CHAZ stands for Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. It is an area in Seattle where a number of urban city blocks have been occupied by a group of extremists for some weeks now after rioters chased police from their own precinct. Different self-appointed warlords speak for CHAZ at different times and they have been trying to rename their little encampment to CHOP lately. It is as one would imagine, a chaotic mess.

The picture above shows one of the self-appointed, armed border guards of the CHAZ. Surely a safe, well trained and self-controlled individual.

Prominent CHAZ warlord Raz Simone and his gang have been policing CHAZ at night and has violently punished offenders who commit crimes without his express permission.

Raz’s law enforcement appears to still have some holes in it as thefts are rampant while multiple shootings and murders have happened in the CHAZ in the last few weeks.

The Marxist paradise of CHAZ appears to be having growing pains.

So why on earth would I propose that every city should have a violent, lawless slum within it?

Bear with me here.

There is a subculture of extremists and losers who want and will use any excuse to set up long term squatter encampments such as the CHAZ. They did so with “Occupy” years ago or even more recently on rail lines within Canada. All they are seeking is an excuse.

The “occupy” movement began with marches of thousands in cities throughout North America. Many rational people came out to express their concerns peacefully in demonstrations and then went home.

The irrational and extreme decided to stay and set up camp however.

The “occupy” camps were the same throughout North America. They were filthy tent-cities filled with disturbed people being enabled by outside socialists who would fund them and drop off food before heading back to their more comfortable, capitalist funded domiciles. Rapes, thefts, overdoses and assaults were common throughout the encampments as police shied away from them.

It was revealed in many of these camps that most of the tents were actually empty and had been set up to try and demonstrate a larger movement.

Eventually every city had to finally find the courage to ask police to clear out the bums. The evictions were often violent as squatters resisted their eviction and the cleanup costs added up to millions when cities were all combined.

In Toronto, a group of violent, extremist squatters has set up camp in the square in front of City Hall.

These people have no rational purpose or mission. No realistic set of demands and nothing better to do apparently.

They quickly get violent with any press as can be seen below and Toronto authorities are terrified of them.

It is inevitable that these squatters will have to be kicked out eventually and it wont go easily. In kicking the can down the road, politicians and other people in authority are simply letting these people entrench.

Since these encampments appear to be inevitable, I am proposing that we allow them and control them.

Think of it like the way parents used to deal with kids who were caught smoking. They made them smoke a whole package of cigarettes in one sitting so that they got so ill, they no longer were interested in smoking.

Why don’t we let these ambitious Marxists all have their own little autonomous zones so that they can truly experience and enjoy a world without those nasty things such as police and laws?

Every city has some undeveloped lots somewhere. Let’s put those barren spots to use.

Declare a large, undeveloped lot as an autonomous zone within every city. Put a large, chainlink fence up with limited gates and let the anarchists have their spot.

Let these people demonstrate how they can run an autonomous paradise free from those evil systems and controls which they claim to want to eschew.

Lead by example young Marxists!

Prove us all wrong. Create an egalitarian utopia in all these cities! Surely people will soon flood to join you in these paradises and perhaps even begin to buy neighboring lots so that your beautiful nations can expand!

These autonomous zones will provide a release valve when extremists try to set up camp in city parks and at halls which are for public use.

They can be told “Get the hell out of here! Here is a map to the local autonomous zone!”

The rights of the extremists to use squatting as a form of free expression can be protected but they can be contained.

The working world can carry on with their lives of being productive and paying bills unhindered by socialist extremists who can work to try and form the first successful communist states within their little autonomous zones.

This method would beat the ongoing game of playing whack-a-mole and knocking down illegal squatter encampments as they pop up and perhaps allow some lessons in reality to sink in with these extremists.

There really is little to lose. These people truly don’t have anything better to do or anywhere else to be so let’s give them their space in order to do what they do.

Tired of the constant and clearly biased censorship being practiced by Twitter, many conservatives are beginning to make the move to a new platform called Parler.

Parler is very similar to Twitter in its operation and means of interaction. There are different terms for different actions but it is much the same thing as Twitter. It is a form of short form discussion and sharing of stories and events.

Parler stands apart in its dedication to support free speech as much as possible. No more shadowbanning or outright banning of accounts that may stray from the accepted dogma of the platform. That alone makes Parler an attractive option for tired conservative minded commentators.

The thing that makes me most optimistic about Parler though is that they have created measures to deal with the anonymity issue.

Nothing makes a keyboard coward tougher than the security blanket of anonymity. Twitter has become known as a cesspool of negative dialog and most of that is driven by the nearly endless stream of belligerent, anonymous accounts.

It is striking how quickly anonymous internet tough guys turn into sniveling kittens when they suddenly have to post under their own name.

Canada had a great example as Neil Waytowich rampaged throughout twitter. He tirelessly trolled accounts and spewed endless profanity laced attacks against public figures online while he hid behind his anonymous identity of “Neil Before Zod”. He prided himself on being blocked by other twitter users and he poisoned countless discussions through his toxic interjections.

Waytowich finally annoyed folks enough that they began to search out who he was. A publication called Blacklock’s Reporter figured out who Neil was and outed him. .

The change in behavior from Neil was immediate. Upon having been exposed, he was suddenly meek and apologetic. In media interviews he was seen to be something of a pathetic figure. He was nothing without his cloak of anonymity and has been nothing since.

Unfortunately, there are still millions of anonymous accounts out there and while Waytowich was a prolific one, his outing did little to improve discourse on Twitter as a whole.

Twitter has a verification system but they only apply it to accounts which they consider to be in the “public interest”. How exactly that is defined is muddled and only one in thousands of Twitter accounts managed to acquire that precious blue checkmark of verification.

I have proven quite effectively that one can still be an abrasive asshole without hiding behind anonymity. That said, with my account being verified I have to stand behind my words.

Parler offers account verification for everybody. It involves sending them a picture of your ID along with a selfie. I am not sure if it is working for Canadian ID yet but I have sent mine in.

One can still keep their name private on Parler while being verified. Many folks need to due to employment constraints. It still will strongly discourage folks from posting threatening or illegal things as they know that in extreme cases, they will be tracked down. It also keeps users from spawning a whole pile of accounts. While they may create many accounts, only one will ever be verifiable.

It makes a huge difference when people have even a little skin in the game.

I used to play online poker. When playing in the free tournaments, the play was unbearable. Other players didn’t care about the game and they simply went all in with every hand. When paying only one dollar to enter a tournament however, the play changed incredibly. With simply registering a form of payment and in spending a buck, people suddenly took the game more seriously.

The same stands for internet discourse. When one has invested the time and trouble to verify a personal account, they will take it more seriously than a burner account that they created on a whim. Bots can’t effectively verify either.

Will this make internet discussion totally civil or deep? Of course not but it will make it far better.

I do hope to see left leaning people starting to drift into these new platforms as well. If debates are reasonably civil, they can be productive. This is nearly impossible with Twitter right now which has become a mire of white noise.

I do hope that this migration of users to a new platform either takes off and replaces the old social media giants or at least encourages them to reform.

Social media can be a valuable communication tool but it will only get worse until we find a way to wash out the anonymous users who are intent on ruining discourse.

Parler has made a great step. Click on the picture at the top of this post to join and follow me there. Lets make this thing work.

We are used to sensationalism and bias from media. This is nothing new and they push the boundaries in order to draw the clicks.

This gross example from NPR is beyond the pale though. They have gone into the realm of utter bullshit as they implied that right-wing extremists are using vehicles in order to assault protesters. While this did indeed happen once in Charlottesville, this was not at all what happened in this incident.

Below is the repugnant and inflammatory tweet from NPR

NPR is spreading fear and hate by creating a false story of vehicles being used as weapons against peaceful protesters.

It is actually surprising just how stupid their editors are to let this one go in light of the fact that the full video of the incident that they pictured is available online and it proves their story to be utter crap.

Watch the scene unfold for yourself below. A woman in a vehicle was surrounded by rioters. As they tried smashing her windows in order to assault her, she tried to escape in reverse. She then fled and yes, hit one of the criminals on her way out. It clearly wasn’t purposeful. She was fleeing in self-defense and I don’t see how anybody else would have acted differently.

