Dear Sir:
When I read “Stopping crime isn’t easy,” an article in the May 29, 2013 edition of The Terrace Standard, I didn’t whether to laugh or cry, or better yet, quit my job and start selling drugs in the community.
When I read what our public servants had to say, why should I work for a living and pay taxes and obey the law?
“I think a lot of the public also perceives that they can call the police and the [problem] person is thrown in jail and that’s not how the system is designed,” said RCMP Inspector Dana Hart in the story.
I hate to break this to you but yes, it is. Perhaps if you operated as an officer of the RCMP, sworn to uphold the law, instead of a politician, criminals wouldn’t commit crimes on your front doorstep.
They would certainly respect you enough that a prolific thief would not rub it in your officers’ faces. Maybe your officers wouldn’t be picking up the same individuals over and over again.
Strange also being that crime prevention is supposed to be primary mandate of the RCMP as well as providing protection to help keep Canadians and their communities safe and secure.
Don’t confuse righteous indignation with ignorance, and then insult our collective intelligence.
Yes, crime in the community is a complex subject. Our criminal justice system isn’t designed to deal with complex social issues anymore than RCMP officers are trained to be social workers.
Nor should they be. That’s why we have educational, medical and social services. These are areas we should be exploring as to why our society is failing.
As for poverty being a factor, many of the individuals who are committing crimes came from good homes and are financially poor because of the bad choices they made.
I’m sorry but if smoking crack was a high paying profession, everyone would lighting up.
I also know many in the community that came from bad homes that for some reason go to work everyday and are productive citizens.
Should we lock everyone up then? Of course not. I support alternative sentencing for property and minor drug offences. but also believe that violent, sexual and chronic offenders should be properly dealt with.
Like most Canadians, I’m getting sick of the violence and the lack of leadership from our public officials.
It seems like I’m stuck between the incompetence of public servants disguised as politically correct nonsense on one side and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his right wing omnibus crime bills on the other.
If we are not careful, we will wake up in a land of mandatory minimum sentencing, prisons as an industry, random roadside check points and DNA profiling on command. The people will demand it.
William Ramsdin,
Terrace, B.C.
