St. Patrick's celebrations

[danbrotherston]

All of the things you describe are acts committed by individuals.  They do not make a crowds act's illegal.  You cannot ascribe the crimes of one person to a group of people, no matter how geographically colocated those people are.

What is beyond ridiculous is the disregard of fundamental freedoms we have guaranteed, and the treating of students as less deserving of basic services like EMS.

Then why is it all of a sudden so different when the region pays for instead of the cities.

OK, so we go with that. So then, the City of Waterloo needs to enforce their by-laws, and the police need to enforce the law. If that means arresting or charging every student with a drink in their hand, then do it. By-law would need to charge each and every homeowner for any violation .

As for the 'they do not make a crowds act's illegal', one would have to be incredibly naïve to believe that most weren't breaking the law. Chances are, most, if not everyone, were.

What is ridiculous is are the universities and city of Waterloo not taking ownership in this party.  Our fundamental freedoms don't trump our right to basic services like EMS.  This is what happens with this party. Nor are these freedoms guaranteed if they're breaking the law, and/or, risking the general public.

If you feel it's OK if someone dies because EMS is tied up with this party then say it. Personally, I'm not OK with that.

One would have to be incredibly naive to not realize that the vast majority of drivers on the road are breaking some law, does that make driving illegal or a group of drivers illegal?

As for CoW and WRPS enforcing the law and bylaws, I would really really like them to do that for drivers.  Frankly I'm sick of my life being routinely put in danger by drivers who break the law and park illegally.  That happens every single day, not confined to one day of the year. 

But I digress, I don't know why you think that everyone was breaking the law, the police were there in force, whether you believe there were technical violations of the law, there was not lawlessness.  

Let me ask you this question, I am perfectly permitted to drink on my porch, I am clearly breaking the law when I am drinking on the sidewalk, somewhere in between the legal line, where is it?  When does it become a crime?  There *is* a technical legal definition, but why are we concerned with it.  There are real problems the law is meant to solve, whether it does or not I'm not sure, but the party was not out of hand, that's *my* main concern.

Even if you look at the actual number of people hospitalized, it's more or less in line with similar gatherings of people (being around 0.2% of the people there).

But in any case, that isn't the thing I find beyond ridiculous.

The idea that we shouldn't provide emergency services to some people, because you disagree with their life choices.

Here's another hypothetical.  Would you also argue EMS shouldn't respond to a planned protest?  The same dangerous situation could arise, the same risk to the rest of the community?  It's also pre-planned, and quite like, there's also a group of people who feel strongly about whether it should happen or not.