Those of us old enough to remember the fate of Reginald Denny know full well what can happen when a motorist stops amidst rioters. He was pulled from his truck and beaten nearly to death. We have seen contemporary videos of just this sort of thing happening to other innocent motorists who found themselves to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as well.

We have yet to see videos of anybody purposely plowing through protesters with intent to harm yet this is just what this sickening story from NPR is claiming.

Tensions are high and people are getting hurt. To see a mainstream media source such as NPR who try to claim a moral high ground as a “public” broadcaster sinking into crap like this is sad.

There are some solid and fundamental factors which have led to the racial unrest happening in the United States.

One unacceptable factor though is the fanning of the flames by media outlets such as NPR.

The violent rioters were rightly arrested following that incident by the way. NPR apparently missed this detail.

The merits of holding a referendum on equalization are debatable and there are valid points to be made on both sides of the issue. Nenshi’s enraged opposition to the possibility of a referendum is based on pure, vulgar elitism. Naheed Nenshi thinks that Albertans are incapable of handling multiple questions at once at the ballot box. He claims that coupling a referendum with the municipal ballots next year would be “disrespectful to voters”. What is disrespectful is Nenshi’s attitude towards the great unwashed voters.

Nenshi’s dream of spending billions of tax dollars on two week party as a personal vanity/legacy project was dashed solidly when taxpayers were given a choice to vote on an Olympic bid. Naheed was “very very” disappointed in those curs who dared to slap down his pet project. In light of that, it is not surprising that Nenshi doesn’t want to empower citizens further by giving them more choices to directly vote upon.

Mixed direct/legislative democracy is not an untested concept. Switzerland has long used this style of governance. In being one of the richest and peaceful nations on earth while being small and landlocked, I would say that the Swiss are on to something. In giving voters a direct say in policy for generations, their unwashed masses have guided the country into being one of the most successful nations on earth. The humble ground level voters not only could handle multiple ballot questions, they appear to have consistently chosen wisely.

The Swiss go to the polls on referendum questions several times per year and vote on dozens of initiatives. Some are as serious as their overwhelming choice to refuse to join the EU (really pissed off the elitists with that one), to voting on whether farmers who choose to de-horn their livestock should qualify for agricultural subsidies. The ballot lists smaller local initiatives right along with larger federal ones and those darned voters somehow manage to handle these choices.

The Swiss have been allowing their citizens to vote directly on policy since 1848 so I think it is fair to say that their system has withstood the test of time.

Direct democracy helps keep voters engaged and increases turnouts. A Swiss electoral study had found that over 90 percent of voters had cast their ballots at least once in the previous 20 votes. Numbers that we Canadians can barely dream of. Those turnouts rise and fall depending on the issue of the day but clearly the electorate is very engaged. Great to see isn’t it? Unless you don’t actually like giving the majority a direct say in matters of governing of course.

Are the Swiss all immeasurably smarter than Albertans? Hey, they are clearly pretty bright but I am not sure by how many measures they may be better equipped than Albertans are in handling direct democracy.

Nenshi feels that Albertans are too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time. He thinks that having more than one or two questions on a ballot would confuse the masses.

Nenshi’s biggest fear of course is simply in losing control. That is the hallmark of an ivory tower elitist. Perhaps a better engaged electorate may finally toss him out on his ass so he can enjoy retirement with his two tax funded pension plans.

I trust Albertans to be able to handle making choices on a referendum ballot at the same time as picking their municipal representatives. It is sad but unsurprising that Nenshi thinks so little of the voters who pay his salary.

As it becomes more and more evident that COVID-19 has not and will not become a virulent out of control plague, our community of medical “experts” are digging in and pushing for more controls on us. The mainstream media happily indulges these doomsaying bureaucrats as they continue with their ongoing panic-porn campaign.

Just a little over two months ago “experts” hysterically told us that we could see nearly a million infections in Alberta alone with deaths in the tens of thousands as our medical facilities were overwhelmed. These projections were found to be utter bullshit within days but that didn’t stop the state from continuing to act on the recommendations of these “experts” with an ongoing, economy-crushing lockdown.

So where are we today?

In Alberta: 7400 cases in total. 36 in hospital, 7 in ICU and 151 dead.

