Pubdate: Sat, 31 Dec 2005
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2005 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Laura Young

TIME TO RETHINK OUR MORAL HYGIENE

Re: Gunfight Result Of Turf War, Dec. 28.

If "Junior" is right, and gun violence has escalated because of our
police concentrating on enforcing drug laws, then we need to rethink
our laws of moral hygiene. By infantilizing our nation and asking our
government to patriarchally enforce sex and drug laws at the end of a
police gun, we ourselves introduce violence to our streets. Replacing
criminal prohibitions with bylaws and regulations will remove the violence.

According to statistics, the U.S. homicide rate is 10/1,000. Up until
this year, when we accepted U.S. police coaching, ours has been
1/1,000. Our incarceration rate is the fifth-highest in the world
(133/100,000), but America's is the second-highest (529/100,000). At
an annual cost of $60,000 for warehousing male prisoners and $115,000
for female prisoners, can we even afford to adopt the misguided ways
of the American policing and judicial system?

In 1996-97, our national justice spending totalled almost $10-billion,
with 59% spent on policing, with only 9% on the courts and 3% on
criminal prosecutions. In 2001, another billion was added to the
budget, with the biggest increase going to policing. The police spend
seven times as much of their budget on morality crimes as on homicide,
kidnapping and rape combined. So while police have huge resources for
investigating and apprehending prostitutes, johns and marijuana
gardens, the courts must use a measly 3% justice budget to prosecute a
whole host of lifestyle criminals before they get to homicides.

I encourage every Torontonian concerned about gun violence on our
streets to obtain the latest copy of the Metro Toronto Police
operating budget and the RCMP budget and decide for themselves if
their taxes are being wisely spent.

Laura Young, 

Toronto.
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