Floyd Wiebe Blog

Well Stacey is moving out today. Karen and I will now be empty-nesters. Lynndon and Stacey bought a beautiful home in Transcona.

Pex & Thrills - 2 of my favourite things!

2011-10-29T22:34:00.001-05:00

I was at Walmart tonight and I saw a "PEZ" rack and I had to buy some. I loved Pez when I was a little kid my favourite candy by far... Pez and "Thrills" my favourite gum that tastes like soap!

My son Chad all ready for Halloween !

2011-10-29T21:21:00.001-05:00

My son Chad all ready for Halloween!

2011-10-29T21:19:00.001-05:00

Largest Yacht in The World - Owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

2011-10-29T16:10:00.001-05:00

I bet my little 16 footer - 70HP gets better gas mileage!

M/Y Eclipse is a luxury motor yacht constructed by Blohm + Voss in Hamburg, Germany. Its exterior and interior were designed by Terence Disdale Design and its naval architect was Francis Design.^[4] The yacht was delivered to Russian businessman Roman Abramovich on 9 December 2010. At 163.5 metres (536 ft) long,^[5] Eclipse is the world's largest private yacht, 0.5 metres (1 ft 8 in) longer than the Dubai, which belongs to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai.^[2] The yacht's initial cost to buy was estimated at €340 million (approx. US$475M as of September 2011),^[2] but a September 2009 report indicated that final costs could approach €800 million (US$1.12B).^[6]

Eclipse has two helicopter pads, 24 guest cabins, two swimming pools, several hot tubs and a disco hall.^[7] It is also equipped with three launch boats, and a mini-submarine that is capable of submerging to 50 metres. Approximately 70 crew members are needed to operate the yacht.

For security, Eclipse is fitted with intruder detection systems and a German-built missile defence system.^[2]^[8] Abramovich's master suite and the yacht's bridge are fitted with armour plating and bullet-proof windows.^[8] The yacht is reportedly equipped with an anti-paparazzi shield in the form of lasers that sweep the surroundings, and when they detect a CCD, they shine a light right at the camera to prevent the photograph. According to The Times, these do not run all the time, so friends and guests should still be able to take pictures. Instead, they will be activated when guards spot likely professional photographers nearby.^[6]

Eclipse was launched on 12 June 2009.^[9] It arrived in Frederikshavn, Denmark on September 18, 2009 for tests, and was delivered to Abramovich on December 9, 2010.^[3] First pictures of the completed yacht were taken at Kristiansand, Norway during its refuelling.^[10]

In February 2011 Eclipse was made available for charter through SuperYachtsMonaco,^[11] a yacht brokerage company based in Monaco.

Abramovich's private fleet consists of five motor yachts: Eclipse, Sussurro, Titan, Umbra, and Luna. He gave Le Grand Bleu to his associate and friend Eugene Shvidler in June 2006. He sold Ecstasea in June 2009 to an unknown Egyptian. He handed over Pelorusto his ex-wife Irina in 2009 as part of their divorce settlement, which she then sold to David Geffen for $300 million in 2011.

Halloween Light Show 2011 - Party Rock Anthem

2011-10-24T18:25:00.001-05:00

This TV show used to scare me so much I had nightmares...

2011-10-22T09:08:00.001-05:00

I got a DVD collection of the 1963 TV series "The Outer Limits" for my BDay... In 1963, I was 9 years old and I'd watch this show with all the lights turned off and have scary nightmares.

Today, you watch it, and it's pretty funny. Movies like "Saw" would never have been allowed back then. Sometimes I wonder how nice it would be to go back to those "innocent" days.

Today, nothing is shocking, we're all to used to it... Too accepting of it... Well that's my musing for this morning...

Beautiful Foggy Morning at the cottage...

2011-10-22T08:45:00.001-05:00

Human Rights Museum glass windows look strange...

2011-10-21T17:12:00.001-05:00

I don't know if this is intentional, but look at the glass and it's variety of colors. I would think that they would want the glass to be all the same color. This just looks weird to me and kind of cheap. If this is supposed to be world-class architecture I think someone made a mistake.

But I guess I'll wait until it's finished and maybe it will make sense once everything is put together.

TJ's Gift Foundation at the Manitoba Principal's Conference - Stonewall Collegiate

2011-10-21T14:01:00.001-05:00

Calgary shows how a safer downtown can be created.

2011-10-21T13:32:00.001-05:00

You know, why do we have to wait to see success at another city before we figure it out. I mean it's not rocket science! Please read this great article...

By Stefano Grande
Exec Director
Downtown Biz
It might sound radical and idealistic for a city to commit to a plan to "end homelessness." But that's exactly what Calgary has done. While there will always be those individuals who experience homelessness, Calgary has a plan to move people through -- and out -- of the system, ending chronic homelessness and the cycle of homelessness. And so far, it's working. If Calgary can help those less fortunate people who are struggling with social and mental-health issues off their downtown streets, through a housing-first model, so can Winnipeg. There is no doubt that from a physical perspective, the downtown is on a roll, good things are happening and there are more and more people working, living in and visiting our downtown. But it's time the social issues are tackled in the same aggressive manner, and in doing so, safety issues will improve for everyone. Two weeks ago, more than 40 CEOs and community leaders got together to raise awareness for homelessness issues in our city. More than $100,000 was raised for the Downtown BIZ's Change for the Better program, which employs those less fortunate who are willing to change their lives through a steady job. The highlight of the event was speaker Tim Richter, from the Calgary Homeless Foundation. He noted social and mental-health issues are at times seen among those less fortunate in our downtown who panhandle and are intoxicated. Creating housing for this community -- with supports to maintain this housing -- helps these people off the street, permanently. It can make downtown safer for everyone and bring about an end to homelessness. Consider some of Richter's key points from Calgary's experience. -- A housing-first approach has almost eliminated panhandling and public intoxication in a safer downtown. -- The model has saved governments substantial money -- $134,000 per person per year for chronically homeless people versus a housing and support cost of $10,000 to $25,000 per person per year. -- It was determined in 2007 that more than $320 million was being spent every year in Calgary on homelessness. If nothing was done, the cumulative cost of homelessness could have been more than $9 billion in the next decade. -- About 3,000 supportive housing units have been created in the last six years, with an 85 per cent average housing retention rate. Homelessness across Alberta is dropping. Edmonton saw a 21 per cent decrease from 2008 to 2010; Fort McMurray, 42 per cent; and Lethbridge, 53 per cent. Winnipeg can learn from this approach. Government leadership, however, is needed to put a comprehensive plan together and then attract long-term funding from all levels of government and potentially from the corporate community. It's clear our development agency, CentreVenture, which recently created downtown's first supportive housing project, is willing to move quickly to partner with others to create more supportive housing projects in the short term. In the long-term, the recently formed Poverty Reduction Council, a community entity like the Calgary Homeless Foundation, can play a critical role in sustaining this approach. All that is needed is a nod from the city or province, or preferably both, with the complete support and involvement of our aboriginal and Métis communities and service providers. We have all witnessed the costs, economically and to our pride, associated with Winnipeg not moving forward in addressing its social issues as aggressively as it should. Stefano Grande is the executive director of the Downtown Biz. Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press.

Any 1 know what 2 guys sitting in these trailers do? Gotta be boring whatever they do, unless they got an iPhone.

2011-10-07T09:17:00.001-05:00

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A group of people that have the most stressful job in the world...

2011-10-06T14:00:00.001-05:00

This morning, I had the honour of being the opening keynote speaker at this conference of child and youth care workers. Prior to me speaking was a drum group led by my dear friend Jenna Liiciious. Hearing the amazing sounds of this group really gave me the ability to speak, as the songs are very heartwarming.

Here is a few seconds of the drum group:

I told TJ's story to the group, but told it in a different way this morning, much shorter, and encouraged all the workers that their jobs are the the most difficult jobs in the world for the least amount of pay. These fine people help take care of kids that need parental care where it isn't available. They truly are an inspirational group..

Where do these people come from?

2011-10-06T13:25:00.001-05:00

Some woman (Melody Sanford) tells her friends and relatives that her new husband is abusive to her, so they lay in wait, with baseball bats, and tire irons and beat the shit out of him, killing him...

They now say they had no intention of killing the guy. Oh I wonder what else would a baseball bat and tire iron on the head do?

Let's just hope that these killers all get convicted of the 1st degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, that they are charged with.

Very similar to our case where my son TJ was murdered, four accused of 1st degree murder and conspiracy, but ultimately, not one of the four was convicted as charged. You can read about our case OVER HERE.

With quotes from the Winnipeg Sun...

"Melody Sanford duped her husband’s accused killers into believing he was a violent, dangerous man who wouldn’t leave her alone, one of the men claimed in a police interview video played for jurors Wednesday."

Ivan (John) Radocaj, 43, a former wrestler once known as the Croatian Giant, was found beaten to death in his Interlake area home on Sept. 14, 2007.

“Everybody’s thinking this guy is a big bad guy,” Donald Richard said. “We were all trying to be helpful, sympathetic.”

I didn't even know I owned a store in Vermont!!!

2011-10-05T11:44:00.001-05:00

My friends are travelling through Vermont and came across Floyd's General Store... What a hoot!

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Young killers 'are poor lost kids,' not sociopaths

2011-10-01T10:13:00.001-05:00

This article is one of the best written columns I've seen about young killers. I've written quite a bit about this subject, and this article certainly fits with my understandings. In case you missed it, here is a recent featured editorial that I wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press on October 1, 2011, CLICK HERE

Winnipeg Free Press

By: Gordon Sinclair Jr.

Posted: 10/1/2011 1:00 AM

It was shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday and I was driving on Sherbrook Street just north of Ellice Avenue when I spotted the three teenage boys and pulled over.

I had a question.

"Are you afraid of being stabbed when you're on the street?"

One of the boys, a 16-year-old with a cluster of love-bite bruises on his neck, answered in an indirect but telling way.

"My cousin was stabbed to death on College and Aikins."

His cousin was Clark "Clarky" Stevenson. The street stabbing happened early on the morning of Sept. 10 and two teenagers have since been charged with killing the 15-year-old because they believed he was affiliated with a gang. One of the accused is 18, the other only 14.

I could tell the kid who is living with the death of his cousin wanted to talk more, but the leader of the group pulled him away. But he called back that we would meet later at the Tim Hortons across Portage Avenue.

"Five o'clock," he said.

-- -- --

The next day, I had another appointment, this time with Dr. Keith Hildahl, the head of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's child adolescent mental health program.

I had a related question for him, too.

How does a kid get to the point in his life where he can look some other kid in the eye and stab him in the heart?

Actually, I'd been thinking about that long before Friday's Free Press story about teenagers being the victim or the accused in nine of the city's 32 murders so far this year.

My initial curiosity came from constant police reports of people, mostly young people from the inner city, being stabbed but not necessarily dying.

Subsequently, I read about kids in what amounts to inner-city American war zones who witness and live with the threat of violence in their homes and neighbourhoods and how so many of them suffer the emotion-numbing after-effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. I wondered if that could be part of the reason kids in inner-city Winnipeg can kill other kids with such little feeling. The way soldiers are trained to, and street gang members are supposed to.

Hildahl agreed that was part of it.

"We've got lots of kids who come through youth justice who have had early physical abuse and early sexual abuse and massive amounts of early neglect."

Which creates what psychiatrists call a lack of "attachment," the emotional connections that come from being loved and nurtured as a child that help us empathize with others later in life.

But Hildahl also said this: "There are as many stories as there are murderers."

He suggested there's a natural tendency to want to lump the reasons into those large clusters.

"Gangs, which is a big factor. Inner city. Obviously a big deal. Poverty."

I suggested another reason.

It comes from something published years ago in a letter to the New York Times. "Why do young black men kill other young black men?" the letter writer asked. "Because they're shooting into a mirror."

But Hildahl suggested that what he sees most when he looks into the souls of these mostly First Nations kids isn't self-loathing.

"I see more emptiness. I see lots of emptiness. Kids who have nothing and understand they have nothing."

Kids who don't see a future.

Who lack hope.

"If you have no hope," Hildahl said, "what is the consequence of taking someone's life?"

Yet, after they kill, Hildahl said, some kids have deep remorse. Others express remorse as much as their limited emotional development allows.

"And once in a while we see kids with no remorse."

Surprisingly perhaps, few in Hildahl's experience are classic sociopaths. Instead, when they're alone in a room without the bravado of the gang to live up to, Hildahl sees them for what they really are.

"These are poor lost kids."

But these are the grandchildren of the kids Hildahl saw when he was working as a youth justice counsellor back in the early 1970s.

"You're seeing a generational transfer," he said. "And it's growing."

If you're wondering about the kid who was supposed to meet me at Tim Hortons, he didn't show up.

But then I didn't really think he would. What concerns me far more is, other than talking tough on crime, most of our political leaders have failed to show up on the issue during the provincial election.

But then I really didn't think they would, either.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 1, 2011 B1

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/young-killers-are-poor-lost-kids-not-sociopaths-130900538.html

Jenna Liiciious wants YOU to vote! REPOST this to all your friends! She is the best!!!

2011-09-28T17:08:00.001-05:00

This is simply and utterly sad...

2011-09-28T16:29:00.001-05:00

FIFTEEN days after a 15 year old boy was murdered by a 14 year old and an 18 year old, a 14 year old murders a 20 year old. Just read that sentence over again... FIFTEEN days after a 15 year old boy was murdered by a 14 year old and an 18 year old, a 14 year old murders a 20 year old.

Does it even make any sense? Not to me... It's just so sad...

We truly need to get down to the root causes here folks. The 2 - 14 year olds will now be in jail... Guess what? You actually think that they will suffer in there? Not a chance. They will actually command "respect" in the system, the tops of the ranks. SAD

Today's Free Press:

WINNIPEG - A 14-year-old boy is facing charges of first-degree murder in connection with the death of 20-year-old David Michael Vincett, whose body was found in front of a home on Boyd Street early Sunday morning.

The death was related to tensions between rival street gangs, police said Wednesday.

Vincett was walking on Boyd Avenue near McGregor Street around 3 a.m. Sunday when he met the suspect and they exchanged words.

The suspect then pulled out a gun and shot Vincett before fleeing the area, police said.

Police arrested the 14-year-old suspect around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. He has been charged with first-degree murder and detained at the Manitoba Youth Centre. He cannot be named under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

"It does appear that they had acknowledged to one another having associations of sorts to gangs in that community, and it does appear that those were opposing gangs in that community, " said Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen.

The two didn’t know each other before the shooting happened, but police said the incident was allegedly linked to ongoing tensions between rival street gangs. The shooting followed on the heels of the stabbing death of 15-year-old Clarky Stevenson near College Avenue and Aikins Street earlier this month, which intensified the rivalry.

"We have some information that would support that this incident has a tie to that particular incident," said Michalyshen, who didn’t give further details. Vincett had told others he was affiliated with street gangs before the night he was shot, said sources.

Police said the young man who is now charged with murder also allegedly has gang affiliations.

Michalyshen said police have recovered a gun in connection with the shooting, but didn’t say where it was located.

Victim planned to leave city: family

Jennifer Kraynyk, the mother of Vincett's 10-month-old daughter, said even though the couple had split up, he visited the baby regularly. She said she took her daughter outside the city to raise her, but remained on good terms with Vincett.

"She's got his eyes, his smile, his face, pretty much everything," Kraynyk said.

"Every time I look at her, I see him."

Vincett's mother also posted a message online, saying she was "always (led) to believe that David was NOT gang material," and that "he always dressed to fit in with (whatever) group he ran with."

She declined further comment on Tuesday.

"He was a good kid with a big heart that just wanted to belong someplace," she said in the message.

"I miss him, he was my baby."

Earlier this year, Vincett was convicted of a theft under $5,000 and two court breaches. At a July sentencing, court heard he had severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

His lawyer, Bonnie Gembey, told the court Vincett had "some difficulty with impulse control and good decision-making."

"He's considering the possibility of moving to Gimli to live with his grandparents," Gembey said. "He's hopeful if he removes himself from certain acquaintances and influences in Winnipeg, he may have a greater time staying out of trouble."

Judge Marva Smith agreed.

Vincett's death is Winnipeg's 32nd homicide of 2011.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Attention Saggers. $25.00 fine for wearing baggy pants!

2011-09-27T12:55:00.001-05:00

ALBANY - Officials in Georgia say a city's ban on saggy pants has generated nearly $4,000 in fines in less than a year. City Attorney Nathan Davis says 187 citations have been issued and $3,916 in fines collected since the ordinance went into effect Nov. 23, according to the Albany Herald. Officials say the ordinance bans anyone from wearing pants or skirts more than 3 inches (7.6 centimetres) below the top of the hips, exposing the skin or undergarments. First-time offenders face a $25 fine. On further offences, the fine can rise to $200. The ordinance also allows 40 hours of community service to be completed in lieu of fines.

To ALL the Parents out there!

2011-09-26T23:39:00.001-05:00

To ALL the Parents out there!...... A mother passing by her daughter's bedroom was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then she saw an envelope propped up prominently on the center of the bed. It was addressed, "Mom." With the worst premonition, she opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands: Dear Mom: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new boyfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Dad and you. I've been finding real passion with him and he is so nice-even with all his piercings, tattoos, beard, and his motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the passion Mom, I'm pregnant and he said that we will be very happy. He already owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. He wants to have many more children with me and that's now one of my dreams too. He taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and trading it with his friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so he can get better; he sure deserves it!! Don't worry Mom, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grand children. Your daughter, Judith... PS: Mom, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbor's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my report card that's in my desk center drawer. I love you! Call when it is safe for me to come home...

Minto Political Debate

2011-09-22T15:20:00.001-05:00

Last night I had the honour of being the moderator of a politcal debate in the Minto electoral district.
The host was Jamil Mahmood, Executive Director, Spence Neighbourhood Association.
The candidates were:

Cheryl-Anne E CarrCommunist Party of Canada - Manitoba

Harold DyckGreen Party of Manitoba

Belinda Squance
The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

Andrew SwanNew Democratic Party of Manitoba

Don Woodstock, Manitoba Liberal Party

The three panelists were
1. Jessie Gair from Spence Neighbourhood Association2. Shannon Buck from Red Road to Healing Coordinator and Traditional Teachings Coordinator at the West Central Women's Resource Centre.
3. Joan Hay from Ma Mawi
This was my first time doing anything like this, and I had a great time! It was really quite fun.
The three panalists asked very well thought out questions and the candidates gave their answers. Then the floor was opened to the public, and the candidates had to do their best thinking on the fly as these were not rehearsed answers as were the three previous questions.
I am not going to comment as to who won or who gave the best answers, but I will say that not all of the candidates stuck to answering the very direct questions. I did however try to direct them to focusing on the question at hand rather than wondering off in other directions.

Help Stop Child Abuse - REPOST...

2011-09-22T00:44:00.001-05:00

A child said to his mom,

Mommy I coloured on your sheets with lipstick!"

In anger she started to hit her child until he was unconscious. She regretted what she had done, crying to her child, "

Please open your eyes!"

it was too late... his little heart had stopped beating. When she walked into the bedroom, the sheet said...

"I love you mommy!"

4TH ANNUAL GRANDMOTHERS PROTECING OUR CHILDREN SACRED WALK

2011-09-21T17:14:00.001-05:00

This morning I had the honour of being invited by my dear friend Jenna Wirch to drive her and her drum group in support of the:

4TH ANNUAL GRANDMOTHERS PROTECING OUR CHILDREN SACRED WALK

It was truly a moving experience partaking as well as listening to the many Grandmothers and Youth speaking at the Legislature. It started at Thunderbird House and ended at the Leg.

Here are some pics:

FROM FIRST NATIONS VOICE

BACKGROUND:

Grandmothers Protecting Our Children

By: First Nations Voice staff

Updated: September 1, 2011

In January 2007, Elder Margaret Lavallee was following media coverage of the 12-year-old child who was impregnated by her grandfather. She was outraged, first, by how could the grandfather impregnate his granddaughter, then horrified that the community rallied behind the grandfather and not the child. The mother and child were exiled from their community.

Elder Margaret Lavallee wanted to take some sort of action and contacted then Children’s Advocate Billie Schibler. In discussions with Billie, it was decided that they would call upon strong Aboriginal women/leaders and Grandmothers to gather to see what could be done to put a stop to the abuse of our children and further to send a message to the children/ youth that they are victims of abuse, that their voices and cries are heard and that they are not alone.

Kookum Kaa Na Da Maa Waad Abinoojiiak Council “Grandmothers Protecting our Children” was formed in February 2007. September 21 was chosen as the date (because of the Fall Equinox – changing of seasons) for the Annual Sacred Walk. The Sacred Walk was chosen to deliver the message to the communities all over that “Children are sacred” and that the Grandmothers are saying “no more” abuse against our children.

September 21, 2007 marked the first year of the Annual Sacred Walk with 500 walking with the Grandmothers.

The Grandmothers Protecting our Children are strong in their walk and message that they are reclaiming their rightful roles as the protectors and speakers for our children.

Since September 21, 2007, the lighting of the sacred fires for our children were lit in the four directions of Manitoba and this has grown in numbers. The Sacred (Medicine) Walk is an annual event that has spread all over the world.

The Kookums now are connected to the Grandmothers Councils in Austrailia, New Zealand and Hawaii. There has been a sacred walk and lighting of fire by the women in Chile as well.

Former AMC Grand Chief Ron Evans has been a huge part of the Kookums Sacred Walk. He has walked with the Kookums since 2007 and has invited (November 5, 2007) the Kookums to sit with the Chiefs when discussions were held about the children.

The Grandmothers Protecting our Children have in the past two years gone to the street where our children and youth are being expolited to give them the message that they are loved and the Kookums are here and will remain here as their voice. The Kookums have decided that they will visit the grandaughters and grandsons at least four times per year.

The Kookums went on various trips as well to encourage other Kookums to walk with them in their communities.

The KooKums message:
“Our Voice is a gift from Creator” “the hurt of one is the hurt of all” “the honor of one is the honor of all”

We the Kookums council hear the cries of our children. It is our responsibility as “WISDOM KEEPERS” to bring our communities together, raising awareness wherever there is violation to the human spirits of our children

“We will not remain silent”

Someone responds to my Winnipeg Free Press editorial...

2011-09-21T17:01:00.001-05:00

A vicious circle...

Re: We need to wrap our hearts around this boy (Sept. 16). Floyd Wiebe's comments about the 15-year-old boy who was murdered were refreshing to read.

These young female and male children are in bad situations because their parents found themselves in the same situations. Obviously, not all parents of kids who get into trouble or join gangs were not able to parent properly because of their own upbringing, but I am confident the large majority were.

So neither generation had a home base, a safe place to live where they learned of their worth and were loved and taught and cared for. So besides the normal teenage angst, these kids are dealt a life they should not have to live, just as many of their parents did before them. They know nothing else.

The village could come to their assistance and model to them how important and full of hope their futures are. Alas, the village is filled with, as Wiebe says, "somes, others and anyone elses." There are few citizens in the village who understand their responsibility.

DIANA TAMBLYN
Winnipeg

This morning...

2011-09-21T09:08:00.001-05:00

Was just on CKUW - U of W with Cam MacLean talking about the election. Man this guy asks tough and well thought out questions! He sure has a future in radio if he wants it especially as a political correspondent. Thanks for inviting me Cam!

Free Press features my blog about Clarky Stevenson in today's paper.

2011-09-16T06:42:00.001-05:00

Click here to see the Winnipeg Free Press article.

Tonight the family is having a "Walk in honour of Clarky Stevenson."

I AM PISSED OFF...

2011-09-14T15:03:00.001-05:00

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BACKGROUND

September 10th: A 15 year old boy, along with another male on a bicycle, was at College Avenue and Aikins Street at about 2:40 a.m., when they met a group of males and a fight broke out, resulting in the teen being stabbed. Police said the teen is known to police and the incident appeared to be "a street-gang related matter." Three days later, he died... No arrests...

His name is Clarky Stevenson…

I AM PISSED OFF

I keep a blog of the 2011 Winnipeg murders (http://floydwiebe.ca), and I added this horrible murder this week... As I was doing my research, I came across various news agency videos and still shots of the paramedics transporting the dying boy, with no shirt, and no sheets covering him, to an ambulance. WHY? Why does the reader/viewer need to see this? But that's hardly the point. WHY DOES HIS FAMILY HAVE TO? If they have to have a picture of Clarky, why could it not have been the one in this blog?

Does it actually sell more newspapers? Do people rush to 7-11 to buy a newspaper to see this? Do they PVR the scene for instant replay?

I have never seen my son TJ’s dead body. The medical examiner said, "It wasn't advisable." I took her advice. The juries in the case all saw him. The murderers saw him and had a whole book of pictures to look at him at their disposal. The lawyers all saw him. I did not. Why then does all of Winnipeg have the ability to see a dying 15-year-old boy, possibly before his parents may have even known he was even stabbed? THIS HAS HAPPENED!!!

The police, and I understand their logic, say, he is "known to police", and "a street-gang related matter", and I cringe... as right away, "SOME" people react with a "Oh, he’s a gang kid… Oh well, at least its one of them killing their own." Then, more people, upon finding out he's aboriginal, dismiss it even further, and combined with being gang-related, “SOME” people will instantly forget what they read.

More people will exclaim, "Where are his parents at 2:40 am?" and say, "I damn well know where my kids are at 2:40 am! " SO WHAT? Does that mean we should dismiss this poor kid? We need to wrap our hearts around this little boy. Oh yes, then there are “OTHERS” who will "think" the above words, but will not verbalize it, for fear of not being "politically correct".

I remind the “SOME” and the “OTHERS” and ANYONE ELSE that,

"It takes a village to raise a child."

The village has leaders. There is an election looming. I can just see “SOME” political pundits saying, (in whispered voices) "Oh shit... We don't need this now..." Well, to the "SOME" political pundits... FIX IT... Now is your chance...

If you are not “SOME” or “OTHERS” but are the… “ANYONE ELSE”, then lets work together as a community to HELP our politicians FIX IT.

I AM PISSED OFF... I hope you are too.

From my dear friend, Jessica Dumas:

I think this is great and I totally agree with your opinion. Media definitely adds to normalizing the violence and continues to add blame to 'video games' and 'music'. Because of the baggage the media has added to this young baby's death, few people will care, his life has been deemed meaningless and just another story. It’s disgusting. I'm pissed off too. I was shocked and furious when I saw a picture of my dying brother on the front page of The Sun. At least in death, can he have some dignity?

- Jessica Dumas, sister to Matthew Dumas killed in 2005 by WPS.

Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights

2011-09-14T14:26:00.001-05:00

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On March 30, 2010, I was part of a group of people that were invited to speak in front of 12 Members of Parliament with a focal point on gangs. I have copied and pasted only my portion of the evidence presented.

WARNING: It's a LONG read...

For the full text with everyone, please click here:

40th PARLIAMENT, 3rd SESSION

Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights

EVIDENCE

CONTENTS

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Mr. Floyd Wiebe (Executive Director, Gang Awareness for Parents):

Thank you very much for inviting me to participate in this committee.

I'm probably the only person to appear before this committee who wishes he wasn't. My 20-year-old son TJ was brutally murdered on January 5, 2003. His murder was well planned by four young men aged 17 to 20. He was beaten by two of them, injected in the neck with Drano, strangled with a shoelace while being pulled by his neck over the front seat of a car, stripped of most of his clothing, dumped in a ditch where one of them did jumping jacks on his chest, and stabbed multiple times in the neck, only to be found five weeks later under three feet of snow.

Three people were convicted. Two of them received life sentences with a chance of parole after 15 years. One is up for parole in just a few weeks. The 17-year-old mastermind was acquitted after they all refused to testify against him.

This was my beginning of a journey that brought me here today. What started with rage and disbelief ended in a devotion to prevention. My wife Karen, who is sitting behind me, and I created the TJ's Gift Foundation, now a registered charity, which raises $50,000 a year, with 100% of that money going to peer-led drug education programs in Manitoba schools.

I recently left the business world, and just eight weeks ago the Manitoba Department of Justice invested in my new organization, called GAP, Gang Awareness for Parents. My mission is to educate parents before their children get involved in gangs, and offer guidance to help them.

This journey has not been easy. It has been heartbreaking, depressing, enlightening, and rewarding. During these seven years I have talked with far too many victims and I have met many drug-addicted youth, gang wannabes, and street gang members.

How did these individuals end up where they are? There's really no greater gift than that of being a parent, and yet so many abuse and squander this gift. When our youth are abused and squandered, in many cases they end up being cared for by the system.

We've all been raised with the adage that it takes a village to raise a child, but the problem is that we throw many of these children in jail. An example of this is when we see kids stealing cars. They are incarcerated over and over again, and now we want to throw them in jail for even longer. Is that how we want to raise our children? Is that what we want to do with the gift that we were given as a community when they were abandoned? Do we continue this cycle and toss them away? No. We treat them, we stand by them, we help them, we care for them, and we believe in them.

Last week I was in a Toronto conference on gangs. I listened and talked with many former gang members who had turned their lives around. Not one told me that being in jail or the threat of being in jail turned them around. I asked what did. They told me that people standing by them and believing in them turned them around. That is what they needed, someone to care for them. Someone in the village cared. Now these abused and abandoned people are caring for others. That truly is a village raising a child.

The public is demanding that the government do something about the state of gangs in Canada, so changes are being made to the YCJA: more mandatory minimum sentences, longer sentences, and as a result, many more people in jails. The Canadian government is presently spending $1,000 a day on the incarceration of three of my son's murderers. This case alone costs $360,000 a year. This cost will go on for many, many years, and in my case justifiably so, as they murdered my son. We are not talking about the average person who goes to jail. This was murder. I can't help but wonder, though, why we couldn't have invested that thousand dollars a day--or even half of that--on prevention. Maybe I would not have to be here addressing this panel.

I use the term “investment”, and I'm glad Paul used that word as well, rather than “spending”. We invest to gain returns. We spend when mistakes are made.

This is the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. I thought it was an appropriate title. With the justice part, it needs to be handed out when dealing with organized crime and gangs. It is difficult to write laws that are specific enough to do what is intended or needed. Generally they are too broad. I believe the laws should somehow--and I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know how--be written to deal with gangs that are part of the higher-level organized gang and their puppet clubs. I do believe that this country needs to crack down on these gangs.

I personally know a puppet club member who was recently arrested in Winnepeg. I've know him since the day he was born. This person did not come from a disadvantaged background. He made choices along the way, all the time knowing what may lie ahead of him. He knew what he was doing.

He made a lot of money. He lived the life, he drove fast cars, and he had all the toys. Only now, when he is facing 12 years, is he realizing that he needs to change. He had just gotten out of jail after several years and was attempting to change, or so he told me just a month before he was arrested. However, he fell back into it very shortly, but he knew the consequences when he fell back in and he still made a choice. He is not unlike anyone else in these puppet clubs; in fact, he is the norm—and I'm sure you've heard about those kinds of gangs in other cities.

However, each province has unique gangs in their cities. The street gangs that exist in Winnipeg do not exist in Vancouver, Toronto, or other cities. The street-level gangs need to be handled differently, with an understanding of how these young people got to where they are. Today, judges take aboriginal ancestry and upbringing into play. When considering sentencing, the judge will often reduce that sentence; in fact, it's demanded of him or her. That same type of consideration needs to be given to these lower-level gang members.

When I meet with street gang members, and I have met many, they are a completely different story from the person I was referring to above. Every single one got there as a result of poverty, mental illness, being in a variety of foster homes, and a whole host of other reasons. The other presenters here today, such as Just TV and Turning the Tides, work with these young people and have huge success with keeping them out of gangs. I hope my organization will do the same. There are many groups like this that are trying to save these kids. In fact, they're all meeting today, coincidentally, two floors below us.

The other component of this committee is human rights. As a country—the village—it is our children's human rights to receive every opportunity to survive and prosper. Unfortunately, not everyone will. Some will fall through the cracks. We need to be there to pick up the pieces. Yesterday I read that the Canadian government wants to increase its prison budget by 27% to $3.1 billion. I encourage this committee to press the government to take 100% of this anticipated increase away from the prison budget and reallocate every cent into human rights, into prevention. This reversal would mean an investment in our country's future and would not even be considered by the public as a cost at all.

I know the cost of a life gone.

I just wish that someone would have invested in and cared for TJ's murderers. Maybe they would have cared about themselves, and maybe they would have cared about TJ.

Thank you.

Mr. Brian Murphy (Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, Lib.):

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, witnesses, for being here.

I think we're particularly touched, Mr. and Mrs. Wiebe, by your experience. We have met many victims' representatives over the years that I've been here. It is quite interesting that many turn from an initial or perhaps an ongoing shock or dismay to a realization that what they wish to spend effort on in the future is prevention and “what could have been”. Some, however—and I think you probably agree—understandably are not as willing to think about prevention but are willing to think about what we would call justice. That's understandable. We take it very seriously; it's the first-hand evidence of victims.

I'm struck as well that the theme of the panel is prevention and intervention with youth at risk, if you like. We are here studying organized crime, and I have a couple of questions. I'll just make them brief.

There are people in Ottawa who are thinking of national programs such as a national service policy for youth. I understand that there's a provincial-federal cut-off, and that many of these programs we speak of are provincially mandated. Is there something nationally we can look at in terms of getting the youth engaged and getting them diverted?

Secondly, is the victims ombudsman office helpful in any way? There's a fair amount of money there. There's going to be a new ombudsman sometime soon. Is there something that can be done with that to improve things?

Finally, and probably this is the first point I'd like you to address, we're assuming that youth are either directly involved or are pawns in organized crime or higher-level crimes. I met with some Winnipeg police officers a year or so ago who suggested that some gang elders or gang older members will use the persons who are within the age range of the Youth Criminal Justice Act to do acts—steal cars, or whatever—thus insulating themselves from blame. If you have time, perhaps you could talk about the specific use of youth and actions of youth towards gaining what we've all learned is the manna of criminal activity and of organized crime especially: money.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

First of all, to answer your last question first, when you were talking about the victims ombudsman, I think that Bill C-43 before the House is absolutely perfectly written. It addresses many concerns from victims.

In fact, we are attending a parole hearing just weeks from now, and it's crazy how they decide how it's done. The murderer sits in front of me, we have to sit behind him. We're not allowed to look at him, we're not allowed to look at him. He's not allowed to look at us. How archaic is this? This person murdered somebody, we're there, and we're asked to come and give a victim impact statement about how this person affected our lives.

First of all, we have to present our speech two weeks ahead of time so he gets to read it before. Then after he reads our victim impact statement, he can just go, “Well, I'm not meeting with these parents; I forgo my stuff.” So it puts us through a massive hell up to that point. That is all being changed, as I understand it. I have asked, actually, this next parole board if I can actually face him, and we'll see. I have not been told that I can, so we'll see. This addresses that.

As far as the national program, I know many of us here are all talking about what's happening today locally and what we're all doing for prevention. I think at the federal level, there are funds available to help eliminate organized crime, etc., but try to apply for them. I would invite every person on this panel to go and download some of these applications and try to fill them out yourself. Don't get a lawyer involved, don't get anybody else involved, but try to fill them out yourself. Paul referred to how much time we spend--and I'm the newbie here, I've only been in business for seven weeks. My wife has tried to fill out some of these applications. So when you talk about what can be done, that can be done.

I addressed to this committee at the very end of my speech how I just cannot understand how we as a country can have a 27% increase in funding to build more prisons and hire 4,000 new staff. Hire 4,000 new staff? Take that 4,000 new staff and direct them into prevention programs. To me, that's not even a question, because I believe the 4,000 people working previous to gang involvement can certainly help every single person who goes into that jail way more before they get there. That's my personal opinion. And to answer what the federal level can do perfectly, it's that right there. To me, that's absolutely a no-brainer.

Mr. Joe Comartin:

We have had a bit of a debate ongoing—including yesterday, when it was fairly prominent—about whether we should deal with organized street gangs differently than we do with the traditional stereotyped Mafia, Cosa Nostra types of groups, or the bikers. I'd like to hear from you if you have any comments on that. Can we use our traditional methods of fighting those groups, that is, by getting at the money sources and other mechanisms, or do we approach these differently?

I want to go that far because there was some discussion about whether we should have, within our Criminal Code or criminal justice system, a different definition for street gangs or youth gangs from what we presently use, still recognizing that they are somewhat organized but different from the adult ones.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

I think in my speech I referred to that very instance. When I read the new bill--I've read so many bills in the last few days, fourteen or fifteen, I don't remember which one it was--where it discusses organized crime, basically, as I recall, it's just a very simple one-liner, that if there are five or more people getting together and doing a crime that's an indictable offence, they constitute organized crime. I'm sorry, but five little Mad Cowz who are 13 years old are not the same as five Zig Zag Crew members or five Hells Angels getting together and creating a crime.

As I said, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know how you can define that. Currently, organized crime laws are already a horrible thing, because every time the courts get it, it falls apart. We built a huge courthouse in Manitoba, five or eight years ago, and it fell apart. The legal department, the justice department, really needs to take this, analyze it, and actually split it.

I'm saying, similar to aboriginal sentencing, somehow we got to the point where we sentence aboriginal people in this country different from other people because of how they got to where they are and how they got to create that crime. How can we then not do the same thing with organized crime, because it's just too broad?

I've met too many of these kids in the Youth Drug Stabilization Act. I've met too many kids at coffee shops—with Kelly, in fact. You have this little kid who comes from a horrible situation, and he has his bros and he has his homies, and they go out and do some stupid things like steal cars, and some of them steal a lot of cars. My truck was stolen by one of them. Yet you cannot take those same kids and treat them exactly the same under one bill that says “You're five people and you were doing something that's an indictable offence, so we're going to treat you the same as a Hells Angel.” I fear that, because with judges today—and believe me, I've been in front of a lot of them—this judge will do this and this judge will do that, and you need that input to those judges from the attorneys, from the prosecutors, that these are not the same. They cannot be just put into jail because of this law.

Mrs. Alexandra Mendes (Brossard—La Prairie, Lib.):

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all of you for being here.

I know you've just touched on that subject, but I really would like to see it from the federal level. What could we do? What could the federal government do to avoid the recruitment of underage children to commit adult crimes? The bottom line is that's what they're used for. How can we help? I know the funding is a big part of it, and I defend it fully, but are there suggestions from the justice department or from the victims ombudsman, as my colleague mentioned? Are there ways to plead?

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

If you realize, the people in this room, that it's your budget that controls the $3.1 billion in prisons--it's your budget here, right?--I think it makes sense, then, for you to figure out, with the ten provinces, why you're inheriting all those people from the provinces into your federal prisons. You're the one who is paying for it.

If you want to reduce how much you spend on that, then I think you need to listen to all of these people here who are all doing provincially--most of us, provincially--because we're actually the ones who are trying to prevent the ones ending up federally....

When you ask, Mr. Fast, that we might deal with federal issues, to me that makes the most sense. It is a federal issue when the provinces are dealing with all of the funding for all these prevention programs. I think getting all those people in the room makes total sense, getting what he said--the provincial level, making it federal.... Your question is absolutely right on.

Mrs. Maria Mourani (Ahuntsic, BQ):

Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for being here today and sharing your testimony with us.

Mr. Wiebe, first, I would like to offer you my sincere condolences on the loss of your son. I admire your courage and also your great humanity. Losing a member of our family can sometimes leave us feeling extremely angry and blind. I welcome your testimony, because of the strong emphasis on compassion, prevention, and trying to save children before they become criminals.

I am also a member of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. A few days ago, we heard the Minister of Public Safety and all the other officials. My question was specifically about prevention. In the current budget, and subsequent budgets, there is really no increase in terms of prevention, and this was confirmed to me. The budget varies between $30 million and $60 million for the whole of Canada.

I am looking at you, and you seem to be exceptional people, in your need to rescue young people, even though you have only crumbs, little bits of money, to do it with. Looking at the budget, we see that there is still no increase. This was the first point I wanted to confirm, that there will be no increase for prevention. That has been the case for several years, going back before the present government.

I would also like to talk to you about the Young Offenders Act before getting to my question. That act is intended to criminalize young people 14, 15 or 16 years old, according to the provinces.

I have been listening to my colleagues asking what we can do. In fact, you have been telling us from the outset: prevention, prevention, prevention.

There is no more money being invested in prevention. The NCPC has told us that it can't even apply for any more projects because there is no more money in the budget, until 2001-2012. What do we do if there is no more money being invested in prevention? They don't want to invest in prevention, but they want to hand out harsher sentences to young people who may have committed murders or serious crimes at the age of 14 or 15 or 16. So the real question to ask is this: what do we do after talking about prevention and not criminalizing young people? In fact, we find ourselves with a system that will do that, that will criminalize young people and won't invest a penny more in prevention.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

In our case we had one juvenile, the mastermind behind TJ's murder. He was held in the Manitoba Youth Centre for 32 months. Even though the murder happened prior to the Youth Criminal Justice Act--it came in on April 1, 2003--my son was murdered January 5, 2003, so he came under the YCJA instead of the YOA.

Not that I'm commenting about the YCJA so much, but just based on what Kelly said, this individual who masterminded my son's murder received absolutely zero intervention in his life from a psychiatrist, psychologist, nothing. I'm not supposed to know this, but I found out. We victims have an incredible way of finding things out we're not supposed to. I was so disturbed, even though I was enraged that this person—he was three weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday—had the capacity to convince three other people to murder for him because they did not even know my son. Even though, as Mr. Murphy said, I could be filled with rage at that, what I was more enraged with was this person was held in an institution for 32 months before he was acquitted and received absolutely no help. So what does that say to this peer? First of all he goes into a youth institution, he's held there for 32 months, gets absolutely no mental help. Do you think he needs mental help? He just had someone murdered.

It's hard for me to even go there, yet nothing happened. So what Kelly said is absolutely correct. This person needs to be dealt with; otherwise he'll kill again, because not only did he not get intervention for 32 months, he got off, which is totally another thing. Think of the power this young man may have in his system right now.

Mr. Bob Dechert (Mississauga—Erindale, CPC):

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for sharing your views with us today. I'm very impressed with what you had to say, and I thank you also for the good work you do through your organizations.

Mr. Wiebe, I want to express my condolences to you and your family. I'm sorry this tragedy happened in your family.

You said a number of things that struck me this morning. One was with respect to the different types of criminal organizations that are out there. I get it that there are street gangs that are organizations of young people who perhaps lack economic opportunity, who are looking for a place to belong, or have other social needs. Then there are more serious criminal organizations that prey upon them.

I think you mentioned something called a puppet club; you used that term. You said there was an individual there who, now that he's facing 12 years in jail, suddenly wants to change. What organization is he from? Where does he fit into the whole picture? How does he or the organization that he represents prey upon these other street gangs?

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

That example was a Zig Zag Crew member. Actually he's a former Zig Zag Crew member. This individual was raised right next door to me; he lived there basically his whole life, so I know him very well. He did get involved in the Zig Zag Crew. In Winnipeg, you have to understand this, the Zig Zag Crew members.... I doubt any person on this panel.... None of those crew members are the ones these people help, because they got there for different reasons. As I said in my speech, he got there because of choice, because of the money, and all of that stuff.

He essentially is a criminal businessman.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

He's absolutely a criminal businessman. He will admit that to me every time I visit him. He knows what he's doing. He knew when he came out of jail that if he ever got caught with gun involvement again, he would get a minimum ten-year sentence. He knew that. If he was trafficking heroin, he was going to get a minimum two-year sentence. He still made that decision.

There is a huge difference between him and the people that this crew then goes down. It goes from Asian organized crime that has all the drugs, to the Hells Angels, to whoever has equality with them, to the Zigs, to the Mad Cowz, to all the B-siders. There's that pyramid schedule.

What do we need to do to prevent people like him from getting into business and preying on these other gangs?

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

I don't know that the other panel members will agree, but I believe in laws that take people like the Zig Zags and above, those public clubs.... And, yes, I might disagree with the panel about jails. But I'm sorry; these people are calculated, organized people who don't come from the regular homes that all these people are talking about. I believe, personally—this is just me—that they need to be put away for a long time.

When I visit him in the remand centre--I'll visit him again, and I will still support him—I tell him that he is going down for this, and he agrees. He absolutely agrees.

If we send him, and others like him, a message that we're not going to tolerate their behaviour, can we stem the flow of people like that?

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

I personally believe that you can.

Okay. Thank you very much for that.

So it is seven times more effective with respect to the individual, as opposed to the protection of society, as you understand it. Thank you.

Mr. Wiebe, I certainly share the feelings of the other members of the panel who have expressed condolences to you and your family, and I really appreciate your coming here to share your story, as painful as it is. From my perspective, victims of crime and families of victims are the people the criminal justice system ought to be protecting, and I was curious as to whether you or your family has ever used the services of the federal ombudsman for victims of crime.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

We are not doing so currently. I was vice-president of the Manitoba Organization for Victim Assistance for several years. It is a Manitoba group that helps victims of homicide go through the court system. In fact, I almost applied for the ombudsman job when it came up three years ago—

Mr. Brian Murphy:

It's open again.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

Yes, I know, but I'd have to move to Ottawa. Move it here and I'll be okay.

I came this close, though, believe me. That position is incredible, and it is becoming more and more useful. My wife and I have not accessed it personally, but I know people who have.

You are familiar with some of its programs, I take it.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

Yes.

Obviously you support that initiative and counsel other families of victims to access its services when necessary.

Mr. Floyd Wiebe:

I do, very much so, and so do your parole service people. We just had parole services meet with us two weeks ago, and there were many victims in the room who didn't know about it. The Government of Canada is also promoting to victims that it is available, and it should absolutely be kept. It is a very important component.

http://posterous.com/#spaces/ftwiebe/posts/69894437

Thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair:

Thank you.

That brings us to the end of our time. We want to thank each one of you. We've gained a little different perspective from you, because you're representing the intervention and prevention side of the equation.

ONLY for Mennonites! OTHERS just move on. You won't get it...

2011-09-14T06:06:00.001-05:00

Mennonites can rap too...

I am moderator of an upcoming political forum on community safety. MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!

2011-09-13T15:57:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, September 21 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre

430 Langside St.

Winnipeg, MB

This FREE public forum is an opportunity for community members to listen to and ask questions of candidates running in the 2011 provincial election. The focus of this forum is community safety.

The candidates will give a brief introduction. There will be three community panelist, one talking on youth safety issues, one on women's and family safety and one on aboriginal safety. Each panelist will have two minutes to raise one point and pose a question to candidates about their safety topic.

Then we will open it up to questions from the community.

Confirmed speakers include:
Andrew Swan (NDP, current MLA for Minto)
Belinda Squance (PC candidate for Minto)
Don Woodstock (Liberal candidate for Minto)

Floyd Wiebe will be moderating the forum.

Come out and make your voices heard. Don't forget to vote on Oct. 4.

I am on CBC Radio 990 with Larry Updike at 5:10 pm tonight, about the man who "died" in my arms...

2011-09-13T15:17:00.001-05:00

Here is the original story:

A man died in my arms this morning...but saved by true professionals...

2011-09-12T16:16:00.001-05:00

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This morning I was at my favourite restaurant, Wannabee’s, with an “at risk” youth…

A man about my age sitting in the next table went to the bathroom, and emerged when Karen, Wannabee’s owner saw that he was in distress. She came over and asked if was ok. No reply. She yelled out if anyone knew the Heimlich maneuver, and although it’s been 25 years since I had “some” minor training, I got up and did what I hoped was right, over and over and over again. He pushed my arms away, I guess I was hurting him, and I thought it cleared. He sat back down, but still in distress. Another Wannabee’s guest did the same thing as I did, but with the same result. Then a Dr. came rushing in from a clinic next door. She was just a little thing, and could barely do the maneuver on him, but tried. I said that I would take over, as she was barely holding him. She tried looking into his mouth while I was doing it. She thought she saw “something”.

Karen said the ambulance was on the way, and was very, very distressed… I kept on doing the Heimlich, but, I felt, the Dr. was no real help at all, as she seemed at a loss of what to do. But then again, I guess she isn’t emergency trained…

Suddenly his 6’ frame started weighing on me and his knees gave out and he and I were going down. I exclaimed to the Dr. “I’m losing him! What do I do, I can’t hold him up!” She said to lie him down, which to me, made no sense if he’s actually choking, so I said, “I’m going to let him sit on the floor, I don’t want to lay him down.”

Just as his bum slowly touched the floor, the fire paramedics rushed in and took over.

He tried to open his mouth, which was locked tight, and no way was he getting it open, he started CPR. The others hooked him up to a machine and then exclaimed…

“He’s asytole…” (asystole “known as flatline” is a state of no cardiac electrical activity, hence no contractions of the myocardium and no cardiac output or blood flow. Asystole is one of the conditions that may be used for a medical practitioner to certify clinical or legal death. Out of hospital survival rates (even with emergency intervention) are less than 2 percent.)

They shot 2 shots of epinephrine into him, while one did CPR continually. Then an ambulance showed up and 8 professionals were there. Nothing seemed to work. CPR for 4 minutes, check for vital signs, still flat-lined, then another 4 minutes, more epinephrine, continual CPR, still flat-lined.

I prayed...

I think it was about 10 minutes; maybe it reached 12, when suddenly they got a heartbeat. They saved his life, I hope…

It was amazing to watch these well-trained professionals doing their stuff to this poor guy, with no name. Karen told them he lived in a nearby group home. They put him on a stretcher, and away they went. I told the guys how incredible they all were and that they had saved a life. They looked at me… with a “Duh!, This is what we do…” kind of look, and I guess they are right, this is what they do. I guess to these true professionals, it was just another day…

Not to me it wasn’t… Not to me.

I’m still shaking…

"Life..." by me...

2011-09-12T09:21:00.001-05:00

Life... It isn't what we agreed to... But... We move forward... Breaking limbs along the way... But... They grow back... Maybe bent... But we have them...

Rowan Atkinson - Invisible Drums

2011-09-10T01:27:00.001-05:00

MB LIBERALS Preventing Crime By Treating Addictions Solution To Soaring Violent Crime

2011-09-10T01:08:00.001-05:00

Preventing Crime By Treating Addictions Solution To Soaring Violent Crime Rate Crime rates soar in Manitoba as NDP ignores addiction WINNIPEG- The NDP have buried their head in the sand for 12 years ignoring the role addiction plays with crime in Manitoba. The result is a Manitoba spike in violent crime that has splashed on headlines nation-wide. Manitoba Liberals are the only party to identify the role addictions play in crime and the only party with a strategy to deal with it. “The wait-times to get addictions treatment under the NDP are unacceptable,” says Mantoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard. “Our goal is to prevent crime from happening in the first place. A strong addictions strategy will make communities safer for everyone.” Studies show that in up to 70% of violent crimes, there has been substance abuse. The first year of this commitment would see a $1.2 million investment that would go to different addictions treatment facilities such as the Behavioral Foundation in St. Norbert that would reduce addictions wait times. “Manitoba Liberals in the legislature would fight for better addictions funding. This is part of the Liberal plan for strong families and healthy communities.”

PC MANITOBA Will Support Youth Programming

2011-09-10T01:04:00.001-05:00

McFadyen Will Support Youth Programming September 9, 2011 $25 million to fund youth-at-risk programming, community workers and cover fees for volunteer background checks Community facilities, charities and not-for-profit organizations make a tremendous contribution toward making Manitoba communities safer and keeping them growing. Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party Leader HughMcFadyen announced a plan to support these organizations with a new, five year, $25 million Manitoba Youth Investment Fund. McFadyen made the announcement today at the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg. “We hear from a number of community centres and community facilities that they could do so much more programming if they had a little extra support to fill in for gaps that volunteers can’t. Manitoba’s volunteer spirit is tremendous, but we believe this fund will amplify the efforts of those volunteers, by providing for some additional staff support at community facilities around Manitoba,” says McFadyen. “With more programming support for community organizations we can help provide some relief to volunteers, support for families, and make a positive difference in our community over the long term.” A McFadyen government would launch a new $5 million Manitoba Youth Investment Fund that will provide $2 million to support youth-at-risk programming, $2 million to support more community workers, and $1 million to cover the fees required for background checks on volunteers. The program will bring support to programming around Manitoba that helps different families in different circumstances, all of whom make a difference in their respective communities. “Volunteers are the backbone of our community facilities, and with the right support, we can help them do even more,” says Gary Kristiansen, President of Bourkevale Community Centre. “Funding for a staff member at our community centre can help increase the number of programs, and help the volunteers who support them, do even more for our community.” “TheWinnipeg Boys and Girls Club supports any initiative that increases support. This will help us reach so many more people to make a difference in their lives and in the community,” says Ron Brown, President and CEO. “Covering the costs of the background checks will make an important contribution as well, ensuring we can safely screen our staff and volunteers without bearing the financial burden. This plan will make a difference.” “The cost of the record check should not be a hardship for volunteer organizations,” adds McFadyen. “By investing in staff, supporting mentors, and covering the costs of background checks, we will support stronger community organizations that help build safer communities. Tackling crime and the causes of crime is positive change Manitobans want.”

PC MANITOBA Proposes Community Investment Fund

2011-09-10T01:03:00.001-05:00

New fund would contribute $20 million per year to facilities, help build safer communities Violent crime and gangs have flourished in Manitoba over the past twelve years thanks to Greg Selinger and the NDP. Hugh McFadyen and the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives want to tackle violent crime with more support for police and prosecutors, but they also understand the root causes need to be addressed. Community facilities, home to recreational activities and other resources, can make a huge difference, but they suffer from a lack of funding. To address this challenge, a McFadyen government will introduce a new Manitoba Community Investment Fund to provide support for community facilities across Manitoba. “Long-term crime reduction calls for action to tackle root causes. We have to make sure our community centres and community facilities across Manitoba are able to provide alternatives for young people,” says McFadyen. “The patchwork funding approach of Greg Selinger and the NDP over the past twelve years hasn’t helped our crumbling community centres and recreation facilities any more than it has helped the crumbling roads and bridges. Our new funding programs will change this.” The Manitoba Community Investment Fund will provide $20 million a year to community facilities around Manitoba. This would be an increase of $5 million per year over current NDP funding levels, and the fund will ultimately provide $25 million in new funding over a five-year period. Funding will be open to applications from community organizations across Manitoba. “This extra support will make an important difference for our facility and our programming,” says Kevin O’Neill, President, Bord-Aire Community Club. “The additional funding is a big step in the right direction and will help us increase our support to the community.” "As a family with young children, we plan to use these community centres all the time, and more money to fix it up would be great for my family and my community," says Candice Vince. "These community centres are an important part of our neighbourhood, and it's good to see a party making this a priority." “These facilities help bridge the time around school hours and they can make a huge difference in tackling the long term causes of crime,” adds McFadyen. “This fund will help us create safer communities for Manitoba families, and bring positive change Manitobans are looking for.”

NDP SAFER COMMUNITIES

2011-09-10T00:56:00.001-05:00

SAFER COMMUNITIES We are all part of the solution – working together we’ll make Manitoba safer for everyone. MORE PREVENTION: We will work with Ottawa and create new laws to make gang recruitment a crime. We will put police officers on the streets, walking in neighbourhoods to prevent crimes before they happen. 50 additional police officers will be hired to walk the beat in Winnipeg, including downtown. We will fund 25 additional cadets for downtown Winnipeg. We will expand the successful School Resource Officers program to provide 2 more police officers in Winnipeg schools. We will not give up on the potential of our children. We will set up a new program called After School Matters to provide mentorship and leadership development to kids. Our new jail facilities, including rebuilding the Dauphin jail, will have better addictions treatment and mental health programs to prevent criminals from re-offending. FASTER PROSECUTION: We will establish the first-in-Canada weekend court, using retired judges, to add capacity to the court system. We are hiring 53 new prosecutors and 29 paralegal and clerical staff by 2016. We will add more court clerks inside and outside the courtroom to make the courts work more efficiently. We will relocate the Small Claims Court to make space for more criminal cases to move through the system. WORK WITH OTTAWA TO IMPROVE THE LAW: Federal Laws New federal laws should create mandatory minimum sentences for pre-meditated knife crimes and treat these crimes just as seriously as those committed with guns. We need the federal law to have separate, additional offences for home invasions and car jackings – violent crimes for which the penalties should match the severity. We will push the federal government to make serious arson a crime against a person, instead of a crime against property, and it needs to be declared a violent crime. The federal Youth Criminal Justice Act must allow judges to consider deterrence and denunciation when they are handing down sentences. The Act must be amended to ensure that violent, repeat offenders can be held in jail without bail, and can be tried as adults where appropriate. Provincial Laws We will create new, additional penalties for criminals who threaten the safety of police officers and fire fighters by booby-trapping meth labs and grow ops. We will create penalties for people who use animals when committing crimes – to guard drug dens, for example. MORE TOOLS TO COMBAT CRIME: We will hire 50 new police officers for rural and northern communities, including 5 for Brandon. We will expand the successful Winnipeg police cadet program to northern and rural communities to free up officers for real police work, with 25 new cadets. We will continue to work with Ottawa to reduce the amount of time that police are required to attend court proceedings for routine matters. We will expand the use of electronic monitoring bracelets, in consultation with the police, to people convicted of sex offences, domestic assaults, and other dangerous criminals. We will add 6 more investigators under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act that has closed 509 problem properties, including drug, sniff and prostitution houses, since its establishment in 2002. We will add 3 more investigators for the Winnipeg Arson Strike Force through the Office of the Fire Commissioner. We will add 3 more investigators for Criminal Property Forfeiture Unit that seized the Hells Angels’ Clubhouse. We will fund the RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service integrated Warrant Enforcement Unit and streamline police access to information contained in government databases to track down and apprehend individuals with outstanding warrants.

NDP CRIME STRATEGY

2011-09-10T00:55:00.001-05:00

Greg Selinger today announced significant new resources in the fight against crime as part of a strategy that will work with police, communities, courts and all levels of government. Under this plan, Winnipeggers will see more police officers walking the beat downtown and in neighourhoods across the city, young people at risk will have more opportunities to avoid a life of crime, prosecutions will move through the system faster, and the province will work with Ottawa to make gang recruitment a crime, among other measures. “Manitobans want and deserve to feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods,” said Premier Greg Selinger, who was joined by people with experience on the front lines of crime prevention, from law enforcement to working with youth to teaching. Point Douglas NDP candidate Kevin Chief, who founded the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre, said “we will work together with everyone for safe communities.” Selinger’s plan will address crime with: Prevention, including: 50 more beat cops for Winnipeg; 25 more cadets for downtown Winnipeg; working with Ottawa to make gang recruitment a crime; launch a new program modeled on Chicago’s successful After School Matters; and build new jail facilities with effective addictions treatment and mental health programs. Faster Prosecutions, to achieve justice quickly with: a first-in-Canada weekend court; and more prosecutors and support staff to make the courts work more efficiently. Tougher Laws, including working with Ottawa to amend the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act, crack down on gangs, knife crimes, home invasions, carjacking and arson. The province will also fund 50 new police officers and 25 cadets in rural and northern Manitoba, expand the use of electronic monitoring bracelets in consultation with police, and add more special unit investigators to the Arson Strike Force, Criminal Property Forfeiture Unit, and for the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. Selinger’s crime reduction strategy is projected to cost $13.2 million.

Medical News Today: “Link Between Liquor Store Density And Youth Homicides, Violent Crime

2011-09-09T12:32:00.001-05:00

Even though I hate US statistics, but I would think that this study also reflects what's happening in our city.

I hope all three parties look at controlling liquor in our neighbourhoods as well...

Medical News Today, “Link Between Liquor Store Density And Youth Homicides, Violent Crime,” 09 Sep 2011

Violent crime could be reduced significantly if policymakers at the local level limit the number of neighborhood liquor stores and ban the sale of single-serve containers of alcoholic beverages, according to separate studies led by University of California, Riverside researchers.

In the first of two groundbreaking studies published in the September issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Review -- "Alcohol availability and youth homicide in 91 of the largest U.S. cities, 1984-2006" -- researchers found a correlation between the density of alcohol outlets and violent crime rates among teens and young adults ages 13 to 24.

Study authors were sociology professors Robert N. Parker and Kirk R. Williams, co-directors of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at UCR; Kevin J. McCaffree, UCR research assistant; sociology professor Emily K. Acensio of the University of Akron, who earned her Ph.D. at UCR; Angela Browne of the Vera Institute of Justice in Washington, D.C.; and Kevin J. Strom and Kelle Barrick of RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The second study, "The impact of retail practices on violence: The case of single serve alcohol beverage containers," examined crime rates and cooler space allocated to containers sold individually in San Bernardino, Calif. Researchers generally found higher rates of violent crime in neighborhoods around alcohol outlets that allot more than 10 percent of cooler space for single-serve containers. Study authors were Parker, McCaffree and Daniel Skiles of the Institute for Public Strategies in San Bernardino.

"These results suggest that alcohol control can be an important tool in violence prevention," Parker said. "Policies designed to reduce outlet density can provide relief from violence in and around these neighborhood outlets. And banning or reducing the sales of single-serve, ready-to-consume containers of alcohol can have an additional impact on preventing violence."

Researchers in the first study analyzed federal crime data for offenders ages 13 to 17 and 18 to 24 and census population and economic data to determine crime rates and the density of beer, wine and liquor stores in 91 of the largest American cities in 36 states.

Taking into account other factors known to contribute to youth homicide rates - such as poverty, drugs, availability of guns, and gangs - the researchers found that higher densities of liquor stores, providing easy access to alcoholic beverages, contributed significantly to higher youth homicide rates.

"Our findings suggest that reducing retail alcohol outlet density should significantly reduce the trends of youth homicide," Parker said.

In the study of single-serve alcohol containers, researchers from UCR and the Institute for Public Strategies in San Bernardino collected data on alcohol outlet locations, violent crime reported to the San Bernardino Police Department and census data on a variety of population, family and age indicators. Workers from the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Program visited every liquor store in the city, and counted the number of coolers containing alcoholic beverages at each location and the amount of cooler space devoted to single-serve containers.

All of that data was mapped using a Geographic Information Systems software program.

The researchers found that violent crime rates were significantly higher in neighborhoods that had both higher densities of liquor stores and retail outlets that devoted more cooler space for single-serve containers. The impact of sales of single-serve containers of alcoholic beverages alone was "modest," they said. The higher the percentage

"As far as we are aware, this is the first study of its kind to examine the impact of single-serve sales on violence, and the first study to use the proportion of cooler space as an indicator of sales volume of a type of alcoholic beverage," the researchers wrote. ... "There is no reason that communities concerned about single-serve containers and their impact cannot take regulatory action on the basis of this limited study. Community interests should dictate local policy, and the potential benefits of reduced violence outweigh any potential harm that the banning or limitation of such sales would create."

Parker said one type of regulatory measure that could be justified on the basis of the study's findings would be the adoption of a Deemed Approved Ordinance. Such a law would give cities more authority "to set acceptable standards of practice for existing alcohol retailers, as well as help to reduce existing outlet density by strengthening the local authority's ability to punish consistent violators of these standards of practice with the permanent loss of the ability to do business."

Cities included in the youth homicide study, by state:

Alabama: Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery
Alaska: Anchorage
Arizona: Phoenix
Arkansas: Little Rock
California: Anaheim, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Stockton
Colorado: Colorado Springs, Denver
Georgia: Atlanta, Columbus
Hawaii: Honolulu
Illinois: Chicago
Indiana: Fort Wayne, Gary, Indianapolis
Iowa: Des Moines
Kentucky: Lexington-Fayette, Louisville
Louisiana: Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport
Maryland: Baltimore
Massachusetts: Boston, Springfield, Worcester
Michigan: Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids
Minnesota: Minneapolis, St. Paul
Mississippi: Jackson
Missouri: Kansas City, St. Louis
Nebraska: Lincoln
Nevada: Las Vegas
New Jersey: Jersey City, Newark
New Mexico: Albuquerque
New York: Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse
North Carolina: Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh
Ohio: Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
Oregon: Portland
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
Rhode Island: Providence
Tennessee: Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville-Davidson
Texas: Amarillo, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio Utah: Salt Lake City
Virginia: Norfolk, Richmond, Virginia Beach
Washington: Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma
Wisconsin: Madison, Milwaukee

Top 100 cities eliminated from study for incomplete data: District of Columbia, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, Omaha, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Tucson and Wichita.
--
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/234091.php

if you are voting or not voting this is require reading... CRIME IS AN ISSUE

2011-09-09T12:29:00.001-05:00

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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Public safety emerges quickly as vote-getter

All parties take stance to address hot-button issue

By: Mary Agnes Welch

Posted: 09/7/2011 1:00 AM

The campaign has barely begun and already each party is trying to put a fresh spin on Winnipeg's most intractable issue: Crime.

Moments the writ was dropped, the Liberals and Tories announced the first of what will be a week's worth of crime-related promises, focused largely on gangs.

By late afternoon the NDP joined the fray, hinting at its own brand of get-tough measures at a campaign stop in Brandon.

This is now Winnipeg's third election in a year, the third time we've watched politicians boil crime solutions down to two things: More cops and some floor hockey.

The Tories, who earned the most momentum in the 2007 campaign from their crime week, were quick out of the gate with a pledge of 15 new police officers, dedicated to cracking down on illegal guns. They also promised a couple of community recreation funds to improve neighbourhood sports programs and keep kids out of gangs.

The NDP also promised more officers, with more details to come.

The Liberals leapfrogged right to the floor hockey and promised $4.6 million to boost inner-city recreation.

Trouble is, the "midnight basketball" solution to youth crime and gangs has not necessarily proven that effective. Researchers say the kids who participate in recreation programs are often the same kids who already have some natural defences against gang life. The "roots causes of crime" -- a catchphrase you'll hear a lot in the next four weeks -- go much deeper, and don't make for quick sound bites or slogans.

"Whatever else gangs are, they are collective solutions to shared problems," said University of Ottawa criminologist Ross Hastings, who organized a gang crime conference several years ago. "Kids face challenges they can't solve any other way."

That includes all the trappings of poverty -- abusive or absentee parents, moving from one crappy, overcrowded apartment to another, illiteracy and school failure, hunger and victimization on the streets from which only a gang can protect them.

Winnipeg's crime rate is on the decline, mirroring continent-wide trends. The city still leads the pack when it comes to violent crime, much of it gang-related, but crime statistics and the plethora of daily police press releases show clearly that the worst of it happens in the inner city, often to people who know the perpetrator.

Still, the issue plays big as a vote-getter in suburban ridings key to forming government. There, the perception of crime looms larger than the reality.

That perception was bolstered this summer by a spate of fire-bombings and shootings in middle-class neighbourhoods like Lord Roberts and St. Vital, part of a gang turf war. There was also a string of garage arsons in affluent areas like River Heights.

Winnipeg already has the most police officers per capita of almost any jurisdiction in Canada. The province's jails are overflowing and the government is building new ones. Even the provincial NDP, at odds with its federal cousins, routinely demands Ottawa toughen the Criminal Code and the young offenders act.

Few politicians in Manitoba are willing to break the hang-'em-high mould, even though some of the United States' most right-leaning politicians, including Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and former Homeland Security undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, have disavowed the American experiment with mandatory minimum prison sentences and other tough-on-crime measures.

Real solutions to the city's crime problem may be more nuanced.

Hastings said it's not necessarily more police, but using officers more wisely to target high-crime areas and build real trust with residents too intimidated to come forward with street-level information.

It's swift and certain punishment, not necessarily severe prison sentences, that act as a deterrent, he said. That means better policing and more Crown attorneys, but it also means rethinking sentences that focus on treatment and training while also reducing the caseloads of parole officers so they can really monitor chronic offenders in the community.

It's also creating affordable housing, using child welfare services to help people be better parents and other soft stuff that's a hard sell at election time.

"People leave gangs when they have hope of something better," like a real job or a chance to succeed in school, said Hastings. "Most kids in gangs simply don't believe that's possible."

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 7, 2011 A4

Prescription Drugs...They Lied...

2011-09-08T16:11:00.001-05:00

She's probably worth millions...

2011-09-08T00:46:00.001-05:00

So today I'm on my scooter driving home down Osborne. I stop at a crosswalk for a little old lady. Traffic was crazy. Everyone rushing. She starts crossing ever so slowly. Suddenly she stops... bends slowwwwwwly down and slowwwwwwwly picks up a penny. She puts it in her purse, standing in the crosswalk, looks at me and smiles. I couldn't help but think... She's probably worth millions...

There's a lesson there...

Want to reduce crime? Get tough on poverty, not the poor...

2011-09-07T23:54:00.001-05:00

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For Immediate Release:

Tuesday, September 6^th, 2011

Want to reduce crime? Get tough on poverty, not the poor

The John Howard Society is calling on all parties in the provincial election to focus on addressing poverty and addictions in order to reduce crime. “Its popular to throw out all kinds of ‘solutions’ – from more police to increased use of jails and prisons, but any solution that doesn’t address poverty and addictions is no solution at all,” observed John Hutton, Executive Director. “Workable solutions have to be based on reality and fixing root causes.”

The connection between poverty, addictions and crime is quite clear when one looks at recent murders. Winnipeg has had 29 murders so far this year. According to Floyd Wiebe, Executive Director of Gang Awareness for Parents – a program that seeks to keep young people out of gangs, “only 2 of the 29 murders appear to be related to the sale of drugs, but 18 murders appear to have been committed by those under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and 19 murders were committed in the north-end/inner-city, where the poverty rates are the highest”.

According to Hutton,“crime is not a new problem and it doesn’t need a new solution: improving educational and employment opportunities for low-income Manitobans, continuing to fund drop-in and recreational programs for at-risk youth, and funding treatment for addictions and alcohol abuse are existing approaches that work and which need to be expanded. And this can be done for far less money than the cost of building new jails and endlessly hiring additional police constables”, Hutton concluded.

For further information, please contact

John Hutton, MSW,

Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Manitoba

(204) 775-1514, ext. 315 or (204) 612-4570

September 2, 2011 29 murders this year, and it's only 2/3 done. (Revised)

2011-09-07T23:53:00.001-05:00

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When you read this list of murders, its apparent that liquor and drugs is the main component that “fuels” people’s anger and as a result, a murder. Oftentimes, during court, evidence shows that drugs were also a part of the mixture. What is surprising here is that only a couple are gang or drug dealing related. Note: One can’t forget all the attempted murders. I’ve actually never seen a Winnipeg statistic on this. Every weekend, never mind weekday, we have 4-5 stabbings or shootings. It’s only because the knife or bullet didn’t hit a vital organ that these people are living!

1] Jan 6: Darryl John SINCLAIR, 45, stabbed. Robert Carl PRINCE, 44 charged with 2nd degree murder. Alcohol suspected to be a factor. Occurred in north-end.

“One man is dead and another is in custody following a late-night drinking party at an apartment block in Winnipeg's North End.” – Winnipeg Free Press, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/late-night-apartment-killing-citys-first-homicide-of-2011-113126914.html

2] Jan 16: Zenon Sylvester BOZYNSKI, 48 injured, perhaps beaten outside a Redwood Avenue apartment block. Jamie Jossens MORRISSEAU, 27 years of Winnipeg and Gamielle William Harry COURCHENE, 25 years of Fort Alexander, Manitoba have both been charged with 2nd Degree Murder. No information available regarding drugs or alcohol. Occurred in North End.

3] Jan 28: A 16-year-old male stabbed on Allegheny Drive. 28 year old Matthew Craig KRASNY of Winnipeg has been arrested and charged with 2nd Degree Murder as a result of his alleged involvement. Possible Drug Dispute?

“Cameron (victim) was no angel and his mother was the first to admit it. She registered him for a program at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba when she caught him smoking pot.” – Winnipeg Free Press, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/mother-ran-to-dying-sons-side-114919829.html

Occurred in Fort Richmond

4 and 5] Feb 5: Darren Joey SWAMPY, 19 years of age and Lee Brady SPENCE, 22 shot on Elgin Avenue. Randy Murray WILLIAMS, 27 years of age was arrested and subsequently charged with 2^nd Degree Murder x 2 as a result of his alleged involvement. Alcohol suspected to be a factor.

