Alternative sentencing options fail to deter violent crime

Re: Indigenous people remain over- represented in prisons; special report finds one in four federal inmates is aboriginal, March 8

To claim that indigenous people are “over- represented” in Canadian prisons is as ludicrous as saying that a “disproportionate” number of men are being jailed for sexual assaults and similar crimes.

In the name of sanity, we should grasp the fundamental though inconvenient fact that a disproportionate number of aboriginals are committing serious crimes.

Del Louie, 22, viciously assaulted a 55- year- old Vancouver bus driver named Charles Dixon. After three operations, Mr. Dixon’s face is now held together by a plate with four screws. Mr. Louie had a prior for assaulting a bus driver. Would any male Caucasian perpetrator convicted of this sort of repeat offence have been handed just an 18- month conditional sentence followed by two years probation? What kind of message does this send? Where is the deterrent?

There are aboriginal communities in the B. C. Interior where residents live in constant fear of hard- core, career criminals who continue to victimize their own people with impunity, thanks to a combination of corruption and incompetence within aboriginal RCMP detachments and the inability of our justice system to take these evil people out of circulation.

Every Canadian, native and nonnative has the right to life, liberty and security of the person, as provided in Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Politically correct tweaking of our justice system, such as Regina v. Gladue, cannot trump the Charter if the prescribed alternative sentencing options fail to deter violent crime. JOHN C. MURRAY Vancouver