POT SHOT

This letter is regarding Dave Rosen's March 10 editorial cartoon, which can
be summed up in one word: inexcusable. How dare he exploit the senseless
tragedy that cost four RCMP officers their lives by suggesting that they
would have been saved if marijuana were legal?

James Roszko was a convicted criminal who had a very long and bitter
history with the RCMP and was well known in his area as a ticking time
bomb. To send four rookie officers out to guard a crime scene on the
property of a violent criminal with issues against the police was simply
courting disaster. But, of course, if pot were available for purchase at
any corner store, none of this would have happened, right?

Dead wrong. Those officers, in addition to guarding Roszko's pot-growing
operation, were also guarding his stash of stolen auto parts. If Rosen had
bothered to pay attention to current events, he would probably know that
stolen auto parts are a huge commerce in this country. Why didn't he break
out his crayons and draw up a cartoon suggesting that those four young men
would still be alive if stolen car parts were on sale at every Canadian
Tire and Wal-Mart in the country?

" Gerald DesChamps

Dave Rosen responds: I was going to follow up with the auto parts angle the
week after. Okay, not to be flip about it, my excuse for how that cartoon
turned out is pretty mundane: my long lead-time.

I draw my cartoon on Monday for publication in the Mirror on Thursday. Thus
I have to base my take on the facts as they are reported at that time.

The available facts on the Roszko case as of Monday, March 7, were that the
officers were killed in a raid on a marijuana grow op. There were no
details about Roszko's background, other than he was "known to police." Had
I known otherwise, I would have changed the toon or decided to go with
something else altogether.