Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Jack Knox, Times Colonist Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) IT'S CRIMINAL THE WAY WE TREAT COPS It's one of my earliest memories, being shepherded into the house by a nervous mother one summer day in Kamloops in 1962. Someone had just shot and killed three Mounties up by the Peterson Creek bridge, and the murderer was still on the loose. There was relief all round when the gunman, George Booth, described by his own father as a crack shot who could split a match at 50 yards, was killed by police a few hours later. Still, crossing that bridge always gave me chills. The names of the slain policemen are inscribed on the grey block of the B.C. Law Enforcement Memorial, which sits on the legislature grounds. So are the names of 90 others -- Mounties, Saanich police, B.C. Provincials, prison guards, conservation officers -- who died on the job, going back to colonial times. The earliest recorded death was that of Johnston Cochrane, a Victoria constable whose 1859 shooting in the Craigflower area was never solved. The most recent name etched in the granite is that of Richmond RCMP Const. Jimmy Ng -- the only son of a Saltspring Island couple -- whose cruiser was broadsided by a speeding car in 2002. Yet to be added to the memorial is auxiliary constable Glen Evely, whose Vernon RCMP car was struck last November. If there's a surprise, it's that there aren't more names, particularly given the kind of guns and violence encountered by police today. An uncle who retired as an RCMP staff sergeant once told me he could count on one hand the number of times, in a career that spanned more than three decades, that he had pulled his revolver. I relayed that story to another, modern-day Mountie. "Really?" he replied. "I had my shotgun out three times last week." Veteran cops will tell you that a couple of decades ago, they would encounter weapons in maybe one in 10 drug raids. Now they find firearms eight times out of 10. Even if the guns are intended for use against rival dealers and ripoffs, not the police, they're proof that the multibillion-dollar drug-production industry is a serious business run by serious people. Intimidation and violence are the constant currency of many of those involved; they'll spit threats in the cops' faces even as the cuffs go on. You can make the argument that marijuana is a relatively harmless drug and should be made legal, but there's nothing benign about an AK-47 or the kind of person who would own one. The sad fact is that many bad guys are no longer afraid of the cops or the courts, particularly here in B.C., where sentences are generally much more lenient than in other jurisdictions. There's simply too much profit and too little deterrent. Police, the ones we depend on to protect us from criminals, need protection of their own. Instead, they get rulings like the one made this past January, when a Supreme Court judge threw out charges against a Fraser Valley couple whose marijuana-growing operation was raided by police. Because the police allowed only a couple of seconds between demanding that the front door be opened and breaking it down with a battering ram, the court ruled they had violated the couple's right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. That may seem like a good decision on one level, but try asking the cops sweating on the doorstep what they think about losing the element of surprise. Maybe from now on they can shout "It's the police! Go get your guns while we count to 10!" Or maybe people with grow-ops in their basements shouldn't bitch when their doors get booted. Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill argues that marijuana growers need to know they'll get much stiffer sentences if they booby-trap, barricade or otherwise arm their operations. "If they do, then they won't arm themselves in protecting these grows." That sort of thing needs to be defined in legislation, a clear-cut message for both criminals and courts. Perhaps such a law would have been enough to ensure that the killer of the Alberta Mounties didn't have a gun available to grab on Thursday. Or perhaps nothing would have stopped him, just as nothing would have halted the killer of the Kamloops constables 43 years ago. All that's certain is that if we're going to ask the police to wade into harm's way on our behalf, then we are obligated to give them as much protection as possible. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake