TURTLE-LIKE REACTION TO LAWS

As sleep-deprived police officers rattled off the outrageous costs – in dollars and human life – for combating gangsters during another body-bag weekend, one couldn’t help but wonder how we’ve reached this pathetic point of lawlessness in The Best Place on Earth.

Two codgers, nursing weekend coffees in a local Starbucks, were quick to blame today’s “selfish youth” for ruining everything.

“They’re lazy, they have no morals, they’re hooked on drugs and they’re bloody ruthless,” screamed one so his buddy with the hearing aids could grasp what everyone in the java joint was being forced to consume.

Well, we can list a zillion examples of today’s youths making our world a much better place – or countless examples of ludicrousness by adults – but I was stunned (more so than usual) to peruse mugshots of the thugs rounded up by cops and charged for horrendous acts of violence and murder.

What makes a twentysomething punk so messed up that he has to kill to feel validated? How does a person with so much to live for decide to pursue a dead end? And, where are the parents who, on the surface at least, appear to be harbouring terrorists and turning a blind eye to the proceeds of crime?

The Bacon brothers of Abbotsford have become the latest poster boys of everything rotten. And it appears the Red (good-as-dead) Scorpions are deserving of the “honour” that has placed every resident in harm’s way and turned the lives of innocent victim Ed Schellenberg’s family upside down forever.
The ongoing gang wars have sparked lively debate on talk radio, and given soapboxes to every “instant expert” on such issues as policing, sentencing and legalizing drugs.

Politicians, never shy to embrace a top-of-the-mind issue, appear on TV talking oh-so tough and saying they’ve had enough (just like they once did protesting tax hikes). It makes for good sound bites. However, history suggests little is done between TV appearances and elections.

Speaking of sound bites, that hissssssss you hear these days is municipal coffers being drained by the war on gangs, drugs and escalating police costs. The sound you don’t hear is the turtle-like pace at which our rule-makers move to respond.
I’ve never been able to comprehend why we can’t change antiquated laws, but we can rewrite everything and anything to offer retroactive pay hikes for politicians.

Heck, if the Bible can be updated and tweaked, then certainly the Criminal Code of Canada is a candidate for change, too. So what’s the delay?

It’s time for citizens to demand an overhaul, not hope for it. We shouldn’t be held prisoner by never-ending “studies” and chicken-shift excuses from those who claim to have our best interests at heart.

Gangsters don’t obey laws, yet we appear somewhat anal about respecting them. Isn’t it time that those “known to police” are also known to the inside of prisons? Aren’t human rights for the innocent, too?

If our “leaders” really want to reduce crime they should show the same passion and sense of urgency they did while bidding for the 2010 Olympics, where no cost or challenge was too big, social programs be damned. Makes little sense to focus on Own The Podium while everything around it burns, doesn’t it?
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giulani once said: “change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy. Making citizens safer was not the product of accident. It is the product of design. The era of fear has had a long enough reign.”
Embrace that. And soon – money and time may be running out.

