We have a small business in Cow Bay. Our windows have been broken once each week for the past four weeks. I know other businesses on 2nd and 3rd Avenue have also had to deal with this problem.
When you receive a phone call in the middle of the night you immediately think something has happened to a family member. When you are told your alarm is activated at your business you have to attend. You are both emotionally and physically drained the next day when you have to operate your business. Then there is the cost of replacing these windows which a small buisness can ill afford.
The City says they are open for business, or is that just BC and not PR with our high taxes or our track record for vandalism.
My question is what is the Mayor and Council doing to address this problem? They receive the police reports on a regular basis, they know the problem.
Instead of beautifying the City for tourists perhaps they could spend that money on cameras like other cities have to deter or to use as evidence to catch these individuals. Council should remember the taxpayers are here all year round not just for a day. It is nice to hear tourists comment, “what a pretty little city”, but they do not know so therefore do not appreciate the money that is spent on sidewalks, cleaning the streets, mowing the lawns, weedeating, emptying garbage cans, all to present PR as a pretty little city and one they will want to come back to.
Do any of these individuals who go through the court system ever get community work hours? Why not have them clean the street, mow the lawns, and emty the garbage?
While this is happening, ask the Mayor why Prince Rupert RCMP write nearly 3 times as many traffic tickets than Terrace RCMP.
I think the RCMP has been told to make traffic tickets a priority.
That needs to change. Tell the mayor that vandalism should be the new priority, and that having an RCMP officer count the number of seconds you spend at a stop sign is NOT a good use of resources.
And, most importantly, this is the bit that you need to remember:
Hold these guys accountable in the next election. Don’t forget these incidents, don’t let them talk their way out of it. They aren’t looking after your needs, don’t vote for them.
The message we’re sending is pretty clear:
Roll a stop sign, and the full force of the law will come down on you.
Break as many windows as you want, it doesn’t matter one bit.
Clearly none of the city counsel are being directly affected by this crime spree or this would already be a priority for the RCMP. I certainly have a mental list of grievances against city counsel that ultimately will be deciding how I vote. Frankly it doesn’t look good for most of them.
Tongue in cheek, but probably expresses some of the feeling out there:
(original is here if you want to make your own version I’m not very creative)
[attachments over a year old automatically deleted]
I’m not that creative either, but here’s my attempt:
[attachments over a year old automatically deleted]
Well I can understand your frustration with council, this is perhaps the least aware bunch of elected officials we’ve seen in a long time. It’s as though they live in some parallel universe where all is well and getting better.
They are shall we say a tad out of touch with what seems to be going on around them, clearly they don’t spend much time walking the streets or touching base with the businesses (What’s left of them) or the actual folks that pay the taxes.
Council, a number of years ago reduced the number of members with the RCMP in our city due to cost, I think we’re down eight or nine from what is supposed to be a normal number.
This means that at times depending on the case load there’s probably few if any members out there to actually do any patrolling.
Now adding those members back in iteslf probably wouldn’t change the situation too, much but at least there would be some more bodies out there to keep a watch on anything that might be suspicious.
The goof balls that are breaking the windows seem to have figured the short staffing thing though, since they break two or three windows in one part of town and then head for another, all the police are tied up on the first three things and well who knows what else is happening in your end of town.
At any rate, not much to advise you on other than to start to put pressure on them (the politicans) …
Maybe have your Cow Bay business society (if it still exists) start a petition, ask the Chamber of Commerce to intervene on your behalf (you do pay dues to them), maybe combine your resources with other businesses in town that have been vandalized and take out an ad in the paper (maybe they’ll be community minded and give you a discount or a freebie) every week list the broken windows and b and e’s in town, with the tag line, anybody interested in doing anything about this?
Or some such thing…
Of course, it all depends on the courts and if these folks are caught if they get nothing more than a slap on the wrist with no restitution or as you suggested at least have to work around town to make amends (suspect that the city workers wouldn’t be keen on that idea though), then I guess it just goes on and on…
Hope you find a way to catch councils ear and remind them that there’s an election coming up in November, right now judging by their peformance over any number of things, I can’t see many sitting there at the moment that I would think should be welcomed back…
Have you ever thought of adding the cameras yourself? Just a suggestion.
With a nice big sign in the window when you’re closed telling them to smile big for the camera so the Judge has something pleasant to look at.
Dlink sells nice little cameras for about 150 bucks, spend another couple hundred bucks to get someone to setup a copy of zoneminder for you and you have a really nice camera system. At least then you can catch the little bastards.
Correct! one small problem though, each cop costs the city around 100,000 each year and what they have been doing (in the okanagan) is using traffic fine revenue to hire more cops. what we have wound up with is gangs of police at the seat belt checks. I shit you not, they hide in the bushes in the median then radio down the next block where you will find no less than 7 cops huddled around writing tickets.
Back on topic though, i bet that camera idea would be the best deterent
Irony: This vandalism is pissing off businesses more than average joes. The business community is supposed to be Herb’s base, isn’t it? What’s more, the solutions people are giving: install your own cameras. That’s like saying that Rupert isn’t open for business, and that crime is your responsibility, not the city’s. Too funny!
[attachments over a year old automatically deleted]
Tooo funny that photo, so far the best of the photoshop bunch… Gotta get myself that program, oh the evil you could do with it… 
As for the crime thing, was kind of wondering myself why the actual evidence gathering and investigation of crime and such had suddenly deflected to the citizens, last time I checked part of the tax collection system was dedicated to safety issues around the community.
Hell, if not, then we may as well form up some posse’s and run them thar varmints outta town then I guess…
The Business in cow bay was hit again last night. (Sweet treats) They do have cameras. The problem is if their not 1080p the courts will say they can’t be used as evidence. The other problem is they don’t see though hoodies.
outlaw hoodies. 
Sounds like the better option is to camp out there a few nights until they catch them red handed.
or set up a speed trap and seat belt check stop and let the ancillary crime flow…
[quote=“Sockpuppet”]
Irony: This vandalism is pissing off businesses more than average joes. The business community is supposed to be Herb’s base, isn’t it? What’s more, the solutions people are giving: install your own cameras. That’s like saying that Rupert isn’t open for business, and that crime is your responsibility, not the city’s. Too funny! [/quote]
I love how this is reminiscent of Rick Mercer’s Photo Challenge…actually, that could be a really interesting pre-campaign poke. 
[attachments over a year old automatically deleted]
Attention window breakers – Subway’s windows are now repaired. However, I hear the police have stationed a few officers across the street at some local coffee establishment, so things should be safe now. At least I think they’ve stationed them there, since there are always police cars parked there. Good show!