JUSTICE TAKES BACK SEAT IN PUZZLING POT-PLANT RULING

Striking a proper balance between suppressing crime and protecting
the rights of the individual is a delicate task.

Allow the authorities too much leeway and before we know it we're
flirting with a police state.

But tie their hands too tightly, and the boot is on the other foot --
we're giving criminals carte blanche to do what they want.

Too often, it seems, the judicial system in B.C. sends the pendulum
swinging in favour of the latter.

Judges may argue they are defending the integrity of the law, but to
the average citizen it appears they are making a mockery of it.

A classic case in point involves Surrey grow-op suspect Van Dung Cao,
who was acquitted of all charges after a judge criticized how police
got into his home.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce said RCMP violated Cao's
rights when they battered down his door, guns drawn, after he did not
immediately respond to their knock.

She said that, since there were no "exigent (i.e. 'pressing' or
'urgent') circumstances justifying a dynamic entry," she could not
accept police evidence about the 704 pot plants found in the basement.

To do so would "bring the administration of justice into disrepute."

There is widespread outrage over the acquittal. It reflects a genuine
disbelief that a suspect caught red-handed should get off scot-free.

Justice Bruce made the somewhat curious argument that "police created
an extremely dangerous situation by forcing entry" into the home.

On this point, she is clearly straying from familiar territory into
areas outside her experience.

In circumstances fraught with hazards, the correct instinct of the
police is not to put themselves at greater risk than necessary.

Undue hesitation, indecision and delay are all factors that may weigh
critically in favour of the suspect.

How long were the cops supposed to stand around before someone
answered the door? They had a search warrant, after all.

And what might the suspect have been doing in the meantime?

As Surrey RCMP spokesman Cpl. Roger Morrow pertinently observed: "We
know that people involved in the drug trade arm themselves . . . not
only with handguns, but with submachine guns."

Justice Bruce says that people inside their own home have a "high
expectation of privacy."

True. But, if you're using the home for a criminal enterprise, we'd
argue your right to privacy has been seriously compromised, to say the least.