Taken from http://myextratwobits.blogspot.com/

CAN'T SECOND-GUESS THE COPS

How many of you have been yanked out of your vehicles lately and been subjected to impromptu versions of Stomp the Yard, Sole Train or noggin’ dancing with the (APD) stars?
Hmmm, just as I thought – save for a few shady drug dealers in Ravine Park, nobody. Oh sorry, I mean “suspected” drug dealers. Hate to smear reputations of those park-strolling nature lovers, right?
Thanks to the wonderful world of YouTube, an Oct. 9 takedown of suspected dealers in Abbotsford has become a disturbing case of “suspected” police brutality.
And even though the YouTube offering lacks context, fails to show the lead-up drama to the controversial takedown and clearly shows the refusal of one suspect to follow simple orders, it is the police under the investigation microscope for such things as excessive force – and, undoubtedly, for doing more to these suspects than our impotent courts ever would.
And some media outlets, not too worried about mixing facts with sexy stories, have been quick to play judge and jury on this less-than-crystal clear-case.
Yes, here in the Murder Capital of Canada, where gangs run the streets, threaten schools, endanger kids’ lives and tap our stretched police resources, where hookers stroll the streets and drug dealers work the schoolyards and street corners, we still sit around wondering how a legal system can offer no justice. Funny how that works, eh?
I get it that nobody is, or should be, above the law. We know that police officers have strict rules to follow, but if someone ever dies in that kind of takedown drama, I don’t want it to be a cop.
I’m not exactly sure why we have a small segment of society that wants our cops to fail. Or that feels all our rights are being trampled. It’s simply not true.
Unless you’re running in an unscrupulous crowd, there’s a good chance your face-to-face meetings with police officers will be limited to Christmas roadblocks, speeding crackdowns or a community fundraiser.
As many of you know, APD officers have blitzed the schools with anti-gang and anti-drug messages.They have offered former and borderline gang members an opportunity to have tattoos (and crime affiliations) removed. Stats show they have been extremely effective in the areas they can control, and while it’s impossible to stop gang members from killing each other, the
senseless carnage hasn’t claimed any innocents here thanks to solid police work (and perhaps some luck).
And even though our taxes go toward drug rehab centres and every other drug-related ailment, there are those who love to play the “victim” card when it best suits them – like when a police officer has a gun pointed at your head for dealing.
Going back to the YouTube offering for a moment. Did the suspects have weapons? Did they threaten the officers? Did they have a vehicle that they refused to put in park? Do they have past records of violence? One would think all of these answers come into play before you can accuse the police of wrongdoing.
Is there a chance that a drug dealer operating in this tough city might be armed? Would it not make you want to see this person’s hands at all times?
While we can’t permit a society filled with crooked cops, or those who can’t get their Taser stories right, we should never jump all over the good cops for trying to keep streets, schools and parks free from society’s predators.
Some of these lowlifes should be thankful they only get stepped on at gunpoint, because with most cases in that lifestyle, the one holding the gun doesn’t have a badge.

Taken from http://myextratwobits.blogspot.com/

A QUICK QUIZ FOR SYRUP SUCKERS!

It is a busy and confusing time here on the downsized news desk, where we are tasked to review books, byelections, budgets, beauties, beasts and unprecedented taxpayer byatching.

There are 84 days to go before the Olympics open and we still can’t name those freakin’ fuzzy mascots, or understand why professional hockey players and curlers are included but amateur women ski jumpers are not.

Manitoba’s Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk said earlier this week that adopting the HST is wrong and not in the best interests of consumers or tapped taxpayers, yet the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce is pressuring them to do it anyway. Did Bruce Beck and David D. Hull move to the Manitoba capital recently?

Don’t adjust your GPS device, but the B.C. Lions are only one playoff win away from appearing in the Grey Cup game as Eastern champions. That’s almost more confusing than receiving red mittens for an Olympics expected to bring Vancouver’s warmest winter weather in decades. Do you believe?

And Andre Agassi’s new book, Open, reveals the tennis ace hated his sport/job, dabbled in crystal meth, wore a hideous hairpiece and struggled with marriage and relationships. Hey, except for the tennis part, it sounds just like the guy who sold me my last car and he didn’t write a book!

Anyway, by request (thanks Mom), here is a HST-free My Two Bits brainteaser:

* The Mayan long count calendar suggests the world will end in 2012. Your first thought is to:

a.) Take full advantage of The Brick’s Don’t-pay-for-two-years sale.

b.) Delay that dreaded diet just a wee bit longer.

c.) Buy an AHL team with post-dated cheques.

* Sarah Palin is appearing on every U.S. talk show these days to plug her new book Going Rogue. The former Alaskan governor discloses that her former son-in-law-to-be, Levi Johnston, has decided to pose naked for Playgirl instead of babysit. Your first thought is:

a.) At least he’s getting paid to hang out in Alaska.

b.) He’s just like a politician now – an expert at switching positions in front of a camera.

c.) Hey, you might be a real redneck if. . . .

* The City of Richmond is kind of upset that TV comedian Stephen Colbert called them “syrup-sucking ice-holes” for denying U.S. speedskaters training time at the new Olympic oval. While the city claims Colbert is incorrect and may be using them for comic benefit and shock value, we think he should have said:

a.) I can’t believe people in Richmond would build houses along a runway then complain about airport noise. D’oh!

b.) Isn’t that the oval that should have been built near SFU instead of in muddy quicksand?

c.) Gotta love Richmond’s famous flower – mildew.

