Coronacrimes

Since my last post was so dismal, let's avoid the tonal whiplash of bouncing back to cheerful news, and instead ease into it with a melancholy but less grim topic. A little while ago, I was standing in my backyard, when I heard someone shout "Get on the ground!" I then saw at least four police officers running down the street by the plaza near where I live. I mentioned this to my neighbour, who later learned the background of this incident and let me know.

Turns out, the man had just robbed the nearby convenience store. He entered the store, took a few items, and attempted to walk out without paying. When confronted, he pulled out a knife and threatened the owner.

This store has already been robbed at least twice. They used to be open until midnight, until they were robbed just before closing. So they started closing at eleven, until they were robbed just before closing. Now they close at ten. This time they got robbed at like, 1:00 pm.

What a lazy robber. I like to imagine that most thieves are in a state of desperation, because it makes their crime a little more understandable. But this guy didn't go for the cash register, or even steal enough to fill both his arms if he brandished a knife. Obviously I wasn't there, so it could have looked very different, but the description of the situation makes it seem like he wanted a few odds and ends, and just grabbed a kitchen knife before leaving his place, so he could wave it at whoever confronted him. He didn't even consider going at a more low-traffic time. It's so... lazy and stupid, in addition to being needlessly aggressive. The whole scenario paints a very unappealing image of him.

I feel like people think we're descending into a lawless state. This is not the case, at least at this time. We are being more closely monitored and controlled than ever before. This guy didn't even get out of the plaza before he got mobbed by four police officers. We've got security at every sizeable store, we've got bylaw officers patrolling at all times, and there is a stronger police presence. There are fewer people outside too, so everything you do catches stronger notice than it did before. It's a bad time to commit crimes.

Something else I noticed is, people are driving worse. Several times I've seen someone suddenly put the pedal to the metal on some small side street, weaving back and forth down the middle of the road. This isn't a strong enough sample size to say that it's statistically relevant, but other people have complained about seeing this as well. Lee-Anne says that the two types of crime that have seen an uptick are erratic driving and domestic violence. I was going to pose this as an open-ended question, but she explained that it's because there are fewer people on the road, which gives more freedom for folks with a need for speed. Still dangerous behaviour.

And yeah, I mentioned that domestic abuse is up. This is sad and pretty obvious when you think about it. A lot of relationships are being tested because of the forced close proximity, and people who were in abusive relationships can no longer escape by leaving the home.

On a lighter note of criminality. I would like to talk about litterers. Apparently the person whose job it was to pick up trash was considered non-essential, because I am living in a dump right now. I shouldn't be surprised, I know a guy who does maintenance work at the Boardwalk, a popular shopping area, and he was laid off. If the Boardwalk isn't being prioritized, my ghetto little townhouse complex certainly isn't going to be.

This is low-key a good thing. Maybe if people see that they have to live in the garbage they drop on the ground, they'll learn to stop doing it. One of the environmental lessons that COVID-19 is teaching us.

However, even though we have implemented a number of safety measures that have had the side effect of encouraging environmentally-friendly behaviour, people still find new ways to be gross. It's not uncommon to see people wearing a mask and those plastic disposable gloves. The image of a person wearing a mask has become a little symbolic of the pandemic in general. Anyway, people have started throwing their gloves on the ground in large quantities. This is unfortunate, because the reason they are disposing of their gloves is because they feel it might have the virus on them. But if you just throw them on the ground, they're going to float around in the wind and hypothetically spread the virus to other surfaces. To keep ourselves safe, we need to keep everyone else safe, so this is really counterproductive behaviour for people attempting the extra safety precaution of wearing gloves.

My mother, brother and aunt have all started wearing masks. I haven't taken that step yet.