Monday, September 24, 2007
Mr. Ron Taylor's solution to drugs is terrorism?
The following is a reply to an editorial in the Abbotsford Post, Tuesday September 18, 2007. I have posted a copy of the editorial below the reply
So, Mr. Ron Taylor’s solution to drugs is terrorism?
The reason that threats from “woolly faces” work is that they are terrorists and everyone knows they have and will kill for no other reason than they think you should die. So while Mr. Taylor is praising these terrorists for their ability to frighten drug dealers, he should remember that this ability came at the price of the sectarian violence he appears to cavalierly dismiss.
I am sorry but years of terrorist attacks on innocent bystanders; the deaths of thousands of men women and children; bombings; people shot because of their religious beliefs; people shot for saying or writing something someone disagreed with; are not, to me, an acceptable price to pay, even if Mr. Taylor seems comfortable with this because it makes threats made by the terrorists to drug dealers believable.
One week Mr. Taylor is praising our brave troops for fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and then he turns around and advocates turning terrorists in Canada as a solution to the drug problem. This would seem a little disingenuous and somewhat lacking in ethical consistency.
In keeping with the flow of ill considered babble, he laments the failure of the current system of criminal rehabilitation. Now when I see the failure of rehabilitation, whether criminal or addiction, I suggest looking around and trying practices that have been successful in other jurisdictions in achieving recovery or rehabilitation. Mr. Taylor suggests we forget about rehabilitation and concentrate on whipping our criminals into top physical shape, which would … make them better and more dangerous criminals.
So in the world Mr. Taylor fondly envisions, not only will we have the gang violence and shootings currently plaguing the lower mainland, we have the terrorists he wants to loose on our streets and the physically honed criminals he wants our prisons to churn out – all of these groups better armed than the police.
It is no wonder he supports the Canadian Armed Forces being in Afghanistan – we are going to need battle-hardened experienced guerrilla/terrorist fighting troops to retake our streets.
Mr. Taylor: solutions are not really solutions when they turn serious social problems into a societal disaster. Except to politicians who in their search for simple, easy solutions will thoughtlessly advocate anything that sounds good, no matter how negative the consequences would be.
It is this insistence on simplistic solutions to complex problems that have no easy, quick or perfect solutions that has us floundering with crime, the drug trade, rehabilitation and recovery. We just might want to try applying rational, realistic thought and planning which has demonstrated an ability to solve complex problems.
I do have a final question for Mr. Taylor: just what dictionary were you using that defined justice in terms of being dispensed by terrorists?
Lessons from Belfast:
One benefit of traveling as I am at the moment is the opportunity to see how other communities deal with the same problems we face. So, it was irresistible to explore why areas of Belfast that were the centres of violence during the sectarian conflict now have virtually no drug dealing, no break-and- enters and almost no instances of paedophilia, all severe problems for us.
A good place to start the search was Taughmonagh Social Club in a staunchly Protestant area of Belfast, once a known gathering place for the Protestant militias during the troubles. Not an easy place to get people to talk even when introduced by a member. But a good place to start because a once prevalent problem of drug dealing has totally disappeared.
The community became concerned because one individual was selling drugs to youngsters. He was twice warned (nobody would admit by whom). He had excuses – he’d just lost his job, and he had marital problems. But the community just didn’t care – enough was enough. Men with “woolly faces” (the local slang for balaclava-covered faces), apprehended him, questioned him in their own inimitable fashion and found heroin and crack in his possession.
He was hauled to a public area, his shirt stripped off, hot tar was poured on him and then the feather contents of two pillows was added. A notice was pinned around his neck saying “I am a drug selling scumbag.” The police were unable to find the offenders (local feeling is they didn’t try very hard), while the individual left the country and now lives in Scotland. Drug dealing in the area stopped overnight. In another case in a nearby Catholic area, a paedophile was beaten and then locked in a van with four pit bulls for over an hour. He is considered unlikely to reoffend.
