Go hard on graffiti vandals, be soft with panhandlers
KAMLOOPS — When we’re making laws, we should think about the consequences and roots of illegal acts before we get all sanctimonious.
Laws are created to control behavior, and some behavior is worse than others. For example, I would put graffiti way ahead of panhandling on the list of bad social behavior.
These are two things that happen each and every day on the streets of our towns and cities, though one is done in back alleys and other convenient places, and the other is practiced out on our sidewalks and — as an ArmchairMayor.ca reader pointed out this week — on our medians.
Neither is on the scale of robbery, murder or even fraud, but they both need to be controlled. The question is how and to what degree.