A previous story regarding an appeal of punishment handed out by the original trial judge for assaulting a police officer was interesting reading. I have always considered myself to be in favour of law officers and realize they have a very hard job to do.
However I must consider how their resources are being used (or perhaps wasted). In this story a person on probation was late getting home by a few minutes. When confronted, the person grabbed and pushed the officer, resulting in the assault charge. I am not defending this man's character as he has had over 50 convictions for various crimes but I wonder why they wanted to arrest this man so bad that they had to use their limited resources to see if he was breaking his curfew - even if only by a few minutes. I wonder how many other officers spend their time watching for probation violations.
I found it amazing that a man with so many convictions was able to find work to start with and am pretty sure the extra time in prison (at taxpayers expense) will result in his losing his job when he is released. The chances of him getting another job would appear to be slim, which will probably put him on social assistance which will cost taxpayers more resources and money.
And all this for being a few minutes late.
Robert Wilson
Prince George
