Earth to Wally ... Earth to Wally

What, me worry?"

No sooner had Gordie Campbell's Attorney-General Wally Awful set a personal best in Politician Most Out of Touch with Reality then he goes and blows it away entirely.
It seems that Ol' Wall has finally figured out what's at the root of the gang warfare spraying bullets around the Lower Mainland again lately: the public.
Yeah, that's right, Wally figures thee and I know all sorts of gangsters who are up to all sorts of nasty gangster stuff, but we're not turning all these nasty gangsters in.
Well, Wally's really getting all tuff on crime now, yessiree and he has a message: Start turning those gangsters in, folks.
Someone (how about his boss? While he's firing Wally) needs to inform Wally that a) most law-abiding subjects do not know any gangsters, Wally and
b) if they do, they're not going to go to court and testify only to have some judge let the gangsters out to kill them, Wally.
Wally's fun in his goofball way, but he really does have to go.

For Gordie Campbell - Some Free Advice

And free advice is always worth the price.

Now, its become clear recently that, despite Himself's clear belief, the Gordie Campbell Crew may just have their work cut out for them to beat Carole the Nice and Co. in the next election.
And so, since nothing says "uppity peasant" like presuming to advise King Gordie, allow me:
Step one must be replacing his current miserable excuse for an Attorney General with someone who is, unlike Wally Awful, not so far out to lunch he's picnicking on Pluto.

Anyone who heard Wally's sputtering attempt at defending his pals on the bench Friday on CKNW's The World Today with Jon McComb must by now understand what some of us have maintained since his appointment:

As a judge, Wally was part of the problem for so long there's not a chance in hell he could be part of the solution.

Clearly, Wally is of the school that holds the answer to crime is warm and fuzzy hugs and umpteenth chances, you know, all that good stuff that got us into the mess we're in now. Reminds one of Einstein's Scientific Definition of Insanity: to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result.

Now, that's not to say I find Wally a complete waste of air, he's really quite amusing in his woolly-headed way. To hear Wally charge his critics with being "irresponsible" is, after all, the height of unintended comedy. Boffo laffs, in his way, is Ol' Wall.

Hey, Wally, twiddling your thumbs while gangsters spray bullets in shopping mall parking lots is irresponsible. Presiding over a system in which judges grant anyone and everyone bail while handing down ridiculously light sentences and doing bugger all about it is irresponsible. A system that allows the Bacon brothers and their ilk to roam free is irresponsible. Sitting on a report on sentencing we all know is going to reflect badly (to put it mildly) on your buddies in the judiciary is irresponsible.

You may have noticed that Wally's standard line of bovine excrement inevitably kicks off with a nice, pompous "the public needs to understand..." - why Wally and his high-minded friends are so much more enlightened than us rabble about crime and punishment, how its all Ottawa's fault, how, really, in the end, really nothing can or should be done. And as long as Wally's in charge, nothing will be done.

Well, what Wally needs to understand is that even with that ol' ethnic block vote thang, he can get his sorry ass blasted out the door if the voters decide they've had enuff. We can only hope.

In the meantime, he should be gone from cabinet.

Calling BS on Crime Stats

You're an intelligent person (most of you, the rest, I get your emails too). You wonder why it is that what yourself and those you know experience and observe of the incidence of crime just doesn't seem to jibe with the constant refrain from governments and the press releases are stories; just rip and run (cut and paste) MSM: crime is always down, and besides, canerduh is the safest place on Earth; why, just imagine if you lived in that hell hole to the south etc...

Perhaps you've been to yon hell hole (its just south of White Rock) and found you didn't spend all your time dodging bullets. I know I have.
Have another look at the graph up there.

"Over the past few decades, the advent of victim surveys has facilitated a broader understanding of the crime problem as well as a better assessment of its burden on citizens at the international level. While in the past only police and criminal justice data were used to measure crime, it is now widely acknowledged that such information alone is not sufficient and should be integrated with victim surveys results. Surveys of victims of crime are a more comparable tool to assess risks across countries and world regions. The International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) represents the major research project in this respect, with more than 150 surveys done in over 80 different countries since 1989. ..."

What that means is no politicians spinning smoke and mirrors, never mind the plea bargains (take a hatchet to half the neighborhood and get it down to "careless use of a horticultural implement") and all that case thrown out on a technicality stuff.

If you've had this vague feeling you've been getting (how to put this politely?) bullshitted about the effectiveness of canerduh's joke of a criminal justice system, there's something to consider.
While you're at it, have a look at this :



"Selected contact crimes - robbery, sexual assault and robbery with force." Nasty, nasty, scary stuff, huh?

Canerduh just doesn't seem to measure up on the old personal safety meter, does it?

There's plenty more where this came from and your correspondent, at least, is digging in, you're invited. And you're also invited to consider throwing all this at some pol the next time the orthodox crime catechism begins.

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/Crime-Victims-Survey.html

Community Court a Joke That Isn't Funny

Without detox and treatment available right away; without meaningful sentences for those who choose the other way, the new "Community Court" in Vancouver is just another empty pr exercise from the misguided nincompoops who brought us "harm reduction".
Read all about it (and weep) in an essential piece by Justice Wallace Craig in the North Shore News.:

"Here we go again, skipping down the harm-reduction lane with a Downtown Community Court, opened for business on Sept. 10. ...
Chief Judge Stansfield, Judge Thomas Gove and Attorney General Wallace Oppal have been rhapsodizing over this so-called community court, promoting it as a silver bullet that will purge the Downtown Eastside of drug addiction and criminality. ...
when you sift through the preaching of Oppal and Gove, you are left with nothing more than an adventure in harm reduction, and once again the unspeakable: let victims be damned.

Wily addicts will manipulate the DCC: too many of them idling along on methadone mixed with other drugs; most of them accustomed to endless access to syringes; some of them enjoying the comfort of enablement at Insite; and all of them absolutely certain that they will not receive a significant stint in jail for their parasitical thievery and thuggery. ...

On Sept. 9, Oppal and Gove were interviewed on CKNW by Bill Good. When Good said, "We don't have the services to make this court work," Oppal countered with a lame response that there will be a lot more housing, but said nothing about insufficient detox and residential treatment facilities. Gove waxed on about his belief in individual "problem solving," yet he admitted that "it'll take us a few years" to do what New York did. ...

With one judge working five days a week, the Downtown Community Court will not reduce the menace of addict-driven criminality raging unchecked around the Downtown Eastside.

It is first and last a pot-bound court in an old jail building, fiddling along while the Downtown Eastside burns. ..."
http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/news/viewpoint/story.html?id=57efeb00-8950-4a30-8bae-4fd8b70fbae1&p=1