John Rozko`s Law

[cropduster]

This guy`s on the news this am.chastising the liberal legal system as did Cst.Myrol`s mom.Am just wondering if any politicans have got the guts to do the same!!

[cowman]

Now I never caught this broadcast, and I'm not into defending this guy into any way!
But this is how I see it.
We have four people, who have basically no idea what this guy is like? RCMP officers?
What might have been the outcome if those four men had been local boys? Knew the guy? Went to school with him?
The problem here is who would know this guy?
Consider this: If we had a police force who actually "lived" in the community and knew the community...would this sort of gong show have happened?
Why should our police force be a "National police force"? Why not a local police force? These guys are like a game of RCMP musical chairs?
How about a novel idea?....The people who enforce the laws are actually the locals?
I might suggest that the time is right for a "regionalized(Alberta)" police force? The days when we need a National police force are long gone?

[cowman]

cowman, if you read the latest press release from Wayne Oakes of the RCMP you would be aware that all the officer were well aware of the type of person they were dealing with.
They did not think he was on the property, that is the issue. He was a violent nutcase that the justice system gave one pat on the head after the other to, and there are many like him in every community in the country.
THe RCMP had a standoff with an armed man last night in northern AB. I have lived in a community that was policed by a county force and the RCMP, as many communities are. Just because there is a county police force does not guarantee that they are local folks. Many of them come from other provinces or areas of the province, so their knowledge of the local crackpots would likely be no better than the RCMP.

[cowman]

The point I was trying to make is the time has come for a Provincial police force, where hopefully the officers aren't playing musical chairs every six months?
As you point out the guy was a lone nutcase. You will always get people like that...that doesn't mean all the "bad boys" are necessarily going to go off the deep end and start icing cops? I get a little leery when people start talking about locking everyone up who is "weird"?
First of all...where are we going to put all these "dangers to society"? How much money is this all going to cost?
Who decides the time has come to lock somebody away? Is it a police state when that happens?
Obviously we can hardly afford to keep the prisoners we have now and we certainly can't afford more police! How about a novel concept? Get victimless crime off the books so the police, courts and prisons can deal with the really bad guys?
Garbage like seat belt laws, insane gun registry laws, prohibition laws that actually increase criminal activity? In fact stupid laws that don't solve anything?
The best government in the world doesn't try to control and moralize its citizens! If you look at any country that really went ahead you will usually find the government left the people alone to decide how they would live? We live in the nanny state where the government runs your life like you were an idiot, too stupid to decide anything?
Less government is always better government.

[cowman]

cowman, if there were no threats to our kids from illicit drugs I would tend to agree with you. When you and I were growing up likely the worst thing we could to was head over to the local bootlegger and pick up a case of Pil or a mickey and that was shared amongst a car load of kids. Nowadays, things are a lot more serious, and the main source of finding these druggies is by routine checkstops I am told. In our local town a significant amount of crack cocaine was found two weeks ago by an RCMP checkstop for seat belt violations.
On highway 16 west there have been numerous drug busts and most of them have come about during routine checkstops...so until we get that problem under some sort of control, I am afraid that I tend to think we do need to have police doing random checks even if it does offend those of us who are law abiding.

[cropduster]

Cowman,I like your idea of a provincial police force.Ralph and Co. pooh pooh it but I think it would be innovative and not more costly as they say.I also think a first step to legal reform is the law of `three strikes` as recently brought up at the Conservative convention.Not privy to whether it passed or not but do think it could/would be a great starting point!

[cowman]

Well emerald, I don't know when or where you grew up but there was lots of drugs around when I was a kid. In fact I might suggest even more?
No one forces you to do drugs...you do it of your own free will. I doubt there are few people who haven't tried them somewhere down the road?
Prohibition, creates crime? Makes the product taboo and therefore valuable?
Without a doubt there are people who are susceptable to drug addiction...just as there are people who are susceptable to alcohol addiction, gambling addiction, nicotine addiction? Do we ban them all?
Today the government controls alcohol, gambling, prostitution and nicotine and I would suggest when they figure out how to brainwash the people they will get their greedy paws into marijuauna?
We see ads all the time(from the government) telling us how evil tobacco is...and yet who makes the most money on tobacco? Alcohol? Gambling? Prostitution?...the government! What total hypocrites!
Organized crime is having a tough time of it these days because the darned government has pretty well taken over all the rackets! The Mafia or Hells Angels can't hold a candle to the federal Liberal Party when it comes to organized crime!
Why I think we need a provincial police force as opposed to a National police force? Simple...I am a seperatist and I believe we need Albertans running everything the feds do now. A supreme provincial court and a provincial police force to back it up. I don't want to be ruled by a federal(eastern) police force.
One more step towards our freedom from our masters in Ottawa.

