The announcement by the city and RCMP stating that “life is about to get complicated for those that use drugs, drink and break laws in our city” is, in fact, an oxymoron. Life for these folks is already complicated, period.
For some reason, politicians and the judicial system seem to feel that as long as the average taxpayer is being affected by the problem, they have no interest.
Then the problem moves into the business community and they get off of their asses and say they are going to take action. Now, the downtown core is important but think about this, for the past two years residential areas, condos, and commercial areas outside the downtown core have had a nightmare of problems with the homeless, drug addiction and sadly mentally ill folks who need help.
They are not the problem, period. The problem is with our system of justice. We go after the people who have problems instead of those that profit from their addictions, illnesses and weaknesses.
When was the last time we read in the paper that a seller of drugs was sentenced to 10 years in jail, a major dealer 25 to life in jail? Never, in fact. Thanks to Mr. Trudeau Sr. we have the Charter of Rights and Freedom not for Canadians but for criminals. As a Canadian, I have never found that I needed a government to tell me that I have rights, freedom. Like most Canadians, I was brought up by parents who taught me the golden rule and I must say with discipline, the walk to the sawdust shed with my dad behind me gave me all the info to remember to be good and respect what we all have.
Now to the fact that our politicians and judicial system say they are going to make life complicated for what I call the real victims, the homeless, the drug addicts, and the mentally ill. How about sending to jail the sellers, dealers of drugs to jail, and not a five star resort, a real jail, you get free room and board for the rest of your life, no TV, no golf course, no computers, no visits to have sex, just a good old jail, then throw away the key.
You may have noticed that I did not attack the police force, the reason being they can do what they can, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the ability to do their job is restricted by stupid laws that protect the criminals and in fact make our judicial system, redundant.
Bob Otway
Penticton