While this outcome for 151 people and their families was indeed as tragic as it gets, when we are talking out of a population of 4.4 million people it has to be admitted that this isn’t that bad. While it’s not kind to say, it can’t be ignored that the vast majority of that 151 people had the grim reaper hanging about in their doorways already. They were predominantly elderly and with pre-existing conditions. This has not developed into a plague worth shutting our economy down for and that is a good thing.

How are our doomsaying medical “experts” responding to the somewhat underwhelming reality of COVID-19?

They are moving the goalposts yet again of course.

Remember three months ago when we were told that we simply needed two weeks in lockdown to “flatten the curve” in order to avoid overwhelming the medical system? It is months later, our economy is in tatters and the medical system was not even close to capacity. This was due to “experts” moving the goalposts week after week.

Now when backed into a corner, Dr. Theresa Tam has now set the bar at a zero infection goal. She is fearmongering over the risk of even a single new case now and the media is gleefully reporting on it. This is a disgrace.

Meanwhile, a group of “experts” in Alberta is demanding that the government make the wearing of masks mandatory essentially everywhere. This should do wonders for the few remaining restaurants and gyms which are struggling and trying to survive the government mandated shutdown.

Alberta’s top “expert” is considering this. Hopefully Premier Kenney ignores her.

So why is it that these medical “experts” are so loathe to admit that the pandemic is fading and that we can start getting on with our lives.

I am afraid that the spotlight has gotten to them. They are enjoying their moment in the sun and don’t want it to end.

Chief Medical Officers are senior bureaucrats in important roles but who usually languish in an un-celebrated background. Could anybody honestly have named these people before the whole COVID-19 thing? These folks were the science geeks who dined alone in the corner of the legislative cafeteria. Suddenly they have been catapulted into the spotlight and through the mainstream media they have been canonized and turned into virtual superheros.

An exaggeration?

Well, folks have actually been making T-Shirts with Dr. Deena Hinshaw on them and rest assured the halo behind her head was no mistake. They are trying to paint her as a living saint. I don’t doubt she is a nice person but come on now.

Alberta isn’t alone. PEI got on board with their Dr. Heather Morrison. As can be seen, she is painted as a superhero.

Morrison dealt with 27 cases in total with a death count of zero!

Superhero indeed.

Our economy is on the breaking point while “experts” continue to demand that he crush it further. These “experts” have become disconnected from the reality of what the protracted lockdown is doing to people and businesses. It is time to set them aside for awhile and let things open back up. These “experts” have proven to be wrong with their projections over and over and over again even if they were indeed well meaning. Maybe our political leaders will act with better clarity when these “expert” voices are not whispering into their ears for a little while.

It really takes a lot to surprise me this year. The world has been turned upside down and the depths of human malice and idiocy have been starkly exposed to the point where my expectations of people have hit a lifetime low.

I was not surprised to see violent rioters taking over a large portion of Seattle. The West coast has always been a hub of leftist extremists and they have been trying to recreate the feces and drug filled encampments that they enjoyed with “Occupy” for years now. Gathering in tent cities ostensibly for the sake of the homeless hasn’t cut it for them and the Black Lives Matter riots gave them a new chance to entrench themselves on the property of others.

I was not surprised to see cowardly authorities backing away in light of this rebellion of reprobates.

The abject terror which Mayors & local politicians share when it comes to extremist protesters cripples them with fear and indecision every time. They retreat in callow terror as 0.1% or so of the city’s population has decided to violently take over nine square blocks of urban neighborhood.

The rights of citizens and business owners within this “autonomous zone” have been completely abandoned. These innocent victims are now living at the whim of these insurrectionists. The selective protection of rights by chicken shit politicians is again, not at all surprising.

I am hardly surprised to see these cellar dwelling activists finding their naivety shattered as reality sets in. These same fools invited the homeless to join them during their “occupy” efforts too. The homeless then happily ate their food, shot up in their tents and often assaulted fellow “occupiers”. Most of the homeless tend to have addictions and mental health problems. They are not harmless and are not simply victims of society. These radicals seem determined to re-learn this lesson every time. Not surprised that these idiots are getting hungry either. Mom won’t bring them home cooked meals to the autonomous zone.

