USE OF CHILDREN IRRESPONSIBLE

On the front page of the Aug. 11 News Gazette, there appears an article
regarding a marijuana grow op bust ("headline here").

What concerns me is the growing use of the 'child card' being used by law
enforcement and journalism generally.

Not to suggest that I agree with the illegal, large-scale dope growers
becoming so prevalent on the Island and the mainland, but the blurring of
the crime committed to play on public sympathies is abhorrent.

The use of childrens' welfare to effect changes in laws and freedoms has
long been in use in the U.S.

I would hate for this same hysterical political correctness to run
rampantly through your readers' minds, based on carefully selected sound
bites used by the RCMP and meant to swing public opinion without the facts,
as produced by professionals.

Are the officers on scene professional electricians? Do they know an amp
from an ohm?

Would anyone suggest the children are better off dropped needlessly in 'the
system' to pay for the crimes of their parents?

I hope not.

I suggest that the RCMP is underfunded and in many cases caught in a state
of flux regarding the ever-changing state of our society, forced to ignore
and enforce laws in a frustrating cycle and in this, they have my sympathy.

But the use of chldren as a third party, thrust to the forefront of a crime
such as this is irresponsible, at best.

Ronald Johnson, Langford