These are not isolated instances. Known break-and-enter offenders, drug dealers and those committing crimes of violence are routinely beaten. In these areas crime is almost non-existent, although there is some tolerance, for instance sale of marijuana is considered benign. Are there lessons for us?
Obviously, vigilante justice can’t be supported (although I must admit an attraction to introducing paedophiles to pit bulls). However, brutal though these actions are, they do disprove a common mantra that “more severe sentencing won’t solve the problem.” It just depends on the severity of the punishment.
A few extra months in prison won’t solve the problem, but how about a different kind of punishment that makes the whole experience very unpleasant? The equivalent of army basic training for a few months, Spartan living conditions, out of bed at 5 a.m., run ragged until exhausted each day, no TV, no so-called “treatment programs” with virtually zero success rate. Such sentences would offend the more sensitive of our citizens and would cause some unemployment among psychologists and sociologists but the evidence from those jurisdictions that have implemented such schemes is that they work.
Perhaps when rehabilitation fails and when our justice system seems to favour offenders over victims, it is time to scare the hell out of the bad guys.
Ron Taylor is a former Mission councillor who remains active in community affairs. Abbotsford Post
So, Mr. Ron Taylor’s solution to drugs is terrorism?
The reason that threats from “woolly faces” work is that they are terrorists and everyone knows they have and will kill for no other reason than they think you should die. So while Mr. Taylor is praising these terrorists for their ability to frighten drug dealers, he should remember that this ability came at the price of the sectarian violence he appears to cavalierly dismiss.
I am sorry but years of terrorist attacks on innocent bystanders; the deaths of thousands of men women and children; bombings; people shot because of their religious beliefs; people shot for saying or writing something someone disagreed with; are not, to me, an acceptable price to pay, even if Mr. Taylor seems comfortable with this because it makes threats made by the terrorists to drug dealers believable.
One week Mr. Taylor is praising our brave troops for fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and then he turns around and advocates turning terrorists in Canada as a solution to the drug problem. This would seem a little disingenuous and somewhat lacking in ethical consistency.
In keeping with the flow of ill considered babble, he laments the failure of the current system of criminal rehabilitation. Now when I see the failure of rehabilitation, whether criminal or addiction, I suggest looking around and trying practices that have been successful in other jurisdictions in achieving recovery or rehabilitation. Mr. Taylor suggests we forget about rehabilitation and concentrate on whipping our criminals into top physical shape, which would … make them better and more dangerous criminals.
So in the world Mr. Taylor fondly envisions, not only will we have the gang violence and shootings currently plaguing the lower mainland, we have the terrorists he wants to loose on our streets and the physically honed criminals he wants our prisons to churn out – all of these groups better armed than the police.
It is no wonder he supports the Canadian Armed Forces being in Afghanistan – we are going to need battle-hardened experienced guerrilla/terrorist fighting troops to retake our streets.
Mr. Taylor: solutions are not really solutions when they turn serious social problems into a societal disaster. Except to politicians who in their search for simple, easy solutions will thoughtlessly advocate anything that sounds good, no matter how negative the consequences would be.
It is this insistence on simplistic solutions to complex problems that have no easy, quick or perfect solutions that has us floundering with crime, the drug trade, rehabilitation and recovery. We just might want to try applying rational, realistic thought and planning which has demonstrated an ability to solve complex problems.
I do have a final question for Mr. Taylor: just what dictionary were you using that defined justice in terms of being dispensed by terrorists?
Lessons from Belfast:
One benefit of traveling as I am at the moment is the opportunity to see how other communities deal with the same problems we face. So, it was irresistible to explore why areas of Belfast that were the centres of violence during the sectarian conflict now have virtually no drug dealing, no break-and- enters and almost no instances of paedophilia, all severe problems for us.
A good place to start the search was Taughmonagh Social Club in a staunchly Protestant area of Belfast, once a known gathering place for the Protestant militias during the troubles. Not an easy place to get people to talk even when introduced by a member. But a good place to start because a once prevalent problem of drug dealing has totally disappeared.
The community became concerned because one individual was selling drugs to youngsters. He was twice warned (nobody would admit by whom). He had excuses – he’d just lost his job, and he had marital problems. But the community just didn’t care – enough was enough. Men with “woolly faces” (the local slang for balaclava-covered faces), apprehended him, questioned him in their own inimitable fashion and found heroin and crack in his possession.
He was hauled to a public area, his shirt stripped off, hot tar was poured on him and then the feather contents of two pillows was added. A notice was pinned around his neck saying “I am a drug selling scumbag.” The police were unable to find the offenders (local feeling is they didn’t try very hard), while the individual left the country and now lives in Scotland. Drug dealing in the area stopped overnight. In another case in a nearby Catholic area, a paedophile was beaten and then locked in a van with four pit bulls for over an hour. He is considered unlikely to reoffend.
These are not isolated instances. Known break-and-enter offenders, drug dealers and those committing crimes of violence are routinely beaten. In these areas crime is almost non-existent, although there is some tolerance, for instance sale of marijuana is considered benign. Are there lessons for us?
Obviously, vigilante justice can’t be supported (although I must admit an attraction to introducing paedophiles to pit bulls). However, brutal though these actions are, they do disprove a common mantra that “more severe sentencing won’t solve the problem.” It just depends on the severity of the punishment.
A few extra months in prison won’t solve the problem, but how about a different kind of punishment that makes the whole experience very unpleasant? The equivalent of army basic training for a few months, Spartan living conditions, out of bed at 5 a.m., run ragged until exhausted each day, no TV, no so-called “treatment programs” with virtually zero success rate. Such sentences would offend the more sensitive of our citizens and would cause some unemployment among psychologists and sociologists but the evidence from those jurisdictions that have implemented such schemes is that they work.
Perhaps when rehabilitation fails and when our justice system seems to favour offenders over victims, it is time to scare the hell out of the bad guys.
Ron Taylor is a former Mission councillor who remains active in community affairs. Abbotsford Post
Monday, September 10, 2007
Afganistan Mission
This is a reply to the mission statement column in the Abbotsford Post of August 27 which has been reproduced for purposes of claritybelow my commentary.
The Glaring Omission in Mr. Taylor’s August 28, 2007 mission statement is any Afghanistan mission statement demonstrating that this is a War worth fighting and not merely “a war of politicians and politics”.
The Valium of self-delusion Mr. Taylor speaks of would appear to have been administered to himself.
Afghanistan was not who attacked the US on 9/11 but terrorists. Being in Afghanistan, helping the US to pursue its anti-drug policies in wiping out the opium crop (from which heroin is made) upon which Afghani farmers depend for cash to live on and killing innocent civilians, does nothing but create enemies and more terrorists.
Fools rush in where wise men know better than to tread.
If we are unwilling to treat our addicts and help them into recovery, insisting on pursuing a foolish policy of ignoring capitalism and market forces via reducing demand through addiction recovery, there is no need to compound the foolishness by creating enemies – the farmers will be happy to sell their crop to us and don’t care if we then destroy it.
Wise men know that a terrorist in Afghanistan is not a threat to us in Canada – until someone bankrolls the terrorists thus allowing them to travel from Afghanistan to Canada, hide within Canada preparing their strike and providing the materials needed to commit terrorist atrocities.
Wise men know you go for those who bankroll the terrorists.
But Saudi Arabia is a friend of the Bush family and the US government; is extremely wealthy and generous to their friends; and controls the Saudi oil fields. Afghanistan is poor, unable to buy friends and influence.
He is correct on one point and both right and wrong on another. He is correct that the troops deserve our support and while correct that a firm withdrawal date should not be set, his implication that we should condemn our troops to an indefinite stay, suffering bleeding to death from a thousand cuts is criminal and flawed.
