Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Law is an Ass


In the continuing coverage of the Massacre in the Surrey Apartment, two items stand out:


1) Solicitor-General John Les says, "We need to re-invigorate the notion of deterrence in the criminal justice system."


Duh, John?


Every reasonable Canadian has been saying exactly this since the Federal Government some two decades ago changed all focus in sentencing to the rehabilitation of the crook and threw out almost entirely any concern for the safety of the community.


So, now that you've caught up with the rest of us, John, watcha doing about it, Mate?


Of course, we know this was only another foto op and not a serious consideration. What happened, Sir? Run out of Booster Seats?


2) The ever predictable, horribly over-quoted SFU prof, Neil Boyd, says that Les' remarks are "hasty and ill-considered." He adds that putting people in jail longer is not a good idea.


What a hopeless over-simplification.


The truth is that putting petty criminals in jail for long periods of time or even short ones is often the dumbest thing we could do. There are many alternate choices and we can find many more for these sorry souls.


BUT, for the Gun People, the serious dedicated murdering criminals who have a committed set of anti-social values, long-term prison sentences are exactly appropriate. For them and for me and for you.


You're looking for rehabilitation for guys who execute 6 people in an apartment? Huh?


Does anyone have any sense anymore?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

David
The criminal justice system in this country is total CRAP. All we get from politicians is "feel good" and VERY expensive legislation like bill c68, the firearms act. Our elected representatives haven't a clue and I think that they really don't care unless someone does something to them. I remember years ago when young offenders were going to court because of the crap they were doing and they usually got off scott free(nothing has changed) the police wanted to give the address of the judge to the kids as they knew the kids would do something to the judge and then the next time they appeared in court before the judge he would remember the event and perhaps just perhaps deal more effectively with the kid. After years of this government talking about a provincial police force they now have decided that there should be no lower mainland force. Les says that the various police forces talk to each other and it's NOT necessary. What world does he live in? They don't talk,much, never have and never will. The arrogance of the RCMP , they never tell anyone what they are up to ,never have and never will. It's only the grunts in the ranks that sometimes may talk and sometimes may put two and two together.

David Berner said...

Hey, they don't even talk to each other when they change shifts!

That's a fact.