to see .

Immediate Death Penalty for ALL drug dealers would sort this mess out in 6 months…Dead Drug dealers rotting in a cage hoisted up for all to see in City Center!

2 WORDS…..LIBERAL CITY…..FACTS

Thank leftist/socialist Canadians, which is the majority. Canada will eventually collapse in the future.

I longtime was in love with that city even considered moving out to Van. I went back in March 21 for a snowboard trip in Whistler and spent 5 days in Vancouver and was so disappointed. Stanley park & especiaply Granville island…. Somebody in the comment above pointed out to the strong liberal politic view which I could agree with that statement. The cost of living is off chart due to the real estate and wages just don't follow. It's a true statement in most part of the worls but Vancouver is even stronger. Not estranged to Seatle…

This is very enlightening and provides insight into the politics supporting such chaos.

Lol… for a minute I thought this was Vancouver, Washington not Vancouver BC.

this is awfully so sad … wtf

Keep voting ndp or liberal and this is the future we will get across the country

The thing with 4 year election cycles is that absolutely no one is held accountable for their actions. They just pass on the issues onto the next party and get re-elected 4 years later. This is unfolding right before our eyes and we're blind.

Just now someone is smashing bottles in the middle of the streets with a cart, in New West.

#bullshit

Hippies dont want any laws…thats what ya get living there

Clearly, this is an agenda. Mass rehabilitation centers are the only way out of this. #openriverview #openbeds

Progressive policies kill civilizations.

Justin Trudeau is a bottom feeder! People who elect him and his like are the PROBLEM! Let's be honest, Canada is a dump. Who would want to live there?

Do Not be a Soft Target !…….even nut jobs fear brutality

Bonnie Henry has always been about treating British Columbians like one large test subject with no hard evidence based proof of success.

The "cities" of the world do not care for the citizens.

Crazy how a country turning into LA or USA where, many Canadians are moving to my small in CA where housing prices went up.

Sign of times, Winnipeg is proportionally getting worse as well in terms of homelessness on the streets. The root cause is much more complex than an average Canadian is aware of, but in symbolic terms the Rome is falling. Also to add to this, Putin in a sense is fighting woke liberalism, just to be clear, I do not endorse the extremes he went to but our western ways seem to have confused tolerance with ignorance.

There are a few things to unpack here:

Firstly, it goes without saying that crime has escalated here in Vancouver. It is a regular sight to see building front windows smashed / boarded up (however, in countries like Spain, almost all business have shutters to protect their businesses, which might be where we're heading). And, you really do see people shooting up, standing in the heroin hunch, or collapsed on the sideway literally everywhere.

I don't think enough is done by law enforcement to protect businesses or the general public. The priority with them is on traffic crime, which safer and profitable. Good luck getting help from law enforcement on the non-emergency line (for less serious, but still criminal situations). I've tried it twice and have had to wait 30 minutes to get through. By that point, what you needed them for is long since over. I don't think increasing the number of law enforcement officers is the solution; it's about them being directed to deal with things that really matter.

Secondly, the video exaggerates violent crime in Vancouver and stokes fear (the music unnecessarily intentionally plays on this, which undermines the journalistic efforts that I'm sure Aaron put into this). Coming from the UK, I can tell you that this is still an extremely safe city. The average town or city in the UK is much more violent! The comments from the person in the video outside of the Provincial Court about looking at someone being a risk is nonsense. Try the same thing in the UK and you'll see what I mean. Even kids there will pick a fight with an adult if you look at them the wrong way. Go try it if you don't believe me!

Thirdly – and perhaps more importantly – EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED. People look for simple causes for problems and, therefore, simple solutions. Life isn't simple. Problems are not simple. The solutions to this city, including house prices, aren't simple. One thing connects to a whole host of other things that also needs to be dealt with. Crime isn't just the cause of drugs. It's the cause of unhappy people (whether due to poverty, abuse, stress, anger, and other mental health issues) using drugs to escape their reality and then doing things to either sustain that habit (i.e. theft) or lashing out at the world in ways that they probably wouldn't do without the drug (as many of us do after drinking alcohol). The causes of such misery are escalating. COVID policies in this city hugely amplified the issues of affordability in an already tough enough city to afford to live in: lockdowns / restrictions / 'temporary closures' destroyed businesses, increased unemployment, caused massive financial instability (even worse now with the inflation caused by the costs of COVID policies), increased mental health issues, and left some people (including children) at home in abusive households. This was obviously going to lead to an increase in poverty, mental health, and drug use. Now, the city is reaping what it sowed.

Lastly, I consider myself to be a very liberal person. However, putting buildings for drug users and people with severe mental health issues in neighborhoods throughout the city puts everyone in contact with such people on a daily basis and, therefore, puts everyone at risk – the only exceptions, of course, are the really rich neighborhoods like Shaughnessy and Point Grey Road, where they are protected from all of this, and have patrol cars pretty regularly driving through. The City was moronic to think that it was smart to close down mental health hospitals like Riverview, then to have policies that actively led to an increase in mental health issues and drug use, then intentionally scattered people with serious mental health and drug issues across all neighborhoods to force us to 'live together' without the average person having any clue how to deal with such people (no training, no advice, nothing), including people with children and old people. The City treats this issue like they do with unblocking the drains – it's your civic duty to deal with these things apparently. When I found a man unconscious in an alley and phoned 911, they told me to go to him and talk to him and ask him if he's okay. This sounds a nice thing to do in principal, but what if he's violent? What are the people on the emergency lines thinking? "I wouldn't want to deal with that dude, so I'll get the citizen to deal with it for us." I mean, come on.

Anyway, the problems are escalating for sure. The violence isn't as bad as the media makes it out to be, but it is an inevitable thing that will continue to grow if the city doesn't deal with the multitude of interconnecting factors that cause crime.

enjoy what you voted for 🤣🤣🤣 Vancouver is a shthole

The homeless population needs help, this is so sad to see.

I left because I saw it coming back in 2016. You keep up with the communist garbage and this is what you get.

Vancouver's problem is that they've tried to put a bandaid on a huge gaping wound that's been gushing for *decades*. Vancouver has North America's longest standing open air dr-g market. The way many other NA cities learned to deal with the opiate crisis was using Vancouver as a blueprint. The country, province, and city sold itself out to the highest bidders and didn't do much with the funds to help anything.

And if you think a simple vote in one direction or the next can save you — I point you to Alberta. And Ontario. This requires a collective of people who aren't here to pocket money or play woke/antiwoke bullshhh. This takes people who will roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done and pay the cost that will come with it.

I live in Calgary and this scary

So a retired police doesn’t know what systemic racism is…. Roger that

Hopefully we get even more guns removed, none of these innocent citizens should have a right to defend themselves!