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