Pubdate: Sun, 21 Mar 2010
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2010 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Ian Robinson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police)

PIERCING THE LOGIC OF BODY ARMOUR LAW

Personally, I'm not exactly what you'd describe as pro-criminal.

I believe the concept of rehabilitation is a scam perpetrated on 
decent society by the vast left-wing conspiracy.

I also think it would be useful if, every now and then, we executed a 
Paul Bernardo and broadcast the hanging to elementary school 
classrooms to create a teachable moment for the nation's young people.

Yet, despite all my loathing for criminals, I have a moral objection 
- - a couple actually - to the provincial government's latest 
anti-crime brainwave.

Our Justice Minister, Alison Redford, wants to make it illegal to own 
a bulletproof vest unless you're a member of a protected species. 
Those on the list are cops, EMTs and security guards.

The measure is being proposed because suspected gang members are 
getting caught wearing body armour.

With what passes for logic among cops and government bureaucrats, the 
idea is that being able to buy a bulletproof vest emboldens gangsters 
to leave their homes and move about in public.

Once out in public, or so the twisted logic goes, the gangbanger then 
becomes a target for his rivals, and an innocent bystander might be 
caught in the crossfire.

Let's put aside for a moment the fact that if the cops and the Crown 
were doing their jobs effectively, gangsters wouldn't be running 
around in public anyway.

They'd be behind bars somewhere.

But if gangsters haven't been convicted of a crime, or have done 
their time and been released without conditions, then they're free to 
leave their homes.

That's the way democracies work. That's the way democracies should work.

And taking away a suspected gangster's body armour will accomplish 
what, exactly?

They'll simply buy what they need on the black market. It's where 
they get their handguns and the dope they sell.

Even if they can't buy body armour, does anybody in their right mind 
think they'll just stay home and engage in vigorous study of the Gospels?

Start selling Amway instead of amphetamines?

No. They will continue to go out in public.

And when one of them walks out of the house and takes a couple of 
bullets to the chest .. how much of the blood pooling on the sidewalk 
should be worn by Redford and her supporters?

Body armour can in no reasonable way be described as a threat to public safety.

It is not a weapon.

The only form of self-defence more passive is curling up into a ball 
and begging for mercy.

If the province is determined to restrict convicted gang members from 
owning body armour, then let them pass a law allowing the Crown to 
ask a judge to make that ruling as part of post-incarceration 
conditions, such as existing restrictions on firearms ownership.

Further, it seems monstrously draconian to allow sales of body armour 
to only cops, EMTs and security guards.

The list of those able to purchase body armour should at the very 
least include any individual without a criminal record.

Can the province of Alberta in good conscience deny bulletproof vests 
to citizens at risk of criminal attack in our community, such as 
pizza delivery guys, cabbies driving at night and convenience store 
clerks in sketchy neighbourhoods?

That would be particularly ironic, given that the guy who first used 
the miracle fabric Kevlar to manufacture soft body armour was a pizza 
delivery guy who'd been shot on the job.

While he successfully marketed the product to cops - Second Chance 
recently recorded its 1,000th "save" of a police officer - one 
somehow doubts Richard Davis wanted to deny the protective vests to 
.. I dunno ... say pizza delivery guys who are the frequent targets 
of robbers?

A pizza delivery guy saved the lives of 1,000 cops and in Alberta and 
the cops and the province look as though they're conspiring to deny 
pizza delivery guys the benefits of that invention?

Talk about ingratitude.

(To see Richard Davis shoot himself repeatedly to prove the efficacy 
of his product, go to: youtube.com/watch?v=bIhyETXW1u0)
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom