Limits of Imagination

I called the police department last night. Asked for the Desk Sergeant for District One. That!s Aurora.

I  asked what it would take for charges to be dropped against the person who took the poppy box at Canadian Tire.

It occurred to me if the funds in the box were restored and no harm done a lot of time and public resources might be better used elsewhere.

 It might be as little as $5 or as much as $9.  It seemed hardly likely a significant sum would be sitting unprotected in a little cardboard box on a counter.

I was half listening  to  the play by play account of the theft as caught in security camera.

 A battered old car held together by string and duct tape pulled up at the door of the Canadian Tire and a male in a hoodie  got out ,went into  the store picked up the box, stuffed inside his jacket ,left the store and was driven away.

A spokesperson for Aurora Legion was interviewed and said  he couldn't imagine how anyone  could do such a thing. He hoped the thief would be caught and sent to,prison for two or three years.

The poppy fund is a charitable endeavor.  Reports indicate it's expected to raise $30 million this year.
More than ever before.  Incredibly, because two lives  were senselessly lost .

When  I heard  about the theft .I thought ... Poor b.....he must have been pretty GD desperate to steal a poppy box. It will
 likely buy him and the driver of the getaway car,  a coffee and maybe a doughnut between them

On the other hand, cost of processing  a charge through the courts will be thousands of dollars.
In the unlikely event of incarceration many more times multiplied.

Nobody knows  better than the police department the misery and degradation of the streets and the social costs of economic hardship.

Yet there is no area for judgement to be exercised .

Once the charge is laid ,there is no turning back.

The juggernaut takes a life of its own.