INCARCERATION HAS MANY USES

Why Not 'House' Gang Bangers, Drug Addicts In 'Warm House'?

It would seem a shame to incarcerate the homeless in time for the
Olympics and stop there. If being a danger to yourself or someone
else is enough for a trip to the "warm house," a politician or two
could be next.

Anti-authoritarians might be taken in the same sweep for
manufacturing bogus evidence against the police. You could argue that
chubby folk could be jailed for ordering fries and nightclub owners
for overcrowding and over-serving the young and troubled.

Some good may come of fresh authority to incarcerate the homeless,
but it has "police up on charges" written all over it. Imagine
meeting someone on a sub-zero night, deciding they need to get warm
for their own good. You can only say "no, seriously" so many times
before contact would become necessary.

Someone who doesn't want to go might fight with enthusiasm. You'd
have to handcuff them then. Further restraint might be necessary,
even straps and stretchers. It's alarming to ponder the entry of a
Taser to the equation, but fights escalate in strange ways.

So, you wheel your new friend up to a shelter, where he screams and
struggles with similar enthusiasm. Jail is all that's left then. What
justification would be found to hold the shivering in cells I don't know.

Drunks can be held without charge, but only until they're sober
enough to calm. Someone breaching the public peace can be held, but
only as long as they remain a problem. In any event, a jailed person
must be presented to a magistrate within 24 hours. There has to be an
extremely good reason to hold a person in custody any longer.

The weather might not have improved by then. Remember winter 2008? A
person brought in for Christmas might have been in until February.

There would have to be protocol; a temperature point to activate
forced-warming authority. I began thinking -- maybe five below --
then remembered that hypothermia can kill, well before freezing.

So, a judgment call perhaps. Except that police opponents panic
whenever decisions like that are left to the blue. And I'll guarantee
that judgment would lead to people not being incarcerated, even in
the very cold, if they're set up well and likely to survive. If that
seems as it should be, ponder the next time an impromptu shelter goes
up in flames. Police, trying to be thoughtful, could end up charged
themselves -- for neglecting to protect via incarceration.

It's hard to envision more unsightly optics, looking to enact such a
thing just before the Olympics. I'd like to believe there is no
direct link, but I doubt you'd make a single sale on the point, in
the mainstream.

The law already provides police authority to arrest a mentally ill
person involved in self-harm. Better, I say, to give us laws ensuring
no one gets shot during the Olympics. Call membership in a homicidal
gang a form of mental illness. Let us hold gangsters in a warm and
gentle place until the murderous Lower Mainland climate improves.

Let us incarcerate addicts caught up in suicidal drug-use patterns.
Of course, we all know I've stepped over the line there -- talking
about injecting dope as though it was wrong.

Best to sign off now, change locations before someone comes looking
for my keyboard.