...is leeting a person remain homeless, with untreated mental illness or addiction issues really the kind thing?..
... letting others slowly die on the streets...
It's not always just about
slowly dying, though that's obviously one of the considerations. It can also sometimes be quickly and more disturbingly violent.
If you had a close relative afflicted with having psychotic delusions, regardless of whether or not it involved drug abuse, would you prefer them to be involuntarily apprehended and detained under the Mental Health Act, or be continually released to freely wander around until they get killed jumping off a bridge while trying to fly like bird, by a car while staggering out into traffic, a subway train while
climbing onto the tracks (and maybe
run over 13 times before anyone notices), etc.?
Even the
TTC acknowledged (I think not until after Justin Holmes went over the police reports obtained through a
freedom of information request) that there was over 700 of those track trespasser incidents in 2024, so that would be almost two per day. And that's assuming they're all reported and recorded. I have doubts about that, going by how frequently the lines seem to get shut down by these incidents, and
how often those of us who regularly use the subway see them occurring.
I suppose there could be a very small number of those that may be something else, but I think it's disingenuous to pretend anything other than most of them involve individuals having psychotic delusions. I heard a former city councillor say it happened sporadically when she was in office 15 or 20 years ago. It had increased to
110 times in 2018, almost 600 in 2022, then the more recent 700+. Someone is more than a little gullible (or thinks the rest of us are) if they're trying to maintain there's somehow been a huge increase in people accidentally falling onto the tracks or absent-mindedly climbing down there to get something they dropped. (Does the TTC really believe this was
700+ different people each doing this once, instead of a large percentage of these incidents involving a relatively small number of them doing it repeatedly?)
link (Mar. 2023 article)
A trespasser on the tracks is one of the scarier delays for train operators as they are often the first to spot the person, sometimes with little time to spare. It used to happen around 200 times a year. Now it’s closer to 600.
Luckily for me, I haven't seen someone actually getting run over (yet).
We're not getting platform edge doors installed across the entire system any time soon. And even if we were, it still doesn't do anything to stop the other ways I mentioned above of how these individuals endanger themselves.
btw, I believe it's very rare for it to ever get announced or make the news when someone does get killed by a subway train, though I think "injury at track level" can often be the term to denote that, if and when it's used, though possibly they may now also avoid using that most of the time.
Are people not allowed in public in your imagined city? Have they done something to hurt you specifically or committed specific crimes against you? Otherwise, people are allowed to exist in public whether you like them or not.
One day in one in the last month while getting off the subway at Keele station, I noticed a woman farther along the platform yelling, "Don't touch me!" and such things, when no one was near her, and moving unpredictably quickly, including getting right to the edge and leaning over the tracks. There were only a few other people there and one or two seeing it from the other platform and doing something with their phone, hopefully notifying security. Not much of an excuse particularly in hindsight, but I'll admit I did nothing myself but quickly move on. (I'd left home, realized I'd forgotten something and was rushing back to get it.)
When I eventually got back to another subway station, I heard Line 2 was shut down because of "injury at track level", and I think I even heard them specify at Keele.
I think I if I had to try to explain this to the woman's relatives, or tried to pretend I was doing something virtuous by not getting her involuntarily apprehended, they might not think too highly of me.
... I'd think screaming racist epithets and throwing stuff is very reportable.
Instead of largely ignoring these type of situations involving mentally unsound individuals (because it's uncomfortable to discuss, or they're afraid of "stigmatizing" or offending someone?), the TTC needs to be more explicit than "
harassment, safety concerns or suspicious activity" about what we should be reporting.
