TURTLE-LIKE REACTION TO LAWS

As sleep-deprived police officers rattled off the outrageous costs – in dollars and human life – for combating gangsters during another body-bag weekend, one couldn’t help but wonder how we’ve reached this pathetic point of lawlessness in The Best Place on Earth.

Two codgers, nursing weekend coffees in a local Starbucks, were quick to blame today’s “selfish youth” for ruining everything.

“They’re lazy, they have no morals, they’re hooked on drugs and they’re bloody ruthless,” screamed one so his buddy with the hearing aids could grasp what everyone in the java joint was being forced to consume.

Well, we can list a zillion examples of today’s youths making our world a much better place – or countless examples of ludicrousness by adults – but I was stunned (more so than usual) to peruse mugshots of the thugs rounded up by cops and charged for horrendous acts of violence and murder.

What makes a twentysomething punk so messed up that he has to kill to feel validated? How does a person with so much to live for decide to pursue a dead end? And, where are the parents who, on the surface at least, appear to be harbouring terrorists and turning a blind eye to the proceeds of crime?

The Bacon brothers of Abbotsford have become the latest poster boys of everything rotten. And it appears the Red (good-as-dead) Scorpions are deserving of the “honour” that has placed every resident in harm’s way and turned the lives of innocent victim Ed Schellenberg’s family upside down forever.
The ongoing gang wars have sparked lively debate on talk radio, and given soapboxes to every “instant expert” on such issues as policing, sentencing and legalizing drugs.

Politicians, never shy to embrace a top-of-the-mind issue, appear on TV talking oh-so tough and saying they’ve had enough (just like they once did protesting tax hikes). It makes for good sound bites. However, history suggests little is done between TV appearances and elections.

Speaking of sound bites, that hissssssss you hear these days is municipal coffers being drained by the war on gangs, drugs and escalating police costs. The sound you don’t hear is the turtle-like pace at which our rule-makers move to respond.
I’ve never been able to comprehend why we can’t change antiquated laws, but we can rewrite everything and anything to offer retroactive pay hikes for politicians.

Heck, if the Bible can be updated and tweaked, then certainly the Criminal Code of Canada is a candidate for change, too. So what’s the delay?

It’s time for citizens to demand an overhaul, not hope for it. We shouldn’t be held prisoner by never-ending “studies” and chicken-shift excuses from those who claim to have our best interests at heart.

Gangsters don’t obey laws, yet we appear somewhat anal about respecting them. Isn’t it time that those “known to police” are also known to the inside of prisons? Aren’t human rights for the innocent, too?

If our “leaders” really want to reduce crime they should show the same passion and sense of urgency they did while bidding for the 2010 Olympics, where no cost or challenge was too big, social programs be damned. Makes little sense to focus on Own The Podium while everything around it burns, doesn’t it?
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giulani once said: “change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy. Making citizens safer was not the product of accident. It is the product of design. The era of fear has had a long enough reign.”
Embrace that. And soon – money and time may be running out.