Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 Source: Delta Optimist (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc Contact: http://www.delta-optimist.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1265 Author: Thomas Falcone ERODING RIGHTS NOT THE ANSWER Editor: Re: Delta police take aim at gangs, Feb. 18 What exactly does Delta police chief Jim Cessford have in mind when he suggests replacing the Canadian legal system with a "justice system?" What in particular about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does he think needs to be reassessed? And does he really believe it is a bad thing police are "bound to a process?" The answer to gang violence in B.C. is not chipping away at our society's safeguards of liberty. Documents such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are crucial because they guarantee certain liberties that are crucial in protecting us from the authoritative tendencies of the state. It would be tragic if the consequence of gang violence was the erosion of our liberty to make way for a police state to cater to our collective sensationalized fears of crime. As Benjamin Franklin is often (but perhaps not often enough) quoted as saying, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Pumping more money and granting unlimited power to police will not solve gang violence. This crisis has its root in a failed policy that has wasted billions of public dollars and harmed countless lives: the prohibition of drugs. Gang violence would disappear overnight if drugs were legalized and carefully regulated, a position endorsed by the Health Officers Council of B.C. How many more dollars and lives must the "War on Drugs" waste? Let's end the stranglehold the police and prison industries have over drug policy in North America and consider a new approach that will deal a serious blow to organized crime, stop the persecution of thousands and enable those suffering from addictions to get real help. Thomas Falcone - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom