My Wet Coast Life

It's been awhile since my last post due to being busy with work and other things. But now i feel the need to share my 2 bits on another issue that irks me and finally measures are being introduced to reduce/eliminate drunks on the road and severely penalize the ones that still drive drunk.

British Columbia has finally stepped up to take on the drunk drivers and impose stiffer penalties. This week they announced tough new measures to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road and implement stiffer penalties for those that think they are OK to drive after having a few brews, when they are in fact not OK, and get caught.

I have had friends, and most likely you do to, that still stupidly get behind the wheel after a few when they should have made a smarter choice for getting home and luckily they are still around. Unfortunately, sooner or later, their luck will run out or maybe already has. Sometimes my friends or I were able to stop them by taking away their keys. But every so often, some felt obliged to refuse or even go to the extent of offering "we''ll fight for it". Some battles are just not worth it. You can't win against someone aiming for top spot on the Darwin awards. I just hope they don't take out others in that process. We can only hope.

Everyone that drives and has a wobbly pop or two, or three, has multiple alternate options and choices to make. They can get designated driver, take a cab, call a sober friend, stay overnight, take transit and one of the best services of all, Operation Red Nose, a volunteer safe ride home service. That's 6 alternate options compared to getting behind the wheel but alas, ignorance fueled by alcohol is bliss.

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So this morning, i go to my car to run to the grocery store as we are out of coffee filters and i need my morning wake up juice to function. I go to my car and low and behold, my back window is smashed and car looted

Now as some background, this is a '91 Nissan Sentra beater used for commuting to work, taking the dog to the park and running errands. The only 2 things of value in the car is an old Sony discman and a FM transmitter (hello stock cassette deck work-around) in the glove box and out of site. There are other cars on the road with valuables and technically more worth while to break into but alas, they choose my car as the break in victim.

Now what grinds my gears, is these idiots risked a criminal record over maybe $30 of stuff that may fetch $5 at a pawn shop (who wants a discman nowadays where you can get an MP3 player for the same amount?). But in turn have given me an unexpected expense at Christmas time. If it was just a smashed window, i would think it was just stupid drunken rowdyness but they went through everything in the car so i can only assume it was for financial gain. Luckily i had "The CLUB" on and my car didn't leave with the thieves...

For tips on preventing auto crime, you can visit ICBC for mo'info

Now when i worked in Africa, they have mob justice to deal with thieves (due to corrupt police), so theft had a much stiffer penalty, you know, death and occurred less.

Why so severe? Sooner or later you're going to have something stolen from you so if someone calls out a thief in public, the mob will enact years of frustration on this poor soul prior to the police showing up and taking away this severely beaten soul, if they survived. I now fall under that group as i am pissed off with this inconvenience and unwanted expense.

Depending on the area I was working in, they told me they would even go to the extent of giving them a "necklace" (car tire filled with gas placed on head and...you can figure out the rest...). Now i do not condone this but yet again, if there are not stiff penalties and repercussions, people will keep doing what they are doing knowing they will get a slap on the wrist or a light sentence (and for some that equates to a free roof over there head and 3 meals a day at the tax payers expense).

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