JUDGES NEED TO DEAL WITH CHRONIC OFFENDERS

Slap On The Wrist: Sometimes I Have To Wonder What His Honour Was Thinking

How does tarring people with the same brush differ from holding their
feet to the flame? Both are mainstream expressions, but one will land
you in trouble more quickly than the other. You tell me which way I've strayed.

Last week, Vancouver police ran a Mr. W. into court for breaching
conditions he had agreed to the previous time a judge turned him loose.

W.'s history with the VPD shows him to be a property thief, driven by
extremes of addiction. The man himself lays claim to a
thousand-dollar-a-day crack cocaine habit. Three-quarters of an ounce
every 24 hours, he insisted in a recent interview.

It's unlikely anyone could really smoke that much rock but, even
conservatively, the math is troubling. Let's speculate he smokes a
mere $100 a day. I meet people like that, and they all pay for
product the same way. In W.'s case, that means breaking into downtown
businesses and parked cars, then running off with whatever's handy.

Pawn shops and drug dealers take property at ten cents on the dollar,
meaning our man commits crime to the tune of a thousand a day even to
buy a hundred bucks worth of dope.

This is worth belabouring. Regular folk lose hundreds of thousands a
year, as long as the man is allowed to carry on.

Monsieur W. is currently awaiting trial on three charges -- one for
cocaine trafficking, one for break-and-enter and another for
breaching bail conditions.

Our magistrate took a look at him, saw he had no regard for promises
made in court and set him free anyway.

Rather than jailing him as an individual who refuses to obey release
conditions before a trial date, the judge removed his curfew. Mr. W.
gets to stay out all night again.

B.C. judges have long complained they're not given enough information
by police and Crown counsel -- that if only they were, we'd see
sentences more fitting.

Not this round. People from the VPD chronic offender unit made sure
Crown lawyers had everything there was to know about Mr. W. Which is
to say, a large body of information was handed over, including the
man's bizarre criminal history and the fact he's been caught breaking
release promises twice already in 2006. Crown counsel people
presented it all, to no avail.

As much as I enjoy laying blame, the tar brush doesn't come out at
this point. Our judges are all over the map with chronic offenders,
meaning that sometimes they do give reasonable sentences. A thief
will receive a couple of days in jail from one judge, then 90 days in
jail a week later, from another. Same guy, same offence, same B.C.
court building.

I can't imagine anyone donning judicial robes to betray a system of
justice. B.C. judges must believe in what they're doing.

Whether we're seeing leftover 1960s anti-authoritarianism or belief
in the inherent beauty of humanity, the notions seem genuinely held.

Chronic offender unit people and Crown counsel lawyers will continue
providing information in court. Chronic offenders will continue to be
kept under surveillance by police, as often as not being caught
committing crimes within minutes of leaving court.

I'll use this space to keep readers informed. If that's seen as
holding judicial feet to the fire, then so be it. The rest of the
city is in figurative flames. It would seem wrong for those able to
make a difference to be left out.