“The victims had been evicted from a house party on Ross Avenue, two blocks northeast of Elgin. The suspect had also been evicted from the same party separately.” – Winnipeg Free Press, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/good-guy-gunned-down-115412934.html

Occurred, near Public Safety Building

6] Feb 18: Casandra Lydia KNOTT, 27 is arrested for the homicide of Orzias Joram KNOTT, 34. Alcohol suspected to be a factor

”Police say Knott was hanging out and possibly drinking with friends and family at his wife's apartment at about 5:30 p.m. when he got into an argument with his wife.” – Winnipeg Free Press, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/man-dies-after-stabbing-116556753.html

Occurred on Kennedy Street

7] Feb 24: Senior citizen Elizabeth Lafantasie is found dead, stuffed in her trunk. A few days later Thomas Brine is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Addiction suspected to be a factor.

“In January 2006, he was charged with uttering threats and assault after breaking into an ex-girlfriend's home… During a videotaped police statement, Brine confessed to the crimes and blamed his actions on a crack cocaine addiction… In a bail hearing in 2006, a judge raised concerns and denied Brine's release… Brine was later sent to Teen Challenge where the hope was he could get treatment for his drug addiction. But he didn't finish the program. He was charged for escaping custody--using a bed sheet to climb out this second story window.” – CTV Winnipeg, http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110303/wpg_brine_110303?hub=WinnipegHome

Occurred (car and body found) on Lewis Street near River Avenue

8] March 16: Abdul Rahim Mah JEMEI 22 is stabbed to death downtown. a 16 year old male is arrested soon after, and Ramsey SWAIN, 24 is charged March 29. No information regarding drugs or alcohol.

Occurred on Vaughan, near Portage Avenue

9] March 28: Frank Alexander dies after an alleged assault at Parkview Place. Joe McLeod, an alzheimer’s patient, is charged with manslaughter. Mental Illness.

No drugs or alcohol involved

10] April 20: 42-year-old Sheila Fontaine is killed outside the Merchant’s Hotel on Selkirk. The arrest of Teya Wynter SPENCE, 18 is announced a few days later. She and three other teen girls face manslaughter charges. Alcohol suspected to be a factor

“Witnesses said the woman and her daughter were having a drink at the hotel and then went outside to smoke.” – CTV Winnipeg, http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110421/wpg_stabbing_death_042111/20110421/?hub=WinnipegHome

Occurred on Selkirk Avenue

11] April 29: 20-year-old Trevor Abraham Harper is shot in the 500 block of Portage. 15 year old male youth was located and arrested in the area of Pembina Highway and Plaza Drive on May 4 Dispute with several youths.

No known motive or cause, no mention of drugs or alcohol

Occurred Downtown, at corner of Portage and Young

12] May 10: Solomon Joseph Andrew TURNER found dead — stabbed — in his home. The next day, Lloyd Alfred Lindsay is charged with second-degree murder. Wanda Lisa RAHMAN (Bruce), 32 is charged with the same crime May 27.

No mention of drugs or alcohol

Occurred in Point Douglas

13] May 14: Gina Swanson, 33 is found dead in her Edderton Avenue home. Schuyler Francis Van Wissen, 26 has been charged with first-degree murder and assault with a weapon. Drug use suspected as a factor.

”Those who know him say he had a problem with drugs, went by the name Skyler and sometimes stayed with his parents, who live in the same neighbourhood as the woman he is now accused of killing.” – CTV Winnipeg, http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110518/wpg_edderton_death_110518/20110813/?hub=WinnipegHome

Occurred in Fort Garry

14] May 16: Gerald Crayford, 54, dies after an apparent assault at a Pizza Hotline outlet. A 15-year-old is charged with second-degree murder. Byron Charlie Bushie, 18 is arrested and charged with the same crime a few days later.

No mention of drugs or alcohol use.

Occurred in East Kildonan

15] May 16: Iris Heald, 61, was killed after she was allegedly knocked down by another woman in the West End. Police charged 35-year-old Cynthia Elaine Thomas with manslaughter, after Heald died from her injuries. Alcohol suspected to be a factor

“Investigators are also examining how intoxicants might have played a role in the incident, police said.” – Winnipeg Sun, http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/05/17/woman-61-assaulted-in-west-end

Occurred in West End

16] May 21: Leslie Alex OKEMOW, 29 is found dead at the St. Regis. Arnold Harper turns himself in to face a manslaughter charge on May 21..

No mention of drugs or alcohol

Occurred Downtown, at St. Regis Hotel

17] June 26: Steven Kyle DODGE, 26, found stabbed on Arlington. Same day: Nathan Allan BRICKLIN, 18 years of age is charged with second-degree murder. Alcohol suspected to be a factor

“Dodge's mother said in a note to the Free Press her son asked her daughter's boyfriend to leave their home because he was drinking.” – Winnipeg Free Press, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/backyard-brawl-ends-in-fatality-charges-laid-124635949.html

Occurred in West End

18, 19, 20, 21, 22] July 16: Lulonda Lynn Flett is charged with five counts of second degree murder for the arson-related deaths of Norman Darius ANDERSON, 22 years Maureen Claire HARPER, 54 years, Kenneth Bradley MONKMAN, 49 years, Dean James STRANDEN, 44 years, and Robert Curtis LAFORTE, 56 years. She also faces three attempted murder charges. Alcohol suspected to be a factor.

”A woman was arrested at a Main Street bar and charged with murder after four people died and two others were critically injured in a Point Douglas rooming house that was allegedly purposely set ablaze, a cigarette is believed to have sparked fire. About 14 hours after emergency crews rushed to 288 Austin St. North, police officers went into the lounge at the Northern Hotel, motioned to a woman to follow them and she calmly complied.” – Winnipeg Sun, http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2011/07/20110718-085259.html

Occurred on Austin Street

23] July 19: Cara Lynn HIEBERT, 31 is found dead in her home and is considered a homicide. Case as-yet unsolved. Anyone who has information regarding this incident is asked to call investigators at 986-6508 or CrimeStoppers at 786- TIPS (8477). Possible Domestic.

Still unsolved

Occurred in North End

24] August 5: Baljinder Singh SIDHU, 27 had been stabbed after a fight involving a large number of persons. Alcohol suspected to be a factor.

“It's believed two groups were inside a neighbourhood bar when an argument began. The dispute spilled onto Osborne Street, where Singh was stabbed.” – CTV Winnipeg, http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110805/wpg_osborne_closed_080511/20110806/?hub=WinnipegHome

Occurred in Osborne Village

25] August 20: Marcel Murdock 40, was killed after a family fight between two families. A 17 year old girl ran him over with a car. Charged with First Degree Murder.

“Two families were socializing at a house when a fight broke out between a 17-year-old girl and her 18-year-old boyfriend early Saturday morning, said police. “- CTV Winnipeg, http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110824/wpg_charges_110824/20110824/?hub=WinnipegHome

Occurred on Garfield Street

26] August 20: Tim Koostachin, 30, was killed by Ray Vaughn Munro, 19, and has been charged with manslaughter. Alcohol suspected to be a factor.

“Police constable Jason Michalyshen says Koostachin and Ray Munro got into a fight after leaving a house party in the 400 block of Elgin Avenue… Michalyshen says alcohol may have been a factor but couldn't say whether either man was drunk at the time of the fight.” – CJOB, http://www.cjob.com/News/Local/Story.aspx?ID=1527046

Occurred on Elgin Avenue

27] August 25: Robert Rourke, 22, killed by Gregory Troy Govereau, 38, after a party. Alcohol suspected to be a factor.

“The stabbing occurred during a fight in the early morning of Saturday, August 20, when police allege two men left a house party in the area.” – Winnipeg Free Press, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Stabbed-man-dies-man-charged-128560183.html

Occurred on Burrows Avenue

28] August 27: April Helen Hornbrook, 24, body found in area of Main & Sutherland. No arrests. Anyone who has information regarding this incident is asked to call investigators at 986-6508 or CrimeStoppers at 786- TIPS (8477).

Still unsolved

Occurred near intersection of Main and Sutherland

29] August 31: Joseph Lalonde, 48. Youths, wielding a baseball bat attacked him and his 18-year-old daughter. Two 15-year-old boys used the bat to beat the man then attacked his daughter when she tried to intervene. Youths asked what gang daughter was in. The man and his daughter are not gang involved however the youths are. Gang Initiation?

“Police say a group of people got into a verbal confrontation — that may have involved rival street gangs — earlier in the evening.” – Winnipeg Sun, http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/08/31/dad-killed-defending-daughter

No mention of drugs or alcohol

Occurred on Dufferin Avenue

A brilliant quote...

2011-09-07T15:04:00.001-05:00

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

They said I could party all night... They Lied...

2011-09-06T13:27:00.001-05:00

They lied about weed...

2011-09-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

http://youtu.be/-T2jwNPVmNA

Customer Service...?

2011-09-02T17:46:00.001-05:00

So funny... I'm at Superstore... I have all my stuff on the conveyor and forgot frozen pie shells... I say... "Would you please ask one of the guys to get a box of no name pie shells?" Her face turned to one of absolute horror... and said, "You want us to get you pie shells?". "Well.." I said, "It would be a lot easier...".

So she calls a dude and he gets it real quick. It was just funny how she reacted to actually give customer service!

GANG ACTION INTERAGENCY NETWORK is hosting a RUN to raise awareness about gang intervention programs in Winnipeg!

2011-09-02T14:03:00.001-05:00

Watch how our clothing fashions have changed over 100 years in 100 seconds. AMAZING!

2011-09-02T09:15:00.001-05:00

29 murders this year, and it's only 2/3 done. Most are alcohol related...

2011-09-02T07:55:00.001-05:00

When you read this list of murders, its apparent that liquor is the main component that “fuels” people’s anger and as a result, a murder. Oftentimes, during court, evidence shows that drugs were also a part of the mixture. What is surprising here is that only a couple are gang or drug dealing related. Note: One can’t forget all the attempted murders. I’ve actually never seen a Winnipeg statistic on this. Every weekend, never mind weekday, we have 4-5 stabbings or shootings. It’s only because the knife or bullet didn’t hit a vital organ that these people are living!

1] Jan 6: Darryl John SINCLAIR, 45, stabbed. Robert Carl PRINCE, 44 charged with 2nd degree murder. Drunken Brawl.

4 and 5] Feb 5: Darren Joey SWAMPY, 19 years of age and Lee Brady SPENCE, 22 shot on Elgin Avenue. Randy Murray WILLIAMS, 27 years of age was arrested and subsequently charged with 2ndDegree Murder x 2 as a result of his alleged involvement. Drunken Dispute.

6] Feb 18: Casandra Lydia KNOTT, 27 is arrested for the homicide of Orzias Joram KNOTT, 34. Drunken Dispute.

7] Feb 24: Senior citizen Elizabeth Lafantasie is found dead, stuffed in her trunk. A few days later Thomas Brine is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Drug addict robbery?

8] March 16: Abdul Rahim Mah JEMEI 22 is stabbed to death downtown. a 16 year old male is arrested soon after, and Ramsey SWAIN, 24 is charged March 29. No Motive? Dispute?

9] March 28: Frank Alexander dies after an alleged assault at Parkview Place. Joe McLeod, an alzheimer’s patient, is charged with manslaughter. Mental Illness.

13] May 14: Gina Swanson, 33 is found dead in her Edderton Avenue home. Schuyler Francis Van Wissen, 26 has been charged with first-degree murder and assault with a weapon. Drug fuelled robbery.

16] May 21: Leslie Alex OKEMOW, 29 is found dead at the St. Regis. Arnold Harper turns himself in to face a manslaughter charge on May 21. Drunken Dispute.

17] June 26: Steven Kyle DODGE, 26, found stabbed on Arlington. Same day: Nathan Allan BRICKLIN, 18 years of age is charged with second-degree murder. Argument and Domestic.

24] August 5: Baljinder Singh SIDHU, 27 had been stabbed after a fight involving a large number of persons. Drunken Dispute.