* Alan Jackson and George Canyon packed the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre last Friday with a splendid show, proving we have plenty yee-haw and ya-hoo types in this neck of the chopped-down woods. So, having said that, which country tune is among your favourites?:

a.) I gave her the ring and she gave me the finger.

b.) Thanks to the cathouse, I’m in the doghouse.

c.) I still miss you baby, but my aim’s getting better.

* Our police have been in the news for all kinds of reasons – good and bad – recently. Your favourite cop comment is:

a.) “Our police station toilet was stolen – so far we have nothing to go on.”

b.) “Not sure about official quotas, but two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven.”

c.) “You’re right, we don’t give tickets to pretty women – so please sign here ma’am!”

Have a great weekend gang!

Taken from http://myextratwobits.blogspot.com/

SURVIVING THE DARKER DAYS!

Barring a miracle via judicial recount – and Jeb Bush eating a few ballots – Wally Oppal’s career as provincial politician and attorney-general appears headed for oblivion.

Coaxed to surrender a safe Liberal seat in Vancouver-Fraserview to run in Delta South at the request of Premier Gordon Campbell, Oppal admitted following his 32-vote defeat on May 12 that there is “an intense amount of dislike for the [B.C. Liberal] government . . . and a bitter feeling we just didn’t listen [in Delta South].”
While that riding may have tuned out the Grits and Oppal, it was less than a dozen years ago when everyone in Abbotsford wanted to hear every word Oppal had to say.

On Oct. 16, 1997, in New Westminster Supreme Court, Justice Oppal found Terry Driver – a.k.a. the Abbotsford Killer – guilty of murdering Tanya Smith, and guilty of attempted murder of her friend Misty Cockerill.
That unforgettable horror story, which played out for two years in this community, is now the subject of a fascinating book – Through the Valley of the Shadow – authored by retired and respected police officer Rod Gehl, who worked on the high-profile case.

For those who lived here through the manhunt, you will recall a time when real fear gripped the community. While drugs and gangsters have tarnished the peaceful, Bible Belt image over
the past decade, nobody stayed indoors because of the Bacons or Johals – yet as Gehl reminds us in his book, streets were deserted and Halloween was almost a non-event while police played their “cat-and-louse” game with Driver.

In this quick-fix day and age where we’re used to seeing CSI: Miami wrap up a case in under an hour and still leave time for a few cheesy one-liners from Horatio Caine, Gehl does a great job illustrating how tough the case was and how Driver’s ego eventually did him in. The killer’s voice – recorded by 911 and later played on radio stations – was recognized by his
mother, who turned him in.

Few things in the book I didn’t know despite covering the case: Driver attended Smith’s funeral with his two children; lawyer G. Jack Harris advised Driver not to offer fingerprints to police, but the killer figured he hadn’t left any DNA in his footsteps and went ahead with the
incriminating evidence; the police working on the case paid for a new headstone for Smith after Driver defaced the original; and Driver’s mother and brother were eventually given the $10,000 reward money for turning him in.
While I wondered how Driver could leave home and do his evil deeds and taunt police via phone calls without his wife ever becoming suspicious, the book explains how Driver had a “scanner chasing” habit that was deemed to be “normal” behaviour by his family.
In fact, on Friday the 13th (October, 1995) when Driver killed Smith, he had reported a stolen bike to police earlier in the evening in one of his many cruises around the city.

Gehl’s book gives props to those who worked around the clock and to the co-operation between the law enforcement agencies that came together during the city’s darkest days.

Not only will proceeds from the book go to victims of crime, but we learn that Cockerill has become a healthy mother, an inspiring survivor and someone who helps victims in this community repair their damaged lives.

The disturbing book also reminds us that our police, even with limited resources, are still smarter than the crooks – and the good ones aren’t afraid of working, fighting or dying to keep it that way.

Just ask Terry Driver.

Taken from http://myextratwobits.blogspot.com/