[cowman]

cowman, we know you don't like legislated rules but what makes you think that a Provincial Police force would not have to uphold whatever rules or legislation that is in place ?

I don't care what adults smoke, sniff or drink, but I am concerned with the horrible consequences of our young people experimenting with crystal meth, or crack cocaine and Lord knows what else. I do not think that this stuff was readily available when you were a kid, unless you are a lot younger than it sounds.
If you listen to some of the parents whose kids have such an addiction that they have literally messed up their life for good, it is just heartbreaking. Anyone of them will tell you that we need more not less legal ability to control the substances that are utilized in making this damn stuff.

I have seen in my own community the destruction of families because young kids got mixed up with meth at under the age of 13.

Ivan Stang, MLA for Yellowhead has introduced a Private Members Bill calling for some of the chemicals that go into meth to be regulated. Rob Merrifield MP for Yellowhead did the same thing last week in the House of Commons.Both these fellows know that the use of and trafficing in these drugs is running rampant in their constituency. My hat is off to both of them for trying to make a difference.

I have grandkids and I hope and pray that they never get involved in any of this stuff...it causes a total waste of young human beings, and whatever laws that can be passed to prevent it or whatever police force it takes to help combat this then I am all for it.

[cowman]

emerald: I assure you I am not some spring chick! But I was a youngster in the very early seventies and drugs were readily available! Not crack and not crystal meth but lots of LSD and speed.
I will try to explain how I see it. The ingredients, to make crystal meth, are pretty basic? Anyone can basically cook it up in the kitchen sink?
So now if we seek to ban these substances, what really happens?
You create a problem...not for the real criminals but for the average Joe who doesn't use these substances for making drugs! The real criminals are happy as larks! Suddenly they have a situation where their product has just become a whole lot more valuable!...and meanwhile you and I can't start our tractor!
It is sort of like the gun laws...the criminals just love them because the government has just made a common commodity very valuable! Ban it and it becomes a fortune!
Prohibition of any commodity has never worked. All it does is create a market that someone is going to exploit?
Yes, crystal meth is extremely ugly. And yes, young people are definitely the targetted market! I would suggest the real problem is not really prohibition...but the way parents raise their children? The fact is this: In every market there is a buyer and a seller? If your kid is buying maybe you should be asking this question? Why?
Was it maybe because you taught him wrong? Or gave him everything he desired? Or he thinks he desreves to do whatever he damned well pleases?
....In no way am I implying this pertains to you...I am sure you were a very conscientious mother.
I had a daughter who went off the rails. She pulled herself out of that drug world and has become a responsible citizen.

[cowman]

cowman, a first time user of meth has a 40% chance of becoming addicted. This is not like smoking a joint.....not that I ever did but I know a lot of people who have and weren't addicted to the stuff. Kids are kids and to some experimenting with drugs is no different than sneaking the odd beer or smoke back in our day.
I remember my poor old mother nearly having a stroke when she caught me rolling a smoke by the kitchen stove....she thought I was well on my way to hell !!!!

Was she a bad mother, not on your life, but I was sneaky enough to want to try something that was 'forbidden' .

I think that many of the kids nowdays don't have a solid family life, and some don't really have anyone to look up to, but there are a lot of wonderful parents that see their kids make wrong choices.

My kids were certainly not perfect, in fact, #1 son and I have quite a few discussions about how he nearly drove me out of my mind during his teenage years. He turned out okay though, didn't mess with drugs but sure didn't mind tossing back a brew or two or five or ten !!!

I am glad I am not raising young kids nowdays, been there and done that and worried myself sick many times over. But just because mine are grown is no sign that I don't worry about the young folks that are growing up today. The drug problem is a major concern for many urban and rural centres, the cost of policing is skyrocketing, and the vandalism and break and enters is getting to be an epidemic.
Our own town just hired two more full time RCMP officers, and that is a cost that is borne by the local taxpayers. These two new members of the RCMP are posted full time on drug detail, and this isn't rare anymore in rural Alberta.