REAPING WHAT WE SOW (hypocrisy & anti-Americanism of Canada's Liberals nicely answered)

National Post - Canada ^ | January 3, 2006 | David Frum

[GMMAC]

REAPING WHAT WE SOW

National Post
January 3, 2006

by David Frum

After a spasm of heart-rending, frightening violence, Toronto's Mayor, David Miller, and its news media want Torontonians to remember one thing: The city is very, very safe. Really.

"Chicago: 445 homicides. Washington D.C.: 195 homicides. Baltimore: 268 homicides. Toronto: 78 homicides." So opened a story in Sunday's Toronto Star.

If there is any problem in Toronto, the Mayor insists, it is traceable to the United States: "The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto," David Miller complained on Dec. 27.

And naturally Prime Minister Paul Martin agreed. "What we saw yesterday is a stark reminder of the challenge that governments, police forces and communities face to ensure that Canadian cities do not descend into the kind of rampant gun violence we have seen elsewhere."

Feel better now? Well, don't. The Prime Minister, the Mayor and the media are hiding crucial facts. Here are three:

1) America's crime problem has dramatically improved, while Canada's is becoming seriously worse. Toronto's 78 homicides in 2005 appears to compare favorably to the homicide totals of the three American cities cited by the Star. But those 78 Toronto homicides in 2005 represent a 28% increase over the 61 homicides recorded in Toronto in 1995. Meanwhile, the three U.S. cities cited by the Star each achieved dramatic decreases over the past decade: Chicago down 46% from 823, Washington down 46% from 365, Baltimore down 17% from 322.

More broadly: Canada's overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States. Read that again slowly--it seems incredible, but it's true. It's true too that you are now more likely to be mugged in Toronto than in New York City.

2) America's crime problem is becoming concentrated in ever fewer places, while Canada's is spreading out to ever more places.

The United States is a huge country, and it will always be possible to find a jurisdiction with shocking crime numbers. The overwhelming majority of Americans, however, live in places that are becoming steadily safer. Since the early 1990s, crime rates have dropped in 48 of the 50 states and 80% of American cities. Over that same period, crime rates have risen in six of the 10 Canadian provinces and in seven of Canada's 10 biggest cities.

3) While American cities and states are adopting anti-crime policies proved to work, Canadian cities and provinces are adopting policies proved to fail.

Over a decade of successful crime-fighting in the U.S., criminologists and police departments have learned some important lessons.

Bluntly: prison works. Criminals do not commit crimes while they are held in prison. Yet a Canadian criminal is 80% less likely to go to jail than his American counterpart.

Putting police on the streets works. Yet Canada employs 25% fewer police officers per capita than the United States.

Enforcing laws against vagrancy, prostitution and drug dealing works. Yet Canada is either decriminalizing or tolerating all three. The right kinds of gun laws work too: for example, extending the sentence of any criminal who commits any crime--down to jaywalking--while in possession of a gun.

Gun registries and gun bans on the other hand do not work. Youth programs do not work. Counseling does not work. Grants to community activists, peer counselors and after-school facilities do not work. The $50-million Paul Martin has just announced for local crime-prevention will be directed to individuals and groups connected to the Liberal party's patronage machine. That money will do nothing to enhance the safety of the City of Toronto. And if it finds its way to individuals or groups who lobby against effective law-enforcement, that money will actually make the problem worse.

It is not guns from across the border that threaten Canadians. It is the weak and cynical policies of home-grown politicians, and especially the Chretien/Martin Liberals. The $2-billion wasted on the gun registry could have paid for more cops, more prisons, more of everything that would protect the lives and security of Canadians. It is the federal Liberal government that releases young offenders back into the community, the federal Liberals who appoint the judges who refuse to punish, the federal Liberals who run the prison system as if it were a summer camp, the federal Liberals who refuse to deport immigrants who break the law, the federal Liberals who have subordinated public safety to ethnic politics.

And then it is the federal Liberals who have the gross and extreme indecency to try to exploit for their own selfish political ends the crime and grief and suffering for which they bear so much of the blame.

[GMMAC]

Note: url cited only confirms article's publication in today's National Post via it's pay-to-view website.
Text is also available here through David Frum's website.

[GMMAC]

PING!

[GMMAC]

[Billthedrill]

Blunt speech BTT.

[GMMAC]

Further confirmation: New York murders lowest since 1963
Proving yet again, you can't spell "Liberal" without L-I-A-R!

[CaptainCanada]

Yah, I had to chuckle at the story about the first murder victim of the
year in the Toronto Sun today. His family is shocked because he was
such a nice boy and about to be a father (surprise) and "he had
changed his life around".
Then I read that he was well "known to the police" (never a good
sign, eh?) and had been involved in a robbery with a gun in 2003 where
the victim was shot and killed.
One part of me is outraged that a guy who's involved in a homicide is out
of jail within 2 years of the killing.
OTOH, the guy's now dead - so while there may be no official
justice system under the Libs, there is "street justice".

[headstamp]

Never underestimate the will of Liberals to experiment on their fellow citizens with idiocy like this.

Liberals have gotten a whole lot of people killed with their ridiculous policies. They will get more people killed when they are back at the controls in Washington.

[JoeSixPack1]

Bada-boom!

Did anybody in Canada see this?? LOL! :-)

[GMMAC]

...there may be no official justice system under the Libs, there is "street justice".

Likewise, any pedophiles who do draw "hard time" are kept out of the general prison population precisely because the supposed dregs of society have a far better idea as to what constitutes true justice and one more in line with society as a whole than do the bleeding-hearted legal hacks whom the Liberals reward with Judgeships.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

"..........They will get more people killed when they are back at the controls in Washington."

---

You mind the Moonbats north of the border.

IMO, the bunch down here are just about to qualify themselves as either agents for a hostile foreign power, candidates for the Gelding Plate or all of the above.

[Stoigo]

Does the mayor of Toronto really wear that?!?!?
Nice bling! (not).

[proud_yank]

Good article!

David Miller is a thug, and blaming the US is usually his first line of defense regarding anything bad that goes on in Toronto. Then again, thats probably the main reason he is able to hold office in Toronto.

[GMMAC]

To leftists on both sides of the border, if the cat has kittens it's Bush's and/or America's fault>
Decent people everywhere are fed up with their tired whining.

[GMMAC]

To be accurate and while no politically correct leftist is about to admit as much, the only "American" connection to gun violence in Toronto is the adoption of "gangsta" supposed "culture" by the mostly third world thugs whom they continue to welcome with open arms.

[GMMAC]

It's actually a traditional "Chain of Office" fairly typical of those worn by most Mayors throughout the former British Empire.

Miller's may be a tad larger and flashier than some but, then again, most in this chubby socialist's position also don't habitually give theirs double duty as an eating utensil.

[proud_yank]

Amen! The same holds true for most of the world.

It would be nice if all these idiots would simply move to a small island in the Pacific, or France for that matter. We'd all be much happier that way!!

[GMMAC]

Seen Grig's wonderful unauthorized ads on Fanfan's Turnabout is fair play thread"? Aces !!!

After first wisely establishing his credibility, Harper's finally taken off the gloves with the vermin and every other conservative now should too.

[proud_yank]

Thanks for the link. Excellent ads. Is there a Canadian equivalent to US 527's that run ads like these on TV and Radio? Would sure be nice to see.

Hopefully he will continue to rise. Its nice to see the conservatives in both the US and Canada taking off the gloves. I think that they wait for them to stick their necks out far enough before they cut 'em off.