Recently tagged crime
VOTE: Is St. John's that much more violent?
Statistics Canada presented a complex picture of the changing nature of crime on Thursday. On the national level, the crime severity index is not only sliding, it’s at its lowest level since the 1970s.
Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, though, it’s a very different picture, particularly in the St. John’s area. In 2010, violent crime jumped by 29 per cent in the capital city region, easily making it the most significant increase among Canadian cities.
Bob Johnston, chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, says the statistics don’t mean the province is necessarily more violent, in part because the population is not large. Most of the crimes, he said, did not affect the public.
What do you think?
Tags: Today's vote, crime
Today's vote: The Portugal Cove Road slaying
Since Saturday night, much of the St. John’s area has been abuzz with talk about a fatal shooting on Portugal Cove Road. On Monday, police apprehended Philip Wayne Pynn, 25, who was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder in the death of his friend Nick Winsor.
What do you make of it all?
Tags: Today's vote, crime
What is the best way to handle millions of dollars in outstanding fines?
Tags: crime, justice, polls
Stolen: one dory
Dories are icons of our outport past, and they’re still quite functional in plenty of coastal communities.
They’re also, evidently, valuable enough to steal.
The Mounties on the Burin Peninsula sent us an interesting release, that they’re investigating the “theft of a small dory from a pond one kilometer south of the Terrenceville turnoff on Route 210.”
The boat seems to have been stolen in a specific weekend, between Sunday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 20.
The eight-foot boat is grey, with pink gunwhales.
The RCMP said information can be relayed to 1-800-709-7267 or 279-3001. Want to remain anonymous? Call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Tags: blotter, crime
New weapon in the arsenal: soup
Of all the weapons that have been used in local crimes, a few things tend to show up a lot. Knives seem to be the weapon of choice for armed robberies. Less frequently, someone uses a handgun … and even then, it often turns out to be a toy or an imitation.
One of the notices from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary caught our eye this morning.
The weapon turned out to be something you can pick up at any grocery store: a soup can.
The RNC said a 16-year-old boy threw a can of soup at an 18-year-old last night, while they were in a convenience store in Portugal Cove.
It may have been something that could be served for lunch, but the can (or the use of it) was enough to trigger a charge of assault with a weapon. The teen was released from custody.
Meanwhile, we noticed that the some unusual things have made the list of objects thrown from local overpasses at cars passing underneath. You may remember that we reported this weekend that two teenagers had been charged with throwing rocks at cars from an overpass on Pitts Memorial Drive, at 4 a.m. on Sunday. Unfortunately for them, one of the cars that was hit happened to be a police cruiser.
It turns out that this was just one of 171 reported incidents so far this year of objects thrown at cars.
The objects include snowballs and - believe it or not - cakes.
Tags: crime
Today's poll: Vandalism at Bowring Park
Here’s a video of some of the effects of recent vandalism at Bowring Park in St. John’s.