The bitter pill our troops must swallow is that they were betrayed by their government. Worse is the fact that this betrayal was perpetrated on them by a minority Government - the minority Conservative government who, while able to send our forces into harms way, had no ethical or moral right to commit out dedicated forces personnel to shedding their blood and lives in a purposeless and unjust war.
As the words of John Stewart Mills quoted by Mr. Taylor make clear - “war is an ugly thing” and if we are to be “willing to fight” and ask our forces to shed their blood, it must be a “moral” cause “more important than personal safety” and “worth war”.
The Balkan’s ethnic cleansing was. The Sudan with its genocide would be. Foolishness, political opportunism and cronyism are not.
A War of Politics and Politicians is not a war worth our nation’s treasure and blood, it is an ugly thing we should never have been involved in and that ethics demand we disengage from.
It’s a war, politicians
So Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and Liberal Party of Canada leader Stéphane Dion are threatening to bring down the federal government and provoke a general election if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t give a firmdate for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan.
I wonder who they asked about that?
Not the members of Mission’s adopted regiment, the Royal Westminsters (the ‘Westies’) I bet. Anybody who has met these young men and women at events in Mission or at Master Corporal Bason’s funeral has heard a very different story. Many of these fine young people have signed up for the task force TF1-08 which means they, as militia citizen soldiers, have volunteered for service in Afghanistan.
Our young soldiers understand something these two self-interested political parties do not.This is not totally surprising since the Liberals cold bloodedly gutted our armed forces and the Bloc represents that portion of Quebec society that has always regarded defending our country as a purely Anglo task.
What our soldiers understand is that this is a war. It is not a peacekeeping operation or a police action, it is a war. On 9/11 our closest ally was attacked. Anybody who believes that attack was just on the U.S. and that Canada is safe is not just wearing rose-coloured spectacles but is also suffering an overdose of the Valium of self-delusion.
Imagine, as a soldier, being told, “your country expects you to lay your life on the line for a set of ideals. But after 2009 these ideals will cease to be important and everbody can come home.”
It is a novel concept – go to war but, first, declare an end date. Wars aren’t like that, they last until you win or lose.Thank Heaven for the young soldiers of the Westies and those and of the legendary Van Doos currently in Afghanistan.
They are ready to defend our country and they also believe that in bringing freedom to a people previously mired in a totalitarian, despotic and cruel medieval theocracy they are serving Canadian ideals. The Canadian Armed Forces are, sadly, used to being over tasked and ill-equipped. They can accept that they are being sent to war in secondhand German tanks, which are replacing a previous generation of secondhand German tanks, or in armoured vehicles whose armour is about as effective as that on an ice-cream truck. But, it is a much more bitter pill to swallow to know that they are effectively being betrayed by their own government.
Yes, war is terrible and the death of any young soldier is an enormous human tragedy. But it is worth remembering that the casualty rate we are suffering in Afghanistan is lower than the murder rate in Toronto.
So when the Westies are next in Mission – after the parade Nov. 11 in the Legion – consider dropping by and shaking their hands. Hopefully that will convince them that those for whom they are fight worth fighting for.
Above all, remember the words of John Stuart Mill: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
The Glaring Omission in Mr. Taylor’s August 28, 2007 mission statement is any Afghanistan mission statement demonstrating that this is a War worth fighting and not merely “a war of politicians and politics”.
The Valium of self-delusion Mr. Taylor speaks of would appear to have been administered to himself.
Afghanistan was not who attacked the US on 9/11 but terrorists. Being in Afghanistan, helping the US to pursue its anti-drug policies in wiping out the opium crop (from which heroin is made) upon which Afghani farmers depend for cash to live on and killing innocent civilians, does nothing but create enemies and more terrorists.
Fools rush in where wise men know better than to tread.
If we are unwilling to treat our addicts and help them into recovery, insisting on pursuing a foolish policy of ignoring capitalism and market forces via reducing demand through addiction recovery, there is no need to compound the foolishness by creating enemies – the farmers will be happy to sell their crop to us and don’t care if we then destroy it.
