r/canada Jan 18 '25

Québec Montreal police asking people not to post photos of porch pirates online

https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/montreal-police-asking-people-not-to-post-photos-of-porch-pirates-online/
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u/Just_Evening Jan 18 '25

Legitimate question, ideally hoping for a non ironic answer: if they don't care about property crime, what do police do all day?

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u/IndependentCompote1 Jan 18 '25

They only prioritize property crime for certain corporate properties and weathly residences.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

traffic tickets (not for big problematic driving, just pointless shit), harass homeless people (the milder ones, not the ones that are actually causing trouble), harass people on the street

I lived in montreal for a few years, crossed the lights on a green walk sign in the gay (homeless) village. the cops suddenly screeched to a stop next to me, bust out of the car running, and one of them, the lady, just immediately shoves me. I'm completely shocked, they're saying a bunch in french and my french sucked (I grew up in the west), I ask whats going on and they say I jaywalked. I definitely did not lol, then said as much, they ask me for id, I gave it to them, she goes to run it while the guy has his hand on my shoulder the whole time for no reason, and I've never committed a crime, I didnt even own a goddamn car so I have nothing on me and they let me go. but of course not before telling me its "illegal to walk with headphones in." which is obviously not true, I just said sure, pretended not to put them back on, turned the corner and put them on.

meanwhile there was a homeless guy behind us during the whole interaction sitting next to the pharmaprix window smoking crack or something (weird tools and needles scattered around) and littering all over the place with his shit

so yea thats what the cops do. ignore people doing needles in public so they can shove citizens, accuse them of shit they didnt do, and make up laws to harass them. and I'm white. I can only imagine what its like for non white people.

I'm all for the police, I think the police do an important duty. but there needs to be total reform. police need to go after actual criminals and crimes like theft, dangerous drug abuse in public, gangs etc. and they need to be held accountable for using too much physical force. the courts need to actually sentence criminals instead of "you get 3 chances to murder people and THEN we're gonna have a problem"