‘I can’t pay it anyway’: Why are Hamilton police ticketing the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic?

[shockedcanadian]

That's a creative way to ensure we get the debt in Ontario back on track...good luck with that.

‘I can’t pay it anyway’: Why are Hamilton police ticketing the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic?

“I’ve fought cancer, I get pneumonia twice a year. If I get (the coronavirus), I’m probably dead,” said the 49-year-old, who uses a walker to get around and is missing a large piece of his skull following surgery to remove a tumour.

Dickson said he understands the pandemic lockdown — even as it makes his life on the street that much tougher with the closure of meal programs and warm hangout spaces like the library or coffee shops.

But he doesn’t understand why police bothered to hand him an $880 ticket on April 3 for breaching a provincial order against gatherings of five or more people. The pandemic order is meant to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. (A ticket is $750 plus $130 victim fine surcharge.)

Dickson said he was sitting near the downtown Urban Core health centre that afternoon when he got the ticket. There were people nearby, but he didn’t consider himself part of the group.

“I can’t pay it anyway. They know that. I feel like they’re just harassing me,” he said. “He (the officer) said, ‘Well, I just have to do my job.’”

 

[miketx]

Because in many cases the police are nothing but tools for the thugs in government and those police will usually do whatever they are told.

 

[Mikeoxenormous]

That's a creative way to ensure we get the debt in Ontario back on track...good luck with that.

‘I can’t pay it anyway’: Why are Hamilton police ticketing the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic?

“I’ve fought cancer, I get pneumonia twice a year. If I get (the coronavirus), I’m probably dead,” said the 49-year-old, who uses a walker to get around and is missing a large piece of his skull following surgery to remove a tumour.

Dickson said he understands the pandemic lockdown — even as it makes his life on the street that much tougher with the closure of meal programs and warm hangout spaces like the library or coffee shops.

But he doesn’t understand why police bothered to hand him an $880 ticket on April 3 for breaching a provincial order against gatherings of five or more people. The pandemic order is meant to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. (A ticket is $750 plus $130 victim fine surcharge.)

Dickson said he was sitting near the downtown Urban Core health centre that afternoon when he got the ticket. There were people nearby, but he didn’t consider himself part of the group.

“I can’t pay it anyway. They know that. I feel like they’re just harassing me,” he said. “He (the officer) said, ‘Well, I just have to do my job.’”

My wife has wondered how many of those reported dead by COVID-19 have been homeless? Seems that the streets of LA and NYC had infestations of homeless people, and those states have the higher death rate. Could it be that the liberal compassion of allowing such people to be that way, has now caused such death?