a Brazen robbery caught on a security camera inside a London drugstore a woman threatening staff demanding a new mobile phone take a closer look she's brandishing a Cleaver that she took from the kitchen aisle at another location in Vancouver a disagreement turns dangerous cameras show an attacker chasing a man with a large knife these are some of the videos London Drugs is sharing with CBC they showed distressing and even violent moments inside its stores across western Canada what we see that really concerns us is the level of violence in particular this is a people issue
Clint mman is the company's Chief Operating Officer the violence against service workers in Canada has reached a crisis point and we need politicians to recognize that they're behind the issue on this give me some examples of violence that your employees have dealt with sure so an example is uh an employee just simply offering service to someone and the person will again turn around physically punch them threaten them with a knife hit them with an object stab them with a needle I never thought in all my years that I would have to be looking at purchasing
stab vests but that's exactly what we've had to do that's insane in this day and age that in Canada that we're having to protect our employees like that the attacks can happen without warning an angry customer trying to return a product throws hot coffee at a clerk a man stealing vitamins from a store in the heart of downtown Vancouver uses bear spray on an employee as he flees so London Drugs is a retail Powerhouse in British Columbia I don't ever remember you or anybody from the company taking a public stance on an issue like why
why this one why now and you're exactly right but it underscores How concerned we are about the violence against our employees and against our customers and the fact that in the communities we serve how many times we hear from Community groups citizens groups that this issue isn't being addressed to get a sense of how great the concern is just take a look at some of the other major retailers that have joined London Drugs in a coalition called SOS save our streets here in Vancouver and in communities across BC but here's the problem even if the
retailers are right that an increase in violence and stores has led to greater risk for customers and staff what's the solution we have to look at the root cause of these problems in and they've always been the same it's not rocket science we know what the issues are Rob danu spent years Prosecuting people accused of crimes in Vancouver's downtown east side he's now a defense lawyer in abbottford an hour east of Vancouver well we're looking for short-term solutions to long-term problems is the issue so we really need to back up and once again address those
basic issues that being said in terms of immediate responses businesses need to be vocal so they're doing that they're telling their politicians that something's wrong but not just to be vocal but also to be vocal about what needs to be done because when they're not telling our politicians that look homelessness is a problem around my business addiction is a problem around my business then you have politicians going on and trying to change laws that actually don't pertain what to the actual problem is I don't want to put everything on your shoulders but you you have
a lot of experience both as a former prosecutor and now as a defense lawyer is there a short-term or at least a medium-term solution to make things safer there's no short-term solution to these problems Ian we have to dedicate significant resources and expertise to mental health to addiction to homelessness and poverty so although our businesses are under stress right now we have to take a long-term approach to this to solve this problem we first need to be a city that stops enabling this culture of drug addiction but sun and sprigs is tired of waiting for
a long-term approach to make things better help us find these women who smashed our store window in Vancouver she's pushing for action on social media trying to identify people who have vandalized her business she's the owner of City Lux Boutique in Vancouver's downtown Corp so just show me the damage you had here well um there's been multiple windows that have broken so this window out here isn't smashed this one's been smashed that one's been smashed wow I can't remember it was this one or this one but one of those two is also smashed and it's
happened multiple times so some of them have been replaced multiple times um you gu kind of lost track how much does it cost to fix one of these um most like you can go from 4,000 to like 2500 so it really varies depending on $1,000 yeah because they're I mean they're actually very durable Windows oh my gosh beyond the broken windows there have been some surreal moments at City Lux Boutique a smash and grab right outside their door in the middle of the day yeah they just took it and this video was widely shared that
chair came from inside the store a thief picked it up carried it out before police picked them up a few blocks away sprig says the big problem is addiction and she believes not enough is being done to get people off drugs in the meantime her frustration grows what does it feel like to walk in here in the morning and see that window smashed it honestly it it feels like got punched in the face or punched in the stomach even though it's not a personal attack it feels like a personal attack because this is your business
this is your baby you're the one at the end of the day who's having to come out of their pocket to repair it it feels like the same if somebody came to your house and you came home and it was vandalized um it's personal you know it feels personal yeah it's been almost two months since the big retailers went public with their concerns London Drug says that its locations in western Canada this year alone lost prevention officers have made 1,500 arrests so you've been with this company for almost 40 years yes have you ever seen
anything like what we're seeing now no it's never been like this before and it's the level of violence and what we hear people say that there's there's absolutely no consequences for the level of violence or theft and that's why they continue to commit these crimes and that's scary because that means that the chances are very high they're going to continue to commit those crimes proper re the proposals currently on the table to address mental health addictions and public safety issues in Nimo do not even scratch the surface and we demand action Community groups and politicians
in BC have railed against what they call Catch and Release arresting a small number of repeat offenders only to see them quickly end up back on the street but Rob danu the former prosecutor said says longer jail terms are not the answer you know some people are pointing out now that when what appears to be a crime is committed whether it's a window being broken or a store employee being assaulted that the system should be tougher that those people should go to jail they should be punished and not just let back out on the street
well look I started my career out as a crown prosecutor and I had that exact same view it was a very black and white view of how the world and the law works when I would ask for offenders to be sent to jail they'd come back even worse and then I asked for a longer sentence and they'd come back even worse than that and I learned and the reason I moved over to a defense practice was that they needed treatment they needed help again the key question if the level of violence is unprecedented and unacceptable
is anything going to change we wanted to ask BC's minister of Public Safety Mike farnworth his reaction to the coalition's concerns but his office said he wouldn't do an interview it did send us a statement that cited the provinces safer communities action plan adding it's starting to show progress on these Complex public issues though there's no detail on what's being done to try to reduce Mayhem in stores
