MP RANDY WHITE SAYS COP KILLERS SHOULD SIT AND ROT IN JAIL FOR LIFE

SFU Professor Says Most Pot Growers Would Never Shoot At Police

You kill a cop, you should never get out of jail, an emotional Randy White
said last night.

"If there is no capital punishment, then people who kill police officers
should certainly have life with no parole," the Conservative MP for
Abbotsford told The Province. "Think and sit about it for the rest of your
life."

White, who has campaigned in favour of capital punishment, said he doesn't
think the RCMP tragedy should reopen the debate.

"I think, at this point, we would get sidetracked off on that debate again
. . . But life with no parole can happen tomorrow morning.

"All it would take is these judges and lawyers to come on side and smarten
up, just as they need to do with the [illicit] drug industry. They are part
of the problem today. We are not asking you to rewrite the whole system --
just apply the law."

White, who announced his retirement yesterday, slammed the judiciary for
handing grow-op operators lenient sentences.

He cited statistics that show only seven per cent of grow-op convictions in
B.C. between 2000 and 2002 led to jail sentences. The average sentence was
41/2 months or the average fine was $1,500.

Neil Boyd, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University who
specializes in drugs and violence, cautioned people not to "draw too many
inferences from this one horrific incident."

"Most people involved in the marijuana grow-op would never contemplate
killing four police officers or shooting at them," he said. "It doesn't
advance their interests. This is an abnormality.

"We're in a kind of prohibition timeframe much like [notorious Chicago
gangster] Al Capone and alcohol."

Marijuana Party of Canada Leader Blair Longley said the tragic shootings
are "pretty predictable."

"In the big picture, it's just a huge war, and this will never end unless
they legalize it," he said.