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Facts Don't Support Crime Fears
Pubdate: Fri, 11 Nov 2005
Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005, West Partners Publishing Ltd.
Contact: http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294
Author: Marshall Jones
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
FACTS DON'T SUPPORT CRIME FEARS
The Conservative Party of Canada chose to bring its justice critic to
Kelowna, a city that has been fighting an uphill battle against crime
and one of the few places in the country where crime has actually increased.
Vic Toews, former attorney general for Manitoba, used extreme examples
of conditional sentences, crime rates, victims and innocents.
He talked about studies, used buzz words like terrorism and his own
anecdotes to create the idea that crime is on the rise everywhere. "It
seems that everyday in the newspapers we are reading about more bad
news, more crime in our communities," he said.
"In Canada, we think we don't have the crime and crime rates (as they
do in America) but it is becoming very clear we can no longer be
complacent in the face of rising crime levels in Canada and in B.C. in
particular."
The problem is that just isn't true.
According to a July 2005 report from Statistics Canada, the national
crime rate fell one per cent in 2004.
It has fallen every year but one since it peaked in 1991 and is 12 per
cent lower than a decade ago.
Crime rates are notoriously difficult to interpret and Toews admitted
as much. He noted that while government statistics show that violent
crime has also dropped, the number of homicides increased 12 per cent over
2003.
He failed to mention that in 2003 the rate was at a 36-year-low. There
were 622 victims of homicide in Canada in 2004.
Toews challenged the common belief that stiffer sentences have no
deterrent value.
"Why then in Lower Mainland B.C. do we have 8,000 to 10,000 grow ops
and meth and other labs and across the border in the U.S. there are
virtually none," he said.
Again, not true. Police in the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, were
recently quoted in a national magazine as being too busy busting three
meth labs a week to pay much attention to B.C. marijuana coming across
the border.
Many of Toews's exaggerations were exposed at the forum itself by
Kelowna lawyer Bill Clarke.
Clarke was heckled several times by the law and order crowd but
asserted that Canada already has mandatory minimum sentences for some
offences.
Toews talked about judges issuing conditional sentences-those served
in a person's own home-being used for violent rapes and drug
trafficking like they were common.
Clarke said those were the extreme exceptions in law. "It was said
today that drug traffickers are given conditional sentences," Clarke
said. "I am trying to remember the last time a drug trafficker in
Kelowna got a conditional sentence or house arrest. Drug traffickers
go to jail."
He said mandatory minimum sentences raise more problems than they
solve.
Clarke said he spoke with lawyers in California which has a
three-strikes-and-you're-out legislation famous for locking a man away
for 20 years for stealing a chocolate bar on the third strike.
Clarke said criminals on their third strike have learned to kill all
witnesses to avoid a life sentence they know is coming if they're caught.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin