Die vorübergehende Schließung der Bibliothek in der Innenstadt von Hamilton ist angesichts der Drogenprobleme ein „letzter Ausweg“.
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/hamilton-library-drugs-homelessness/article_cd238914-1949-51e7-a0d7-6b788a9e243c.html
4 Kommentare
Canadian police refuse to arrest drug criminals. So those criminals are emboldened to go into any public space and trash it, so law-abiding citizens can no longer use the public services they pay for.
Arresting drug criminals is progressive social policy.
What does closing the library accomplish? It’s not like people HAVE to take their children there if they don’t want to. If it closes they won’t even have the option.
What would it take for police and the court system to be able to enforce arrests for public illegal drug use and intoxication? In my recent trips to MTL and TO, it’s just everywhere day and night.
But more importantly, to what level of success do police investigate and intercept imported or domestically-produced drugs? We can’t fix an ever-growing addiction and mental health epidemic overnight with supportive measures and thoughtful policy; but we can cut off supply and arrest people responsible for trafficking drugs.
>Meanwhile, the Central Branch has felt the impact of hollowed-out services downtown, including the closure of a supervised drug-use site at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on James Street South in line with a provincial ban, Coun. Cameron Kroetsch said.
>“People depended on those services. They don’t have them anymore,” said Kroetsch, a library board member, said during Wednesday’s meeting.
>Moreover, an increasingly expensive housing market has further limited where people can use drugs, the Ward 2 councillor said.
>Kroetsch was also critical of a council decision early last year to scrap a 2023 protocol that had permitted people set up tents in parks in favour of bylaw enforcement that displaces them. “I think this issue is much bigger than the library.”
Hopefully, they implement more support services to handle this. Moral panic against SIS‘ and other support services are just not practical or helpful. Homelessness is a housing problem and this is likely just another one of the unintended side effects of expensive housing.