BREAK-INS HINT AT A DARKER ISSUE

Editor,

The huge number of break-and-enters in and around Summerside, and
everywhere else on P.E.I., is, I am assuming, largely drug inspired.
Children (most of those apprehended are minors) usually don't break
into homes and businesses in the early hours of the morning without a
drug-fueled urgency.

My guess is that they've been deliberately addicted to drugs and
debased into desperate little criminals, who nightly prowl the streets
for whatever they can steal in the service of their pimps. Is there a
crime darker than that?

Since this crime exploits the vulnerable young, legislators will agree
(though on P.E.I. one can never be sure: just ask battered women) that
pushers and suppliers found guilty of separating a child's mind from
his future be charged under a child hate/abuse crime, equally serious
to pedophilia. Certainly, these criminals have cut the throats of
children's innocence and bled their hopes for a dignified adult life
into their own bank accounts. Further, the costs to society for these
blighted children's lives are enormous.

Without pushing the rhetoric even one syllable, it can easily be
argued that the conviction of a drug pimp who enslaved a child to
drugs must lead to a cell for 10 Christmases. Further, his identity
should be entered into a national registry under the umbrella of child
abuse, and upon release, he should be forbidden to leave the province
for two years. Finally, he should be denied the company of children
under16 years of age for the rest of his life without adult
supervision.

That would send a message.

J Blair Arsenault,

Summerside