On Wednesday, Premier John Horgan made remarks about the on going crime debate and said he is also concerned about violent offenders, but that arresting more people will not solve the problem.
He agreed with Attorney General Murray Rankin, who told the legislature on Tuesday that focusing on more arrests of repeat offenders would be “futile.”
“We can’t arrest our way out of this challenge,” Horgan said at a news conference.
“It’s a multi-faceted problem. People who see crime and see perpetrators not dealt with aggressively, I’m frustrated by that.”
The BC Liberals have been raising concerns in the BC Legislature over the last two days referencing the government-commissioned report citing police and probation officers who said repeat offenders “are emboldened to continue offending, deteriorating community confidence in the justice system.”
On Wednesday in the BC Legislature, the BC Liberals blasted the BC NDP government yet again in regards to prolific offenders and the governments “catch and release” program and said people in B.C. feared going outside in their communities
After the BC Liberals mopped the floor during question period Tuesday, the BC NDP sent tagged in Mike Farnworth to head most of the questions from the official opposition in Wednesdays question period. Farnworth did a little bit of a better job than the Attorney General to push back on the opposition but still ended up playing defense over the governments inaction.
Official opposition leader, Kevin Falcon grilled the Attorney General of dismissing the violent attacks on random community members as “anecdotal rhetoric”.
“A woman followed into her apartment, thrown on the ground and assaulted,” he said Wednesday in the legislature.
“A hatchet attack on the SkyTrain. A baby in a stroller attacked with a glass bottle. A woman slashed in the neck with a machete.”
Falcon said the government was “completely detached from the reality of what’s taking place in communities across this province.”
Horgan accused the opposition with engaging in “bumper sticker” slogans. He then cited remarks made last month by former RCMP officer, now Liberal MLA for Surrey South, Elenore Sturko “cannot arrest our way out of these problems.”
“The B.C. Liberals are in the business of slogans,” he said. “I’d like to think we’ve been in the business of trying to solve the problem. That’s done by hard work and collaboration.”
Sturko doesn’t deny she said the province “cannot arrest our way out of these problems.” Then Sturko explained the police are doing their jobs to arrest criminals and “the NDP are releasing them”.
She says the B.C. Attorney General finally admitted he “has the power to issue directives to end catch-and-release.” but he instead wants to “examine it further”.
Attorney General repeated his comments from yesterday saying it is “futile” to charge violent criminals with their crimes that terrorize communities in British Columbia.
He doubled down on claiming that arresting criminals and charge them is pointless
Mike Farnworth flew the the handle with irrelevant talking points about a bill the BC NDP introduced nearly a decade ago that has nothing to do with the current increase of violent assaults’ and crime in the province. Farnworth continued to mention irrelevant points claiming they are doing things to address the random violent attacks by talking about money laundering, which also has nothing to do with the increase of violent machete attacks.
The BC NDP members were banging on their desks and clapping as if it meant something while ignoring the fact money laundering has nothing to do with the rise in random violent crimes in British Columbia.
The BC NDP boasts about how much money they are sinking in to the criminal justice system, “about one third more”, compared to when the BC Liberals were in power despite no results to show for it except an increase in violent crime.
While British Columbians want to see results, the BC NDP keeps talking about increasing spending while accomplishing no results. Currently the only thing the BC NDP government is saying, is they want to increase spending of tax payer money on “government services” while the Attorney General could issue a directive to prosecutors of how to request for prolific offenders to remain in jail but refuses to do so.
