Pubdate: Wed, 09 Mar 2005
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2005 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Paula Simons
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Note: Simons writes for the Edmonton Journal

A TICKING TIMEBOMB

EDMONTON -- Jim Roszko was a child molester. He was a thief. He was 
obsessed with guns. He was a paranoid, who believed the world was out to 
get him.

He was also growing some marijuana plants in a Quonset hut on his farm near 
Rochfort Bridge.

Ever since Roszko shot and killed four RCMP officers last week, politicians 
and pundits have been using the murders as a platform to debate Canada's 
drug laws. RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, Public Safety Minister 
Anne McLellan and Premier Ralph Klein were all eager to connect the murders 
to the need for tougher laws against marijuana grow operations.

The tragedy also prompted calls for the liberalization of Canada's drug 
laws, with people like Treasury Board president Reg

Alcock arguing that legalizing marijuana would destroy the profit motive 
that makes drug trafficking so attractive to criminal gangs.

All fascinating and important public policy arguments, to be sure. But they 
have precious little to do with the ticking timebomb that was Jim Roszko. 
We do a terrible injustice to the memories of RCMP Constables Peter 
Schiemann, Brock Myrol, Leo Johnston and Tony Gordon if we let people 
hijack their lives and deaths to score political points.

There are important policy questions to be answered here, chief among which 
is, how did a man with a violent criminal record, prohibited by court order 
from owning any firearms, end up with a high-powered rapid-fire rifle? But 
please, let's stop the tortured efforts to exploit this massacre as an 
excuse to debate the merits of the gun registry, too.

The bitter truth is that Roszko was an angry, dangerous man who had 
terrified his neighbours for decades. He had a particular hatred for RCMP 
officers, whom he stalked and harassed. He had targeted all kinds of 
authority figures over the years: school trustees, vets, bailiffs, election 
enumerators. When he didn't use a gun, he employed other weapons, from 
attack dogs to homemade spike belts.

He didn't shoot these four officers to protect his drug business. Nor did 
he shoot them to save himself from jail; he had already fled the property.

Instead, he returned, ambushed and executed the four young Mounties in cold 
blood. They were on his land, and he hated them for it.

Roszko wasn't a gangster. He was the quintessential loner. Nor was he 
running an elaborate "grow-op," a fact that Zaccardelli belatedly 
acknowledged Monday.

When RCMP first arrived at his farm last week, they weren't looking for 
drugs at all. They were escorting two understandably nervous bailiffs, who 
had a civil warrant to seize a 2005 Ford F350 truck, worth some $48,000, on 
which Roszko had failed to make payments. The bailiffs had been run off 
earlier in the day by Roszko's Rottweilers.

When they arrived, the RCMP found 20 mature pot plants, about 100 little 
sprouts and a barrel of marijuana leaves. Later, after they got their 
search warrant, they found about 280 plants, all told. Officers also found 
signs of a "chop shop," several presumably stolen vehicles cut up for 
parts. They also spotted a generator that matched the description of a 
$30,000 generator stolen two weeks earlier.

Yet we're not hearing anybody calling on Ottawa to toughen our laws against 
people who default on their car loans or people who steal electric generators.

It's just been easier for people to try to turn this tragedy into a debate 
about drugs and organized crime. Tell the story that way and it makes 
"sense". If we pretend this is a morality tale about grow-ops and 
decriminalizing marijuana, our politicians can all run around sounding like 
they have solutions.

But these murders make no sense, because Roszko's actions weren't rational. 
And there is no tidy policy solution to the eternal problem of random evil.

In recent days, the media have used all kinds of ugly words to describe 
Roszko: psycho, loopy, wing nut, nutbar. Roszko, though, was never 
diagnosed with a specific mental illness. We do know that he was a 
pedophile with a serious anger management problem and obvious signs of 
paranoia. It seems he had a troubled family life. Maybe talk therapy and 
anti-psychotic drugs would have made a difference to his behaviour.

Maybe if some chemical imbalance or organic brain injury or profound 
childhood trauma shaped his personality, and his actions, he too is a 
victim who deserves some of our compassion.

Or perhaps, James Michael Roszko was just a lonely, self-pitying bully with 
a grudge against the world, a rage-alcoholic with a twisted moral compass, 
unable to accept responsibility for a lifetime of bad choices.

Either way, neither our mental health system nor our justice system seemed 
able to handle him. Frightening though he was, there never seemed to be 
enough evidence, enough provocation, to jail him for a serious length of 
time or treat whatever demons possessed him.

And so, on a morning in March, Jim Roszko's hatred finally exploded, 
destroying him, and four fresh, dedicated RCMP officers, sworn to protect 
our peace.

Let's not allow people to exploit their deaths to advance political 
agendas. Let's tell the story true.
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MAP posted-by: Beth