One of the very hot topics here in Winnipeg is auto theft. It seems that we are known world wide for this epidemic, and most of the culprits are kids aged 13-17.
They say a car is stolen here in Manitoba every 30 minutes. I thought this was just a number, until we became a statistic in February of last year, when our beloved 'Tunia was stolen. I was LIVID!!
Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) issued a "Hot list" of the 150 most popular stolen cars, and if yours was one on that list, you were entitled to a free car immobilizer and a rebate on your insurance. Of course my piece-o-crap 1993 Cavalier just missed this list by two years, but I digress.
MPI put the onus on the car owners to get these immobilizers installed, which got me to thinking. If this is such a problem in Winnipeg, why are car dealerships even allowed to sell cars without these stupid things?
And besides that, we in Canada have this thing called the "Youth Criminal Justice Act" which basically allows kids to become repeat offenders, and never suffer any consequences to their actions. Their names cannot be released, and many times they are just released back into the community.
There was an incident here last week where three kids, aged 13-17 stole a car and intentionally ran down a 49 year old man as he was jogging. They were charged with dangerous driving, but not attempted murder, because the Crown said that he thought these kids were "just playing a game, and if they wanted to kill him, they would have hit him head on." I guess it's o.k. because they just clipped him with the mirror.
Most of these stolen cars are recovered with far too much damage to be saved, and when these kids are caught, it usually results in a high speed chase through the city, with the driver playing smash up derby along the way. This, in turn, raises our insurance EVERY YEAR.
The government has to get rid of this Youth Criminal Justice Act, and start making car theft a thing of the past, and holding these kids responsible.
Things aren't all bad though, Winnipeg police have hired 5 more cops into the car theft dept. which brings us up to 10. (WOW!)
If only they brought back public caning....
P.S. I'm usually not for violence, but I'm really getting sick of seeing this everyday in our papers...that, and it's only 85 days until the first Bomber game.
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3 comments:
Craziness!
My brother and sister-in-law's car was broken into (cd player stolen) while parked behind their home.
THis is why I have a strict "i'm not buying a car" policy. Yup. (ok, sarcasm doesn't carry well on the interweb, i keep forgetting that).
and Hi Chris! I'll tell Mikey you say hi :)
Hey Chris... Irene says Hi!
Yeah, I think public caning would be great. But I say have it during halftime during bomber games. They just line up like 50 kids all in a row. Throw em on the jumbotron... extreme close ups of their faces and presto... problem solved... well not really, but you know.
fuckers outta breath
it's because of all the fat in his chest!
That is crazy - at least over here the law now says they are responsible once they reach 10 years old. Having said that, it really takes a lot of pushing to get anything done about kids of this age. Public flogging does have a certain appeal!
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