Rural crime: Simmering tensions.
I’ve let some of the dust settle before I’ve weighed in. I’ve thought long and hard about the Colton Boushie and Gerald Stanley case. Boushie would not have been shot if he had been on the Stanley property and Stanley would not have got his firearm and used it unsafely it seems if he wasn’t focused on defending his family and property from what he perceived as a danger to both.
It’s messed up on both sides. I understand and agree entirely with the Indigenous people’s problem with how they are treated under the justice system. However, I do think that Stanley would likely have acted the same way no matter who was on his property.
The justice system is and has been flawed for decades. It was first highlighted in 1991 and subsequently since. I don’t see that any government can hold the high ground on this issue. Legal representatives used the current justice system for the benefit of their client. I would not expect anything else. I’ve always thought that across the globe there is a world of difference between law and justice. Being subject to law does not mean that one will receive or expect justice as one would perceive it.
I’m disappointed but not surprised that politicians and advocates seem to have used the Boushie trial to their political and advocational advantage. I was also disappointed that much of the media coverage was, in my view, skewed off balance.
I believe that incidents like the Boushie one will and indeed have occurred again. I read of one, without a fatality, just last week involving a home owner and a shooting. Having lived, through choice, in rural areas for a good deal of my life, I know the issues and indeed have experienced first hand people pulling into my yard at all times of the day night with criminal intentions. My family and I have been fortunate thus far that no serious incident occurred once our unwanted visitors realised that we had a house full of people.
Rural crime has been a festering sore for years and will remain so, in my opinion, until the will and the way are found to dedicate police resources to it. Criminals operating in rural areas must be educated to expect that they will be seen and probably caught in short order. That means boots on the ground with patrols that can and will respond in minutes not half and hour or longer. I for one and people like me don’t want meetings, task forces and rhetoric, it’s action.
Helicopters are effective in the right weather to monitor a large area. However, they are expensive. How about using military type drones with sensors? The drones are highly effective at surveillance and could be an effective gatherer of suspicious activity and even gathering evidence and tracking perpetrators with units on the round. On a cynical note a drone could probably be used as a photo radar tool, which may offset some of the cost. I know helicopters already do this kind of work. Some use of drones is already being made by the RCMP but going large could be better.
To the powers that be. Please do something about rural crime before we have more cases to talk about. I don’t believe it’s if, it’s when.