I am not at all surprised to see that bandits have risen to the top as anarchy wins the day. Multiple reports have been coming out of Soundcloud rapper Raz Simone who has declared himself as the acting, armed warlord of the autonomous zone. He and his gang have apparently taken it upon themselves to manage the policing in the “autonomous zone” and have been assaulting people. Bandits will always rise to the top when anarchy reigns.

I will now get to the one this out of all of this which has surprised me.

The incredible silence from the mainstream media on this whole thing.

Twitter is flooded with video, pictures and statements from citizens reporting on what is happening in Seattle. Blogs and alternative media publications are reporting on this armed insurrection en masse. Fox News has had some small coverage on this and the odd newspaper has nodded at this unfolding event but for the most part, the major media players are avoiding this for all they are worth.

Why?

In a year packed with stories of the century, this is another story of the century. This is a literal armed insurrection which has taken over a part of the United States of America. They have declared themselves as an autonomous nation within a nation. They are making their own laws and are apparently even “taxing” (extorting) from local business owners. This should be headline news around the bloody world.

Does the mainstream media fear that in reporting on this, they would be encouraging further actions in different cities? I assure you that the opposite is the case. As long as these people get away with this, extremists around the world will only feel emboldened. Rest assured, other crazed activists are trying right now to find a way to carve out their own little “autonomous zone” in their own cities.

Ignoring these extremists won’t make them go away. That tactic was tried with “occupy”. It took months but eventually every city had to physically go in and remove the criminal squatters. These people truly don’t have anything better to do. This “Capitol Hill autonomous zone” will not be negotiated away. Their demands are absurd and will never be met. These people will have to be removed by force. The only question now is when.

We are seeing a dystopian novel literally unfolding before our eyes. While terrifying, it is also fascinating. Reporters and journalists must be chomping at the bit to get out there to directly cover this unique and unfolding story. They should be almost stacked on top of each other to get a breaking piece or scoop on this.

Instead, we have the media version of crickets.

This is indeed surprising, disappointing and distressing.

If the mainstream media can’t bring themselves to fully cover this, what else are they holding back on?

This is why I and others are not saddened as we see mainstream media institutions crumbling as alternative media sources increasingly are eating their lunches. I do feel for the people being laid off, but as long as their employers continue with an agenda contrary to public interest, the public will continue to lose interest in them.

With weeks of protests and riots, we are entering the phase of discussing what needs to change.

It is clear that the status quo isn’t good enough and the discontent of millions has been pretty strongly demonstrated.

Now that Black Lives Matters has gotten the ear of the world, they have allowed extremists to take over the messaging and are at risk of losing anything that may have been gained with recent actions.

The list of demands made by the Seattle BLM branch demonstrates just how disconnected from reality these activists are. In threatening continued riots if they don’t get this insane list of demands met, this is a form of violent extortion. These demands are ridiculous and impossible to meet and this won’t end well.

The issues are serious but its time for authorities to tell BLM to come back to the table when they are ready to act like grown ups. This list of demands is more akin to something from a child having a temper tantrum than from reasonable adults.

There is an element of people who simply like rioting for the sake of rioting and I suspect that these are the people who have stepped up to the plate with these demands. Nobody in their right mind would think that these are reasonable or that they could be accommodated in any short amount of time.

I will list a shortened version below.

The full demand set can be found here.

The Seattle Police Department and attached court system are beyond reform. We do not request reform, we demand abolition.

Yes indeed. They want immediate and full abolition of the police force and nothing less.

Not gonna happen kids

In the transitionary period between now and the dismantlement of the Seattle Police Department, we demand that the use of armed force be banned entirely. No guns, no batons, no riot shields, no chemical weapons,

In the imaginary world where the police force is disbanded, they demand that no other forms of law enforcement be allowed.

I am sure that the rape and robbery victims impacted by this will be thrilled.

We demand an end to the school-to-prison pipeline and the abolition of youth jails

I guess that 16 year old murderers are to be kept in daycare centers

We demand a retrial of all People in Color currently serving a prison sentence for violent crime, by a jury of their peers in their community.

That shouldn’t take long. New trials for thousands and all with juries of people of the same race. Not a bit unreasonable indeed.

