Judge flays society in sentencing homeless robber

"Today in Vancouver there are perhaps thousands living on the streets and in the parks. They sleep everywhere -- even in the doorways of the courthouse and police station. Public areas are their bathrooms and garbage disposal facilities. They subsist on inadequate income assistance, food lineups and public handouts, and low-level crime.

How ironic that the very church where [homeless mugger] Jones committed this offence supports him when society will not provide the resources. It is a sad fact that there are more resources provided by such charitable organizations as Luke 15 than by our correction services."

-- Judge William Kitchen, sentencing Richard Jones who had mugged an 81 year-old parishioner


Judge flays society in sentencing homeless robber
Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, February 28, 2008

The violent encounter last August between a homeless panhandler and an elderly parishioner at the entrance to Holy Rosary Cathedral has led a Vancouver Provincial Court judge to question society's willingness to accept homelessness and the chaos it has brought to the city's streets.

Judge William Kitchen's remarks came during the sentencing of Darcy Lance Jones, who has lived in the Vancouver area for almost 20 years subsisting on income assistance, panhandling and petty crime to support a drug habit involving marijuana, crack cocaine and heroin.

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