Pubdate: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 Source: North Shore News (CN BC) Copyright: 2000 by the North Shore News Contact: http://www.nsnews.com/ Author: Richard Dow KNIGHT'S ATTACK A NAZI-LIKE STRATEGY Dear Editor: Leo Knight's recent article (July 19) -- describing the inhabitants of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside as "...the besotted, fallen whores and those who prey on those less able to protect themselves" and "home to a battalion of Honduran crack dealers and Asian street thugs, not to mention our own homegrown white trash" -- is an obvious attempt to dehumanize and ostracize a whole segment of our society. This type of journalism is not unlike that found in Nazi Germany during the early stages of Hitler's campaign to eliminate the groups he hated -- Jews, communists, gays, etc. Furthermore, Knight's article relies on lies and misinformation to further his hateful aims. Knight's claim that "... simple possession of so-called soft drugs has been decriminalized for all intents and purposes for the past 10 or 15 years" flies in the face of recently released crime statistics. In fact -- according to Stats Can's Crime Statistics in Canada, 1999 -- cannabis offences accounted for three-quarters of all drug-related incidents reported in 1999, of which 66% were for possession, 17% for trafficking, 15% for cultivation, and 2% for importation. Furthermore, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics reported in its Adult Criminal Court Survey that, in 1998-99, a total of 40,056 persons were charged with drug-related offences. Although it does not distinguish between cannabis and other drugs, more than half of those charged were charged with possession rather than trafficking. And while 6,833 were found guilty of trafficking, 11,480 were convicted for simple possession. A more detailed Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics publication -- Illicit Drugs and Crime in Canada -- reported: "The rate of cocaine offences has dropped by 36% since 1989. The rate of heroin offences, peaking in 1993, then [fell] 25% over the last four years." I could just as easily and scientifically refute Knight's other wild claims -- the percentage of THC content in the hydroponic crop produced in this province outstrips the Woodstock version by over 600%; MDMA is, essentially, a vile chemical cocktail of LSD and methamphetamine; etc. -- but to do so would take up too much of your newspaper's valuable space. It is suffice to say Knight's lies cannot be substantiated and are told for one purpose only -- to inflame the public and, it would seem, foster hate toward the residents of Downtown Eastside. Kwan should be applauded for attempting to reduce the harm suffered by people addicted to drugs. Knight should be condemned for his Nazi-like attempt to identify a whole neighbourhood/group of people as undesirables who should be ostracized, incarcerated and -- I am sure if he had his way -- eliminated. At least that is the conclusion one could draw from Knight's diatribe. PS. If you think my attempt to link Knight's views to Nazism is extreme read Drug Warriors & Their Prey -- From Police Power To Police State authored by historian Richard Lawrence Miller. Richard Dow Toronto, Ontario - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens