Letter to NP re De Souza - March 15th

De Souza is right. The police need watching. After many incidents of abuse and

lack of enforcement by the police, we, the people of Ontario in particular, have lost faith in police use

of common sense in who they arrest and whom they carefully watch to ensure there

is no violent conflict that would reflect badly on them. At the same time the courts have shown

a leniency to wrong-doers that is simply beyond imagination. Harper's anti-crime bill is designed

to solve the latter problem. Hopefully his next task will be to solve the administration of the police

problem.

Police functions

Police functions

It is time to review the functions of the police. They have failed to act in two of their most important functions. They are police. Their function is to stop people from breaking the law or if they can’t do that then to find the people who broke the law. The latter can be discouraging when the courts are lenient with criminals and the police must catch the same person again and again. However that is their job. Recently however in cases dealing with public protests they have failed to enforce the law and instead ensured that neither side in the protest or counter protest was injured. Their function is to enforce the law, not to act as witnesses so the matter can more factually be discussed at a later date. There is a comparison here with our army when they were part of the UN mission as intermediaries between two warring parties. If the parties were peaceful then everything was fine but if war or conflict broke out, our troops closed their eyes and left the scene. That was their job, although it was not useful. That is not the job of the police. They must, if possible, enforce the law at the time it is being broken.
Imagine if the police watched a home invasion happen without interfering and then later tried to identify the thieves. It sounds ridiculous but this is how
the police handle protests.



The second problem is that the police think that they are the only ones that can enforce the law and that the public is wrong to act in self defence. Thus people who act in their own defence are dragged off the prison or charged. Usually, thank goodness, they are eventually freed by the courts after much mental stress. Statistics indicate that there is less crime where citizens are allowed to carry concealed weapons. That saves lives even though there will be instances where guns will be wrongfully used to hurt others. The real problem is the use by criminals, not by people who want to protect themselves.

Lastly the police often seem mean and foolish. They hide behind bushes to give tickets. They give tickets for driving offences that are posted, but unreasonable. They spend much of their time at construction sites, talking to the construction workers and obviously doing nothing useful. They won’t answer the simple question of “How many points will that ticket cost me?” I know it’s a tough job, but my experience with the police is that when they are on duty they are neither polite nor helpful. It’s no wonder that they are not getting the respect that they deserve and would get if they were doing their job in an efficient and friendly way.

letters to Globe re Wente and Pride parade - 1/11/

1. Wente on policing costs

Anyone who has been to court to avoid points because of a driving infraction has seen the the waste
and incompetency associated with this whole function. Most people in the courtroom have committed
some minor driving error, don't mind paying the fine, but go to court to avoid points. In most cases, they
are successful. Time and money by the citizenry, the police and the legal staff are wasted. Major city and
provincial savings are available. Despite my letters to both the city and the province, no one is interested.What a pity.

2. The Pride Parade

Despite the headline and the full one page spread, Pride Toronto's new boss, Kevin Beaulieu, avoids
all of the Globe's questions about Pride's direction and values. If Pride is to be just a good sexually
explicit parade, I don't want my money, my city's money or my province's or federal government's
money to support it. If it is to include hate groups, then it should not be allowed on Toronto's clean
streets.

Police and universities - National Post - Nov 17th

Read this article together with the letter of the day section on page A15 and the letter on campus abortion on page A1. There is a pattern here. The dots must be connected. Campus's are allowing only radicals to speak because anyone else would cause conflict because the radicals will react physically against anyone they disagree with. The same philosophy is used by the police in Caledonia and, as I have personally seen, in keeping order on the streets of Toronto. To avoid this problem, some Universities like Carleton have passed on their responsibilities to student government.



Ford has said that we need 100 more policemen. We don't need more policemen to hand out speeding tickets to the elderly like me. We need them to keep order. This means arresting those that would use physical violence, not those that by legally protesting would cause the violent to react in violence.



The leadership and the culture of the police department must change. They must take the side of the majority of peaceful Canadians - and not protect the violent, by arresting those protesting their violence and often anti-Canadian attitudes.



The need for change, courage, and moral values in the police department and the university administration is clear.