We demand the abolition of imprisonment, generally speaking

You just can’t make this stuff up folks

We demand in replacement of the current criminal justice system the creation of restorative/transformative accountability programs as a replacement for imprisonment.

Time outs? Perhaps a little time standing in the corner? Maybe if serial killers had to do some community service they would stop their evil ways

We demand that the Seattle Police Department, between now and the time of its abolition in the near future, empty its “lost and found” and return property owned by denizens of the city.

Ahh. Many of the rioters were actually simply concerned about the pair of mittens that they left on a city bus

We demand that the funding previously used for Seattle Police be redirected into: A) Socialized Health and Medicine for the City of Seattle. B) Free public housing, because housing is a right, not a privilege. C) Public education, to decrease the average class size in city schools and increase teacher salary. D) Naturalization services for immigrants to the United States living here undocumented. (We demand they be called “undocumented” because no person is illegal.) E) General community development. Parks, etc.

I suspect that these folks are overestimating just how much money the police system gets by about a hundedfold

We demand the de-gentrification of Seattle, starting with rent control

Another way of saying: “We want our slums back!”

We demand the restoration of city funding for arts and culture to re-establish the once-rich local cultural identity of Seattle

Nothing ends race riots more effectively than a pretty, public art project

We demand free college for the people of the state of Washington

Money for nothin and your school for free

We demand the hospitals and care facilities of Seattle employ black doctors and nurses specifically to help care for black patients.

Racially segregated health care. Martin Luther King would be so proud of this advancement.

We demand the people of Seattle seek out and proudly support Black-owned businesses.

This should be easy to track and measure

There are a number of other broad and unrealistic demands.

If this is where the bar is set, don’t expect the riots to end any time soon.

Whether we like it or not, police services are essential. Every civilized society has police and the disorder which would come about without them would be swift and violent. There will always be an element of people who are inclined to violence or theft and not all citizens are capable of protecting themselves from those people. It is becoming apparent that most police forces are in need of some reform. The enraged call to “de-fund” or even abolish police forces is shortsighted and foolish to say the least.

Policing is by its very nature a rough, dangerous, thankless job. A simple traffic stop can turn into a shooting while responding to domestic disputes can lead to being berated and spit upon by the very people they have arrived to protect. The job stress is unimaginable and it has built an insular police culture where they can often lean towards protecting their own rather than correcting improper actions from fellow officers. Police culture needs to change but this will be a work which will take time and effort. Reducing funding is not the way to reduce the pressures on an already overwrought force.

While the killing of George Floyd in and of itself was horrifying, it was the agonizingly slow response by authorities to the killing which truly poured the gasoline on the fire. Disciplining was dragged out step by step. First the officer was put on paid leave. Then he was fired. Then he was charged. Then the charges were upgraded. It took days and unfortunately riots before all that happened. The path to charging Officer Chauvin was like pulling teeth despite the video making it rather clear as day that his actions were completely out of bounds and led to a man’s death. How though would de-funding a department make a department any more likely to suspend or charge officers when they are already short of resources?

What do activists think will happen if police forces truly get de-funded or disbanded? Usually these activists come from the far left and hold an envious loathing for the affluent. How will they feel when gated communities spring up like daisies which are protected by the very police officers who were just laid off? Do they think that people of means are simply going to leave themselves wide open to being victimized by criminals? This will also truly ghettoize the parts of town which can’t afford their own private law enforcement so let’s get real on how unrealistic the calls for de-funding police forces really are.

Activists are claiming that the presence of police officers in and of themselves are offensive to them. Well, I am afraid that they are not going away but we can examine some more reasonable approaches into how to reduce the need for police.

Drug addiction is truly an epidemic and it contributes to crime on all levels. Gang wars are started over drug distribution turf while desperate addicts will steal anything that isn’t nailed down in order to get another fix. We can chase the dealers until the end of time but they won’t go away until we address the demand. As long as there are addicts seeking drugs, there will be dealers there to provide them. Addicts can rarely beat their addictions on their own. They need treatment centers which are expensive and usually full. Increasing funding for mental health and addictions treatment is one of the best ways to reduce crime. This funding does not need to be nor should it be at the expense of current policing though. It isn’t an either/or situation and in the meantime, citizens need police protection from the criminalized drug industry. Reduce the addiction epidemic first, then we can reduce police.

How many laws can we take off the books? Do we still need to have police chasing prostitutes around? Do forms of gambling still need to be illegal? Should it still be a crime to walk down the street and enjoy a beer while you are at it? Do we need to keep chasing down unregulated pot growers? This leads to a long discussion but it only makes sense that if we reduce the laws, we can reduce the need for law enforcement.

We need to reform our catch and release justice system as well. How maddening and frustrating must it be for a police officer to arrest the same individual over and over and over again? This trend contributes to the poor attitudes and issues within police forces. Everybody likes to feel like they are doing a worthwhile job but it must feel pretty pointless when you can’t keep criminals behind bars for more than a few days before they are out and victimizing people again.

Criminal reform is always the ideal goal. It has to be accepted though that some people are simply irredeemable How often do we hear of people being arrested with dozens of prior convictions? It is well established that the vast majority of crimes are committed by a small minority of criminals. Once we have identified those chronic offenders, we need to incarcerate them for long terms. How expensive and dangerous is it to let them out dozens of times only to have them rob people and be arrested again dozens of times? How much court time? How much holding cell time? Face reality and warehouse these criminals long term. We can then focus on rehabilitating those who are still capable of reform and we actually will not need as much policing on the ground. That is the goal no?

Another way to reduce the need is to empower and encourage citizens further to protect themselves. We have the right to defend our property and person but the state strongly frowns on it. Citizens such as Eddie Maurice are victimized for defending their families from chronic criminals. Those charged with defending themselves are almost always released once a jury hears of the circumstances. Fellow citizens understand the right of self-defense even if the system loathes it. Quit hammering on people who want to protect themselves. Train and encourage self-defense How many rural home invasion robberies happen in Texas? Next to none. Want to guess why? If the goal is truly to reduce the need for police officers, then allowing citizens to deal with protection on their own only makes sense.

The next and most complicated step in reducing crime is taking on the unmitigated, socioeconomic catastrophe of our aboriginal population under the Indian Act and in the reserve system. This is an issue which makes every politician’s butthole clench up in terror but it dearly needs to be addressed.

Natives are grossly over-represented in the prison system. Activists use this statistic to claim that this is due to a racist police and justice system. To be blunt, that is simply a load of crap. Canada has bent over backwards to try and reduce the numbers of natives in our prison system. From healing lodges, to sentencing circles to having judges literally instructed to take into account the “indianess” of the defendant upon sentencing as was done in the Christopher Goodstoney case, the state is trying its very hardest to avoid incarcerating natives. This has failed dismally because it refuses to address the simple and real issue. Natives are disproportionately represented in prison because they disproportionately are committing the crimes.

If we want to deal with the number of natives in prison, we have to try to find a way to prevent natives from committing the crimes in the first place. Once they are before a judge, it is too late. The problem is indeed systemic but it isn’t in justice. It is in Canada’s apartheid system of reserves.

How on earth can we expect a culture to be well adapted to the modern world when we keep them dependent and segregated in the ghettos that we call reserves? Natives are raised with one foot in traditional culture and one foot in contemporary culture and the hybrid that it has created is a disastrous and dysfunctional one. It is not a matter of race itself. A person of any race would be socially challenged to say the least if raise within the mess of our reserve system. Poverty, isolation and domestic abuse are overwhelming for people on reserves and it is only getting worse year by year. Even when people escape reserves and move into urban environments, they are often ill prepared to function in society and are susceptible to addiction and crime.

It is a long and painful path but the only way to deal with indigenous crime rates will be to work towards ending the irreparably broken reserve system and abolishing the racist Indian Act. I don’t see the political will to take on a challenge this big any time soon unfortunately though. I am not sure how much worse things will have to get before reality looms for the powers that be but we can rest assured that pouring more resources into a fatally flawed system will be ineffective.

Policing will never go away. It is essential in an orderly and safe society. While policing has issues, demonizing police or vapidly calling for the de-funding or disbanding of police forces fixes nothing and makes nobody safer. Hopefully once the enraged demonstrations calm down, we can start having a realistic discussion on how we can reduce our need for policing. In the meantime, let’s not work with kneejerk reactions as Minneapolis did.