Public Money, Private Security

As far as "fuck the police" gestures go, the NPA have done Ice-T proud by electing to give public funds to expand the Downtown Ambassadors "unofficial" security patrols (run by Genesis Security) in the Granville street clubzone. Surely other security firms elsewhere in the city will be lining up at the trough in short order. Police unions are pissed, and should be; I'm annoyed enough by the presence of private security firms (usually by another name) in our city, but the idea that taxpayers should be subsidizing their expansion is offensive indeed. I've had my share of negative experiences with police - and no, I don't mean when breaking the law - but I certainly would prefer cops to be public employees, accountable to elected officials and the public trust, than undertrained, underpaid quasi-vigilantes accountable primarily to vested business interests. How about using the $900,000 Genesis Security will be getting to simply hire more police, and/or to provide better equipment or training? Or perhaps the city should let police officials decide how the money can best be spent to make Vancouver a safer, kinder place?

Hell, maybe we could just hire Blackhawk to lay some napalm down on Granville on a Friday night and be done with the whole fucking area?

Thanks to Kevin for bringing this to my attention. If such matters concern you, spread the word that this is being done... There's GOT to be a better way...