Wise men know that a terrorist in Afghanistan is not a threat to us in Canada – until someone bankrolls the terrorists thus allowing them to travel from Afghanistan to Canada, hide within Canada preparing their strike and providing the materials needed to commit terrorist atrocities.
Wise men know you go for those who bankroll the terrorists.
But Saudi Arabia is a friend of the Bush family and the US government; is extremely wealthy and generous to their friends; and controls the Saudi oil fields. Afghanistan is poor, unable to buy friends and influence.
He is correct on one point and both right and wrong on another. He is correct that the troops deserve our support and while correct that a firm withdrawal date should not be set, his implication that we should condemn our troops to an indefinite stay, suffering bleeding to death from a thousand cuts is criminal and flawed.
The bitter pill our troops must swallow is that they were betrayed by their government. Worse is the fact that this betrayal was perpetrated on them by a minority Government - the minority Conservative government who, while able to send our forces into harms way, had no ethical or moral right to commit out dedicated forces personnel to shedding their blood and lives in a purposeless and unjust war.
As the words of John Stewart Mills quoted by Mr. Taylor make clear - “war is an ugly thing” and if we are to be “willing to fight” and ask our forces to shed their blood, it must be a “moral” cause “more important than personal safety” and “worth war”.
The Balkan’s ethnic cleansing was. The Sudan with its genocide would be. Foolishness, political opportunism and cronyism are not.
A War of Politics and Politicians is not a war worth our nation’s treasure and blood, it is an ugly thing we should never have been involved in and that ethics demand we disengage from.
It’s a war, politicians
So Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and Liberal Party of Canada leader Stéphane Dion are threatening to bring down the federal government and provoke a general election if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t give a firmdate for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan.
I wonder who they asked about that?
Not the members of Mission’s adopted regiment, the Royal Westminsters (the ‘Westies’) I bet. Anybody who has met these young men and women at events in Mission or at Master Corporal Bason’s funeral has heard a very different story. Many of these fine young people have signed up for the task force TF1-08 which means they, as militia citizen soldiers, have volunteered for service in Afghanistan.
Our young soldiers understand something these two self-interested political parties do not.This is not totally surprising since the Liberals cold bloodedly gutted our armed forces and the Bloc represents that portion of Quebec society that has always regarded defending our country as a purely Anglo task.
What our soldiers understand is that this is a war. It is not a peacekeeping operation or a police action, it is a war. On 9/11 our closest ally was attacked. Anybody who believes that attack was just on the U.S. and that Canada is safe is not just wearing rose-coloured spectacles but is also suffering an overdose of the Valium of self-delusion.
Imagine, as a soldier, being told, “your country expects you to lay your life on the line for a set of ideals. But after 2009 these ideals will cease to be important and everbody can come home.”
It is a novel concept – go to war but, first, declare an end date. Wars aren’t like that, they last until you win or lose.Thank Heaven for the young soldiers of the Westies and those and of the legendary Van Doos currently in Afghanistan.
They are ready to defend our country and they also believe that in bringing freedom to a people previously mired in a totalitarian, despotic and cruel medieval theocracy they are serving Canadian ideals. The Canadian Armed Forces are, sadly, used to being over tasked and ill-equipped. They can accept that they are being sent to war in secondhand German tanks, which are replacing a previous generation of secondhand German tanks, or in armoured vehicles whose armour is about as effective as that on an ice-cream truck. But, it is a much more bitter pill to swallow to know that they are effectively being betrayed by their own government.
Yes, war is terrible and the death of any young soldier is an enormous human tragedy. But it is worth remembering that the casualty rate we are suffering in Afghanistan is lower than the murder rate in Toronto.
So when the Westies are next in Mission – after the parade Nov. 11 in the Legion – consider dropping by and shaking their hands. Hopefully that will convince them that those for whom they are fight worth fighting for.
Above all, remember the words of John Stuart Mill: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”
