Friday night, after I had went to bed and read about it all over Facebook on Saturday.
A power outage, lasting perhaps a couple of hours. During which some of our more unhoused residents took it upon themselves to build a fire in a park just outside of the 24 hour cafe recently opened to honour the memory of one of Nelson's more popular street people.
You knew it would go like this, never anyone has a good idea to benefit the unhoused then they find a way to turn it upon themselves. So this fire, illegal, is called into the fire department, and a local resident is on hand to film the ensuing interaction, identifying the main party through a freeze-frame CSI-styled dropdown of his rap-sheet - which includes manufacturing of a controlled substance, distribution of said substance, death threats, etc, etc.
I know him to see him, he's always been pleasant to me, but tonight he's not behaving...
They're going on about it being a "State of Emergency" and all sorts of other free men on the land nonsense. The neighbours to this cafe, they can't be too impressed...
Meanwhile, across town, in front of city hall a local has charged police officers with a concealed weapon (knife). He was tased, shots were fired, and he was taken into custody, previously he'd been convicted a couple of years prior to stabbing somebody in the neck at Shambala. It's a big deal, city hall is cordoned off, police tape, everyone's asking questions...
***
The local resident, he's a bit of a commentator, he describes the nights events succinctly and with clarity. It's better than the news. And of course I have my own take, but I wasn't there (I watched his video) - he's reasonable in his criticisms, mostly of the flavour that "Something needs be done" and "We know these people are threats and yet still they're allowed to walk around...", and he's not wrong, but looking at all the comments and the audience he's reaching, well, this challenges my thinking. It's by-and-largely the more opinionated hand-wringing moral imbeciles taking affront to the idea of extending any sort of assistance to these people or grossly generalizing that all of them are the same. The good thing is, reading who's in agreement forces one to rethink one's own point of view on the subject...