Vancouver Missed the Mark: Policing, Politics, and the Human Cost 💔🥺

Vancouver Missed the Mark: Policing, Politics, and the Human Cost 💔🥺

Are Transit cops really “cops”? Yes — fully sworn officers with the power to arrest, issue tickets, and enforce the law. But how the hell did we get here?

Society expects these officers — trained in a police academy for only 6–12 months — to manage:

• Mental health crises 😢
• Addiction and homelessness 🥺
• Domestic disputes 💔
• Child welfare, elder care, and crisis intervention 👶👵

Meanwhile, professions historically dominated by women — teaching, nursing, social work, caregiving, cooking — require years of training:

• Teachers: 4–5 years 📚
• Nurses: 2–4 years 🏥
• Social workers: 2–4 years 💬
• Doctors: 7+ years 👨‍⚕️
• Chefs / caregivers: 2+ years 🍳

Irony: Male-dominated “tough” roles get short training, while traditionally female, “nurturing” roles require far more experience and empathy — yet the stakes are the same: human lives.

Ken Sim promised 100 nurses and doctors. Did we get them? No. Meanwhile, billions go into policing, and police brag about drug busts like trophies. Seniors, unhoused people, and marginalized communities continue to suffer. 👵👴🥺

Distractions are everywhere: Parks Board drama, FIFA excitement, photo ops — while the real crisis unfolds behind the scenes. It’s a classic Trump-style tactic: make people look at minor spectacle while ignoring catastrophe. 🎩🔥

Perspective:

• Over 18,000 people have died — from overdose, exposure, and neglect
• More than 5,000 are unhoused or homeless 🏚️
• Seniors filling shelters in record numbers 👵👴
• Indigenous and marginalized communities facing abuse and neglect 🌿⚡

People steal bus rides like people once stole bread — survival criminalized. 🥖🚍

Here’s the danger — in questions and analogies:

1. If a chef trains 2 years to safely cook meals, how can someone trained 6 months handle a human crisis without “burning” someone emotionally or physically? 🔥👨‍🍳
2. Would you get on a plane flown by someone who trained for only 6 months, expected to handle storms, medical emergencies, and panicking passengers? ✈️😬
3. Would you trust a person with 6 months of training to teach, counsel, and discipline children, including those facing trauma? 📚😢
4. If someone holds authority over people historically oppressed — like Indigenous communities — but lacks empathy training, what’s the likelihood of abuse or harm? 🥺⚖️
5. Giving a 6-month trained recruit a wrench and keys and saying, “Fix everyone’s lives, de-escalate crises, and enforce laws” — how many lives could be “damaged”? 🔧💥
6. A firefighter spends almost a year training to save lives; a cop spends half that time and is expected to do both rescue and judgment — how is this fair? 🚒🤯
7. Would you rather a trained social worker intervene in addiction, homelessness, or domestic disputes — or someone trained for 6 months with a baton and handcuffs? 💔
8. Stealing a bus ride is like stealing bread to survive — how does punishing someone harshly reflect a system that fails to provide safety or support? 🥖🚍
9. How can officers respect Indigenous traditions, trauma, and rights if their training barely touches history, social justice, or empathy? 🌿⚡
10. Isn’t it bizarre that society gives power over life, liberty, and dignity to someone whose training is shorter than a nurse’s or social worker’s? 😡💔

Bottom line: Vancouver has missed the mark. We are giving enormous power to people with far too little preparation, while politicians brag about policing budgets, distract with trivialities, and ignore human suffering. The result? we are all paying — literally with lives. 💔🥺