The NYT did a big story on the smuggling of B.C. Bud into the United States from British Columbia. And some of it is wildly out of context.
Here is an excerpt:
On Thursday, four officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were shot to death in Alberta, British Columbia's neighboring province, as they were searching a marijuana-growing operation, one of many on the rise there. The killings stunned a country that has apparently not lost that many officers at once since the mid-19th century.
No mention of the fact the suspect was a known cop-hater and gun lover.
No mention of the fact the RCMP were originally backing up a sheriff executing a seizure order for the suspect's truck. The grow op was discovered in carrying out that order.
No mention of the fact that there were stolen car parts in there too (time to crack down on chop shops!).
There's also a difference between the mid 19th century and 1885, but that's quibbling.
This is from an AP story carried in the Guardian:
``It is an unprecedented and unspeakable loss,'' Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said in a statement. ``We know that these are the most serious challenges, made complicated by the involvement of organized crime, the availability of weapons and the risks posed by individuals who choose the path of violence and destruction over peace and good.''
That may be true in general, and I think that's the point the story was trying to make, but so far, there is no link evident between Roszko and organized crime.
Again, there's the time bomb factor. Disturbed, angry people tend not to think about laws or social mores before acting.
No one has managed to find out yet if Roszko's firearms were registered.
One of the points of the gun registry was to allow police to know if a particular homeowner was armed if they responded to a domestic disturbance, as one example.
But even if data about his guns wasn't sitting in some federal computer, Roszko was known to be a gun nut and a cop-hater.
Those are more salient points than the fact some dope was being grown on his property.
Addendum:
I sent the following in a note to CAJ-L:
The last two RCMP officers to be shot and killed in the line of duty are Cpl. Jim Galloway (2004) and Const. Dennis Strongquill (2001).
Here is an excerpt from CTV.ca's story about Galloway's death last year in Spruce Grove, Alta.:
"(Martin Ostopovich) said he was sick of police and that someone was going to die today." Ostopovich was also a gun lover.
Here is what CBC.ca reported in the Strongquill case:
In Strongquill's case, his killer Robert Sands wrote in his prison diary (while awaiting trial) that Strongquill was the enemy and is "right where he should be."
It seems to me that the deadliest situations for police aren't busting grow ops; it's being in a vulnerable situation with an armed, angry cop-hater.
But to this point, the news coverage I've seen hasn't reflected that fact.
Note this lead from a Toronto Star editorial:
If Canadians haven't been especially alert to the plague of indoor marijuana factories — "grow ops" — in this country, they should be now. The slaying of four RCMP officers in Alberta during a grow op raid has vaulted the issue high on the public agenda.
It wasn't a "grow op" raid. Good Lord!
Addendum 2:
Veteran B.C. journalist Deborah Jones also had the following thoughts about the NYT piece. She posted them on CAJ-L, an e-mail discussion list she moderates:
I'm truly amazed at how fast the story of the Mountie slayings has
focused almost entirely on the drug angle.
As others have pointed out there are questions to be asked about the
mental state of the shooter, where he got the gun and why he had it,
the dysfunctional family in which he was raised, the stolen auto chop
shop he was allegedly running, whether his father's comments shed light
on the kind of parenting he had, why his mother left their family, the
role of the police and justice system in sending rookies to the place
-- etc.
Yet most journalists, who are supposed to be critical thinkers and ask
smart questions, lazily pigeon-holed this into a weird US style War on
Drugs script right away.
Having covered marijuana grow ops extensively in the past year, it's
embarrassing to me as a journalist to read this junk. I expect it from
some sources and shrug. But the New York Times today especially amazed
me. I often find Times'reporting superb, but there's an astonishingly
sloppy story riddled with sensationalism and so many errors that a
tabloid would hesitate to run it.
In "Violent New Front in Drug War Opens on the Canadian Border," Sarah
Kershaw implies violence in BC is flowing across the border to Seattle
(without comparing the vastly different crime rates between the two
jurisdictions). She asserts BC Bud is "the center of what law
enforcement officials say is an increasingly violent $7 billion
cultivation and smuggling industry." She is, I assume, getting the $7
billion from the retail value of pot in BC recently estimated by SFU
economist Stephen Easton. Fine -- but then Kershaw leaps from the BC
retail scene to, completely out of context, cite the four RCMP
shootings in Alberta, then quotes a US special agent saying the Alberta
killings were stark evidence of "how serious the B.C. bud issue is
getting, how much money is involved and the lengths to which these
criminals are willing to go to protect it." She doesn't back the link
between the Alberta violence and BC Bud, or indicate where she learned
marijuana was behind the Mountie shootings. (If a report of 20 plants
is accurate, it's hardly a "grow op," which have hundreds to more than
1,000 plants in operations run by organized crime groups.
One thing I found interesting about the story is that it isolates the
Canada/US border issue without looking at a larger frame -- which would
show vastly more marijuana is grown in the US and imported from Mexico
than from Canada.
Kershaw writes: "In British Columbia, a once-quiet province in a
country that has long enjoyed a low crime rate, the murder rate has
soared in the past two years, Canadian officials say, because of
killings linked to warring drug gangs... Now law enforcement officials
here fear the violence will migrate south..." Huh? If Kershaw's going
to write this stuff, at the very least I'd expect the Times copy
editors to ask her to include stats on violence in Seattle and
Vancouver.
With no evidence of critical thinking, Kershaw also buys into the
agenda of those using the killing to promote their causes, quoting a
Canadian RCMP drug specialist's frustration with Canada's tolerance,
and saying "the deaths on Thursday were already sending an alarm
throughout the country. ..."Because of a tragedy we may actually see
people try and address the issue in an effective manner," Inspector
Nadeau said.
Just what "issue" is that, Ms Kershaw and Insp Nadeau, who like others
involved in this story seem to have some uncanny prescient knowledge
about the cause of the Mountie deaths.
Sheesh.
Deborah Jones