(This column was published in the Vancouver Province on Mar. 31, 2005)
The solution to this youth crime madness is simple
By Leo Knight
Another day and another news story about senseless youth violence on our streets. From last week’s swarming attacks in Burnaby and Richmond to yesterday’s report about a series of attacks in Burnaby which apparently involved a group of youths as young as 10, the stories of madness and mayhem are becoming daily fare with your toast and coffee.
And lest we forget, earlier this week a 33-year-old man lost his life when his car was struck in Richmond by a stolen SUV allegedly driven by a 23-year-old with a lengthy criminal record. Once again, it appears that our justice system has been paralyzed into impotence when dealing with young repeat offenders.
How much more violence must we see on our streets before we say enough, stop the madness!
Apparently a lot. I’ve been asking that question publicly for years. The problem is things not only don’t change, they get worse. And really, what do we expect when the small percentage of people who commit the largest chunk of our crime keep getting waltzed through the courts with little or nothing to show for their efforts?
It seems trite to say it, but when we have a piece of legislation like the YCJA (Youth Criminal Justice Act). It virtually ensures a police officer who yet again arrests a punk in a stolen car, for example, must do back-flips and a Gene Kelly dance step to put the little darling within a country mile of a jail cell. The cops, their tongues only slightly in their cheeks, say YCJA really stands for: You Can’t Jail Adolescents.
I was discussing this issue last week with a fellow who lives in the Metrotown area. He is a normal, single professional man who lives in a condo. He’s angry as hell because he’s had to alter his life style because of the proliferation of violence. Where he would normally attend a regular monthly Strata meeting about a mile from his condo by walking, he says he now drives because he is afraid of what might happen if he walked.
He told me about a conference he attended a couple of weeks back in downtown Vancouver. He was talking with a small group of men of a similar background and professional standing. During the conversation they discovered they were all carrying knives to be used ostensibly, as a defensive weapon were they to be attacked.
As he was describing this in an email to me, he said, “Gordon Campbell wants BC'ers to become more physically active and to eat more fruit and vegetables. I am all for it but he'll have to ensure the streets are safe first before people will go out and walk them.”
Unfortunately, the safety of our streets has much more to do with the federal government than the provincial one, but his point is well taken. Our political leaders need to hear, loud and clear, that we have had enough and we want our streets back. How about we push for a new crime prevention program?
It’s called incarceration.
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