25] August 20: Marcel Murdock 40, was killed after a family fight between two families. A 17 year old girl ran him over with a car. Charged with First Degree Murder. Family Dispute.

26] August 20: Tim Koostachin, 30, was killed by Ray Vaughn Munro, 19, and has been charged with manslaughter. Argument over a girl. Drunken Dispute.

27] August 25: Robert Rourke, 22, killed by Gregory Troy Govereau, 38, after a party. Drunken Dispute.

29] August 24 but victim died August 31: Joseph Lalond, 48. Youths, wielding a baseball bat attacked him and his 18-year-old daughter. Two 15-year-old boys used the bat to beat the man then attacked his daughter when she tried to intervene. Youths asked what gang daughter was in. The man and his daughter are not gang involved however the youths are. Gang Initiation?

The young gang member is out of control.

2011-09-01T19:54:00.001-05:00

You gotta shake your head how this boy turned out to be so vicious. This kid will I'm sure repeat crime after crime his entire life. It's sad... Real sad...

Teen gang member gets 5 years for initiation assaults
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
By: Mike McIntyre

A Winnipeg youth gang member has agreed to an adult sentence for his role in a home invasion which left two men critically injured. James Pottinger, 18, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the February 2010 attack and was sentenced to five years in prison under a joint-recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers. He was 16 at the time of the attack and would have only faced a maximum of two years custody under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. However, the Crown likely would have sought a longer adult sentence if he hadn’t agreed to admit responsibility and avoid a trial. Pottinger and at least five other fellow members of the MOB gang stormed inside a William Avenue home, armed with a variety of weapons including knives and ice picks, court was told. Their target was a 17-year-old boy they believed was trying to have a romantic relationship with one of their girlfriends. Once inside, they began kicking and punching the teen, broke several glass plates over his head and then stabbed him in the scalp and upper body. The victim’s 46-year-old uncle tried to stop the attack but was stabbed twice in the back with a hunting knife. Crown attorney Mary Goska told court the knife went through the man’s back and out his torso, narrowly missing any vital organs. All of the accused then fled the scene, leaving both victims in life-threatening condition. The pair spent several weeks in hospital for a variety of injuries which included a fractured skull to the youth. Pottinger told police he agreed to participate in the attack as part of his initiation into the gang, believing he would move from "striker" to "full-patch member" as a result. He has continued to be a menace behind bars, with at least 19 violent incidents noted by officials since his arrest. Defence lawyer Chris Sigurdson told court his client is a "very damaged young man" as a result of a terrible upbringing that included his mother being murdered when he was a child. Several co-accused in the home invasion remain before the courts.

I am a keynote speaker at the "Defining Our Tomorrows" Conference of the Child and Youth Care Worker's Association of Manitoba

2011-09-01T16:45:00.001-05:00

FROM:

http://www.garthgoodwin.info/Defining_Our_Tomorrows_Keynote.html

Street crime is a distorted form of social protest, It comes out of anger, hostility to the system, to the man, to the rules, to the conditions of life that are so harsh...

2011-09-01T16:14:00.001-05:00

A quote from:

Andrew Karmen, a sociologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Why Did Crime Fall in New York City? Could we apply some of this to Winnipeg?

2011-09-01T15:59:00.001-05:00

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/why-did-crime-fall-in-new-york-city/

Why Did Crime Fall in New York City?

By SEWELL CHAN

Did the “broken windows” strategy and CompStat drive down crime in New York City in the 1990s?

Both strategies are indelibly linked to former MayorRudolph W. Giuliani and his first police commissioner, William J. Bratton.

Social scientists and criminologists have endlessly debated the extent to which effective policing was truly responsible for the drop in crime, compared with other factors like the higher incarceration rate, improved economic conditions, the lessening of the crack cocaine epidemic, a relative reduction in the numbers of 16- to 24-year-olds and even the abortion rate.

A new round of the debate took place this morning in Manhattan, during the annual meeting of theAmerican Sociological Association. The meeting, which continues through Tuesday, drew some 6,100 sociologists this year from around the world.

Among the three experts who gave presentations, the consensus seemed to be that effective policing matters – but not nearly as much as Mr. Giuliani and other city officials (including his successor Michael R. Bloomberg) have claimed.

First, some context. The broken windows theory, pioneered by George L. Kelling and often lumped together with the notion of zero-tolerance policing, holds that aggressive enforcement against minor quality-of-life crimes, like loitering and fare-beating, deters further petty crime and ultimately drives down major crime. Compstat is the computerized system Mr. Bratton and one of his top deputies, Jack Maple, devised to keep track of crime problems and hold police commanders accountable for addressing the most crime-prone areas.

Sandro Galea, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, spoke first. His research is heavy on statistical analysis, but his general point seemed to be that the correlation between a surge in misdemeanor arrests in the 1990s (one measurement of tougher policing) could not be used to explain the the drop in homicide (a major example of crime reduction) once variations among different neighborhoods are taken into account.

“The story is complicated,” he said. “Clearly, the relation between policing, disorder and crime is cloudy.” A combination of socioeconomic changes and changes in the “physical order” of the city’s neighborhoods probably drove the decrease in homicides in the 1990s, although tougher policing and the drop in cocaine use also played some role, he said.

Andrew Karmen, a sociologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of “New York Murder Mystery: The True Story Behind the Crime Crash of the 1990s” (New York University Press, 2000), spoke next.

Mr. Karmen was more decisive in his presentation, focusing on the role that Compstat has played in driving down crime in New York. He noted that Mr. Giuliani had promised to implement Compstat-like programs across the federal government if elected president.

Mr. Karmen noted that many police departments across the country and even overseas “have adopted a Compstat approach to their daily operations” and added, “A virtual cottage industry has developed as former N.Y.P.D. officials have been hired as consultants to set up Compstat in other departments.” The strategy was seen as so effective, Mr. Karmen noted, that in 1996 Time Magazine called the N.Y.P.D. the “Lourdes of policing.”

A 2001 survey found that more than one-third of nation’s 515 largest police departments had implemented Compstat in some form.

However, Mr. Karmen said, the results in cities that have adopted the Compstat model have been mixed: Philadelphia is “in the grip of a murder wave,” Seattle’s homicide decline “has flattened out,” and the New Orleans police remains as ineffective as it was before Hurricane Katrina. The same dismal trend, he said, goes for Minneapolis, Louisville, Boston and Baltimore.

Mr. Karmen said that it can be hard to evaluate Compstat for a key reason. If crime rates go down, its proponents credit the program. If crime doesn’t go down, the program’s proponents say the program’s six core elements – a clear mission, internal accountability, geographical organization of operational command, organizational flexibility, a reliance on data and innovative problem-solving tactics – were not faithfully followed. Mr. Karmen said he did not rule out the latter explanation: “Implementing Compstat could be a matter of degree, and some departments just don’t get it.”

Yet, he said, “None of the other cities have experienced anything like New York’s remarkable improvement in public safety.” So either those other cities all failed to follow Compstat fully, or Compstat, he said, “is not the entire reason why crime went down.”

Michael P. Jacobson, the director of the Vera Institute of Justice, who was probation and correction commissioner in the Giuliani administration, was the final speaker.

Mr. Jacobson discussed a remarkable phenomenon: Far more arrests took place than in the early 1990s, and yet the number of New Yorkers in jail or in prison has declined.

Before the Giuliani era, he said, about half the people arrested for low-level offenses would get a desk-appearance ticket ordering them to go to court. The proportion now is about 10 percent.

“Essentially, everyone who’s arrested in New York City, in the parlance of city criminal justice lingo, goes through ‘the system,’” Mr. Jacobson noted. “Most everyone who’s arrested spends, on average, 24 hours in some kind of lockup before they see an arraignment judge.”

Even a short period in a holding cell can be enough to deter further law-breaking, he said:

For a lot of people who go through the system repeatedly, going through the system one more time is probably not a life-altering experience. But if you’ve never gone through the system, even 24 hours – that’s a shocking period of punishment. It’s debasing, it’s difficult. You’re probably in a fairly gross police lockup. You probably have no toilet paper. You’re given a baloney sandwich, and the baloney is green.

The city’s jails now hold about 13,000 to 14,000 people, down from roughly 23,000 in 1993.

“There are tons more people coming in, but they stay for far shorter periods of time, which drives down the need for jailbeds in New York City,” Mr. Jacobson said.

The same pattern holds for the prison system, he said. The city used to send about 20,000 inmates each year to the state prison system; the number now is about 8,000.

During the question-and-answer session that followed the presentations, Mr. Karmen was more explicit about what he saw as the reasons for the crime decline.

“Street crime is a distorted form of social protest,” he said. “It comes out of anger, hostility to the system, to the man, to the rules, to the conditions of life that are so harsh. Frankly, I don’t see young people – including young minority males – being so angry any more.”

There remains “a hard-core group of people that are disconnected socially, marginalized, out of work, out of school” that continues to engage in drug-dealing and violent gun play, he said, but far more people have had their anger diluted by “the consumer society.”

(On a side note, he added that the diminution in anger is both good and bad. “They’re not committing crimes, but they’re not tackling these social conditions that have to be remedied,” he said.)

Mr. Jacobson said that “a general consensus” seems to have emerged that effective policing in New York has made some difference – even though “the statistical effects, if they are there at all, are small.”

Joyce Purnick of The Times, who attended the meeting, asked the panelists why the most serious crimes in New York, including homicides, have continued to decline even though crime levels have been moving upward in other cities.

“ In scholarly circles, that’s like it happened yesterday,” Mr. Jacobson said, adding, “It’s a mystery.”

My quote of the day...

2011-09-01T07:17:00.001-05:00

The question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I, or the others crazy?

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN! YA GOTTA LOVE SHERIFF JOE!

2011-09-01T07:14:00.001-05:00

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.......... SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN! Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe! Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay. The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dog s off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows. The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million.. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78. The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals. I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the holidays and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the prison. Yup, he was re-elected last year with 83% of the vote... Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff. TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO.. HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER.. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY: Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona ) who created the 'Tent City Jail': **He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.. **He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. **Took away their weights. **Cut off all but 'G' movies. **He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. **Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination. **He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails, so he hooked up the cable TV again.....BUT only let in the Disney channel and the Weather channel... **When asked why the weather channel, he replied, "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.." **He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. **When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't The Ritz/Carlton........ If you don't like it, don't come back." More On The Arizona Sheriff: With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS.. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the TENTS for 1 year. "It's inhumane.." Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic.. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates, "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!" Way to go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers' money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves. If you agree, pass this on. If not, just delete it.

Dinner with Justin Trudeau

2011-08-31T18:58:00.001-05:00

At a dinner with past Prime Minister's son Justin Trudeau and Jon Gerrard, leader of the Manitoba Liberal party. Even the mayor of Winnipeg 20 years ago, Bill Norrie. I met Pierre Trudeau at Norberry school like 35 years ago so it's kinda cool seeing his son today...

This is sooooo funny. Jim Carey & Stephen Hawking on Conan

2011-08-31T01:24:00.001-05:00

Truly the greatest comic and the smartest man together...

Nothing like old rock n roll - Ozzy Osborne

2011-08-30T23:23:00.001-05:00

MISSING PERSON - TYRUS MANN 11 YEARS OLD

2011-08-30T17:47:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

MISSING PERSON - TYRUS MANN 11 YEARS
C11-175077

The Winnipeg Police Service is requesting the public’s assistance in locating a missing 11 year old child, Tyrus MANN. Tyrus was last seen in the Elmwood area of the city on the evening of Monday, August 29^th, 2011 at 8:10 pm.

Tyrus is described as: Aboriginal, 5’3” tall, 130lbs, short black wavy hair, large build and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a blue shirt and black sweatpants.

The Winnipeg Police Service is concerned about the well-being of this child and is requesting anyone with information as to his whereabouts to contact the Winnipeg Police Service Missing Person’s Unit at 986-6250.

My quote for the day... Bullying

2011-08-30T10:24:00.001-05:00

The healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.

Grafitti taggers never stop...lol

2011-08-30T10:22:00.001-05:00

Check out some pics of my son TJ's Memorial Pond at my cottage...

2011-08-29T12:05:00.001-05:00