I was attacked by a drug addict in the city centre of Kitchener yesterday afternoon, which is, in part anyway, why there was no blog entry yesterday.
It was late afternoon, around 5; the shops were closing, and Kitchener's King Street (the main street through the town) as fairly quiet, and I'd just come out of one of the coffee shops to go home. The guy, just an older teenage boy really, ran up to me and demanded money. I said no, and tried to walk around him, and so he grabbed hold and began, I think, to try to shake the money out of me. I managed to get him off me, so no harm done, but it was a close run thing. I'm pleased I wasn't alone, and the he wasn't armed.
That's a first for me in Canada. I've had brief run-ins with druggies and aggressive beggars in Middlesbrough (outside the Law Courts...) and in central London when I used to live there. This is the first time it's happened to me in a small country town, and the first time I've actually been attacked.
When we got him off me, he just crumpled and started to cry.
I mean, what can you do? When you've someone in that state, you can't even be angry with them. I was just thinking, "Poor sod"; I didn't even have the heart to dial 911, which normally I'd have done without thinking. I just walked away.
The simple, brutal solution, is to randomly test for drugs, round up the druggies, and put a bullet in the back of the head. Do that, and you will reduce street crime by 80% overnight, and you will reduce burglary by at least 50%. The problem is, I can't imagine looking into that boys eyes and then being able to pull the trigger, even from behind. He was too pathetic, too miserable, too human to be able to do it. I couldn't even punch him, which is certainly what he deserved yesterday. On the other hand, you can't have people walking the streets in that state, or committing crimes when they're more sober in order to pay for thir next fix.
So what do we do?
I've no answer, just the question.